Playing in the Thai language

[Pleng]

Thais just love to play. Hence the word 'len' (to play) seems to crop up in all kinds of different phrases. Here are a few that I've come across, does anybody have any more?:


Put Len - Joke / I'm joking (literally, 'play talk') (ie I didn't mean .........., I was just joking with you)
Lor Len - also Joke / I'm joking, but this can be used when joking around with actions, as well as simply telling a joke

Durn Len - To go for a walk without having any real destination or purpose
Kii Motorcii Len/Kab Lod Len - To take the bike for a ride/car for a drive without having any real destination or purpose

And, possibly my favourite: Chua Len - Nickname

[Roel]

Indeed 'len' can be combined with numerous verbs to indicate that the action should not be taken too seriously.

Examples:
nang len (นั่งเล่น) to sit - play. This is what you do in a beach chair. The purpose of the sitting is having fun.
non len (นอนเล่น) to lie down - play. To lie down relaxing and basically doing nothing (also not sleeping as that is considered serious business).

and my favourite
gin len (กินเล่น) to eat - play. This is not the standard by every mother prohibited action of playing with your food, it is 'not seriously' eating. For instance a snack. Or when you are done with the rice and start picking pieces of meat from the curry you are 'gin len'.

[Pleng]

Some nice ones there; have already used most of them in conversation :p

[barrys]

len com or len net - because Thais apparently can't believe that you would use the computer to do anything serious like work

[Roel]

Good one barrys!

Part of the bar girl game is to accuse a customer of being unfaithful, they say that he 'jao choo' (เจ้าชู้)
Brings me to another expression with len:
len choo (เล่นชู้) play - lover. To have an amorous affair.

[Pleng]

Part of the bar girl game is to accuse a customer of being unfaithful

(cough!!!) customer being unfaithful?

[Roel]

the clue is in the word 'game'!