Thai Word of the Day?

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BaaBaa.
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Re: please turn on light

Post by BaaBaa. »

Super Joe wrote:
leo65 wrote:
carol wrote:pit fie tee ka
OR
pit fai dee (ปิดไฟดี) = switch off well the light
ka (ค่ะ) = (word added by a female speaker to the end of every statement to convey politeness)
Maybe .... bit fai dee-gwaa ? (அகிலா பரதன்)

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Re: please turn on light

Post by leo65 »

Super Joe wrote:
leo65 wrote:
carol wrote:pit fie tee ka
OR
pit fai dee (ปิดไฟดี) = switch off well the light
ka (ค่ะ) = (word added by a female speaker to the end of every statement to convey politeness)
Maybe .... bit fai dee-gwaa ? (அகிலா பரதன்)

SJ
i can't read too
i gues you mean ปิดไฟดีกว่า
pit fai di kwa = would better to switch off the light
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poot thai yaak maag

Post by carol »

these phrases are on a cd and refere to shopping asking how much certain things are.. farang ngong
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Post by Korkenzieher »

Hmm.

Well, in any case, Rakha taurai ka/krup would be 'how much?', though you might soon drop the 'rakha' .

Dtorn-ni (transliteration is an art of the devil) would almost certainly be 'now', as in 'time this'.

Keun-ni would almost certainly be tonight (night-this).

I guess it could semantically be 'at this time, how much?', though I think a more usual way would be to ask 'how much is this one ?', which would be 'An-ni, rakha taurai ka?' Keun-ni, would almost certainly risk being mis-interpreted if you were in a bar. Which CD is it on? I have a few of the standard ones if you can point me to the lesson number. The one I definitely *don't* have is the Linguaphone PDQ series.
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Post by dtaai-maai »

Just a thought, but does this Thai language cd not have any translation into English? :?
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Post by Korkenzieher »

It might not. I have a CD from a book Thai for Beginners (don't have it to hand to give the Author reference) which has almost no assistance for understanding! Learning is parrot fashion with no translation. Words are typed in the book in Thai with no transliteration, syllable breaks or anything. You can basically only use the book once you can read Thai, which is by definition not a beginner!

Also, I guess it could be Thai into some equally impenetrable language like Finno-Skandi, rather than English... :-)

I just can't think of anything else it might be, unless it it some usage of 'keu', as in 'ni arai? ni keu gowee'
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Post by carol »

I have 3 different courses I will have to look at which one its from.. They all have english translations and the more I learn I realise what terrible translations they all are... Never mind thanks any way, I will stick to what is most used....
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Post by Korkenzieher »

The book I was referring to above is Everyday Thai for Beginners by Wiworn Kesavatana-Dohrs. Its strength is in it's relatively straightforward treatment of grammar, which if Becker(1) did the same would make it the perfect book. However, it is certainly not a book for beginners.
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good book ?

Post by carol »

have you the ISBN number, I will try anything if it helps, if I cant order it in the uk where in hua hin will I track it down ?
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Re: good book ?

Post by BaaBaa. »

carol wrote:have you the ISBN number, I will try anything if it helps, if I cant order it in the uk where in hua hin will I track it down ?
HERE

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Post by Korkenzieher »

I bought it in the supermarket a couple of doors away from Burger King in HH. It was around 500 baht.

There's really a lot of good resources on the net now, some of which are better than the available books. Quite a bit of the printed 'learn thai' stuff comes from the mentality of teaching 3 year old Thais, rather than the EFL approach of adults aquiring a second language. If you are up to speed with this stuff then my apologies for being redundant. I do also assume you want to learn the language (read, write, grammar, spelling), and not just to speak.

Firstly, the Poomsan-Becker book Thai for beginners is the one must-have IMHO. If you can simply learn that book cover to cover, you are ahead of the game. It has its weaknesses though, and these can mostly be addressed using http://www.thai-language.com/. The sections on the phonemic organisation of the Thai alphabet, and on the consonant clusters will sort out a lot of issues, once you get to a certain level (sounds a bit scary, but it isn't too bad). Also, there is a Thai MinOfEd site http://www.teachthai.com/assignments/C0 ... _intro.swf Its treatment of tones is quite good, and will de-mystify it a bit.

The more hardcore site is http://www.lyndonhill.com/FunThai/CONTENTS.html This is a highly praised book, which has only recently made it online. I can't comment on the content, as I only recently discovered it myself.

On top of that there's a few CD's available here which are quite old & crumbly but can be useful. One, just called TalkThai was made for the Australian Military, and is IMHO substantially better than the Rosetta Stone or EuroTalk offerings. You can find it here, but probably not outside Thailand, for about 200 baht.
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kher ?

Post by carol »

kher is a word I can not find ther meaning of..
kon nai kher koon citter
whic one is mr citter
kow.. kher poo tee sai suit
mr.. is the one wearing a suit
Is this the way to ask.........
kor sak song dai mai
can I use
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Post by JD »

Carol,

I think maybe you are miss hearing what is said. Kon nai Ka is probably correct, (as said by a lady). the Ka (kher) you hear is added to make the comment more polite.

Most Thais use this polite way of speaking. You have probably heard Thai ladies call you by saying Khun Carol Ka? and the men by saying Khun Carol Krap.

I'm sure someone on here knows more about this and your question though, my comment above is just what came to mind when I read it.
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Post by Korkenzieher »

kher (keu = khaw kwai sara 'eu' aw ahng) is literally 'is'. It is frequently dropped, as is redundant in a lot of Thai speech. Basically, for 'this (is a) picture' ni keu ruphaap would almost always be cut to ni ruphaap. You won't hear Thais use keu too frequently in that type of phrase, but it is frequently used in Thai taught as a second language, as much to force farangs out of the habit of using 'pen' (=be/are) for 'is' in every sentence. Ni pen ruphaap is just plain wrong.

Kon nai keu khun Citter = person which is mister Citter.

Khaw sak song dai mai would be asking for 2 'sak' (not sure what this is at the moment. 'I would like' = Khaw; Song = 2, dai = can and dai mai turns it into a question as in: Would like have 2 sak, can or not?
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Post by Korkenzieher »

@Carol

Just to add to that ( I would have edited but can't see a button for it) -

When starting to learn Thai, it really helps if you make the effort to become familiar with the alphabet. Not only does it help comprehension with things you hear on CD in isolation, but it also helps with making sensible transliteration - kher / keu being a good example of that. Transliteration in Thai is notoriously difficult and variable. Several systems exist, and not all of them are useful! Plus, it is hard to distinguish, say a long vowel from a short vowel, if you don't know that the difference exists!

That is why I pointed you at a couple of character set introductions. It may seem daunting, especially if all you really want to do is learn to ask for a beer in the local language maybe once or twice a year, but really pays massive dividends down the road if learning the language (rather than getting by) is what you want.

The MinOfEd site also has a lot of vocab and bits of grammar. It is a very good effort from them, and is available on CD. I can't honestly tell you where to get it from, because I was given a copy with a windows installer, and have it installed on my laptop. It is about 11M, so too big to email, but it would easily fit on a USB memory strip when you get here, if there is no other place you can find it.

The phonemic page on Thai Language really is just about how to sensibly organise the characters for learning. The thai character set can be very daunting at first, and the stuff I am suggesting to you really sounds very academic but when you see the organisation, how common sounds are organised over the consonant classes and how those relate to sounds; why certain characters are rare or redundant then the comparatively elegant simplicity of the system will just make so many things more easy to tackle.

I still don't know which CD's you are using, but the Pimsleur ones are the ones I started with. In truth, I didn't really get much from them until I had had some lessons and for a non-IndoEuropean language, I'm not sure it is the right place to start at all. That may be personal preference though, as much as anything.

On top of that, when you get here, consider lessons. Private instruction is very cheap really, and will get you a long way. There's also a new class of language schools springing up, servicing the Education Visa option, and although more expensive, they are generally MinOfEd regulated and provide good service.
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