Peppy

As we are doing funny logic, why not call a mixer หางขนไก่ ....

A mixed drink, you mean...

Amita in Sanskrit means "boundless, infinite" (opposite of mita "to measure"). I guess the Thai equivalent would be "อมิตา", though that only seems to be used in names and isn't found in dictionaries.

It would seem to also be related to มาตร "measure", and to the English words "mete", "meter/metre", and "measure" itself.

One person I can think of with the word in their name is singer Tata Young: her full name is อมิตา มารี ยัง Amita Marie Young.

-- เป็นไงบ้างหะเพื่อน

-- ยังกะช่างไม้ครับ

-- หา?

-- ก็เลื่อย ๆ ไง...

With that logic of a mixer surely it should be ราดเหล้า

Another leap of logic: if male servers in bars and restaurants are known as บ๋อย, what should their female counterparts be called? Why, เกิ๋ร์ล, of course.

To add to that, I've often had trouble translating noy-jai. Have often encountered the translation, easily hurt by those close to you rather than the easily-hurt tag the dictionaries often give it.

I think something's mixed up here... As Mikenyork said, "noy-jai" means "hurt" (emotionally hurt, as in feeling slighted, ignored, or taken for granted), while "jai-noy" means "touchy" or "sensitive".

I've heard ก็ เรื่อยๆ from a friend when I asked him เป็นยังไงบ้าง before, and then he said something about a carpenter and started laughing. No idea what he was on about!

เลื่อย means "saw" (as in a carpenter's saw)--which of course sounds the same as เรื่อย if you pronounce ร the same as ล.

I hardly ever hear guys say ฉิ้งฉ่อง.

Yes, and you don't often hear guys saying they're gonna go "pee-pee" either...

<SNIP>

I would rather we didn't gotten to know each other = จะเป็นผลดีกับทุกฝ่ายถ้าเราไม่รู้จักกัน

I think that sentence construct while possibly accurate is quite clunky and artificial.

I'd go with something far simpler like: คิดว่าเราไม่เคยรู้จักกันดีกว่า

A51mas's offering doesn't seem clunky or artificial to me--it seems like a natural way of expressing the sentiment "It would be better for all involved if we didn't get to know each other."

I'm afraid Todd's says, at least to me, "I think it's better that we have never known each other". เคย in my experience is used only for past events and experiences, not for hypothetical present or future ones.

The Thai word for "mixer" is มิกเซอร์ (mik-ser).

กับเหล้า should get a good laugh from your Thai friends if you explain the logic behind it. It does make sense...

I use จ๊ะ instead of ครับ with Mrs. Peppy, and with little girls (i.e. under 10)--I wouldn't use it with another man though, and certainly not with any other grown woman unless I were chatting her up.

To me it indicates lament or yearning, and is kind of equivalent to the English "Oh ____". It's often used at the end of the first line in songs, especially ลูกทุ่ง songs, in the same way that "Oh/O" is used (in the first example that comes to mind) in the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada". (Translated, I guess it would be "แคนาดาเอ๋ย".)

I have a question - is เดี๊ยน kind of viewed as snobbish? A friend's wife uses it and other Thais seem to think it's funny.

Yes, it's rather affectedly posh, in a "look at how hi-so I am!" kind of way.

เดี๊ยน

http://guru.google.co.th/guru/thread?tid=09d303e6bd970922

Actually, the most common spelling seems to be โปสการ์ด.

ขอแสดงความเสียใจ "khaw sa-daeng khwahm sia jai" means "My condolences". Literally, it translates to something like "May I express my sorrow", and it's the "fixed phrase" used in situations like this. Of course, if you're male, you should also add ครับ "khrap" to the end for extra politeness.

Some notes on pronunciation: "khaw" and "sia" are both rising tones; all the other words in the sentence are mid-tones. To make the mid-tones, speak in an even monotone, like a robot. For the rising tones, say them as if they had a question mark after them. --khaw? sa-daeng. khwahm. sia? jai. (The "Khrap" you need to stick on the end is a high tone, though--just say it like you would when you say "khawp khoon khrap" or "sa-wat dee khrap" and you'll be understood just fine.)

Edit: crossed posts with Joy and Tom--anyway, I guess mine strikes a happy medium between the two.

คุณ khoon is a somewhat formal word for "you"--เธอ ter can mean "her", "him", or "you" depending on the context, and when it means "you" it's typically used in familiar or intimate situations, so here it's definitely a better choice than คุณ.

In David and Joy's exchange earlier, David asked if it wouldn't be better to use ลูก luuk (child), which can also mean "you", and is often used by parents or parental figures when talking to children. Joy replied that yes, ลูก could be used in place of เธอ, but for the "I miss you more than..." bits, เธอ sounds better.

I hope I haven't muddled things for you... if you're in doubt, just stick with what Joy wrote. It's a very good translation, and it isn't incorrect or open to any misinterpretation the way it is.

(And one more little note: beware of machine translators! Joy says that she only "smoothed over" the translation, but in fact much of the original was gibberish and she basically rewrote it from scratch. Meaning in Thai is often very sensitive to context (as you can see with the word เธอ) and computers simply aren't able to figure out the context in the way humans can.)

I picked these two up from thai-language.com, i think they have a similar English meaning but i don't know if it'll fit what you're looking for.

ระยะทางพิสูจน์ม้า กาลเวลาพิสูจน์คน

raH yaH thaangM phiH suutL maaH gaanM waehM laaM phiH suutL khohnM

"Time will tell."

หนทางพิสูจน์ม้า กาลเวลาพิสูจน์คน

hohnR thaangM phiH suutL maaH gaanM waehM laaM phiH suutL khohnM

"Time will tell."

I don't think these are quite the same as "Let nature take its course"; they're more like, "Time proves a person's character".

Anchan's suggestion, ปล่อยไปตามบุญตามกรรม bploi bpai dtahm boon dtahm gum, fits perfectly. "Let go to (the forces of) merit and karma".

And strangely the only Thai loaner word into English (other than names for thai food -- which are not true loaner words) is ----- Bong (hollow tube -- bamboo) adopted into English as a pipe for smoking .....

Can anyone else confirm this? That's a great bit of trivia, if true!

I guess the OP's query has been thoroughly answered already, so we might as well change the topic. It's been done already, though; see this thread from a couple years ago, particularly posts number 9 and 10 by Mangkorn and Katana:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/202384-words-borrowed-from-thai/

Seems it is indeed true, and it certainly is a neat bit of trivia.

และขอให้เพื่อนช่วยหาบ้านเช่าให้

And (he) asked (his) friend to help find (him) a house to rent.

The first ให้, as part of ขอให้, means to request or ask for something to happen. The second ให้ goes together with หา: หา....ให้ means to find something for somebody.

EDIT: Oops, Bhoydy got there first.

ตา(ของ)คุณ(แล้ว)

I would write the Thai word for "coupon" as "khoo-bpawng" (คูปอง), though bear in mind that these are usually associated with the bits of paper you use instead of cash at the food court in shopping malls and whatnot. For a coupon that gives you a reduced price on something, I would say "khoo-bpawng lot rah-kah" (คูปองลดราคา).

"Laek", or "lairk" (แลก) is the verb for "exchange"--often used to talk about what you do with your coupons, of course!

EDIT: Sorry Todd, looks like our posts crossed.

ตั้งใจ dtung jai - on purpose, intentionally, to mean to do something

I spoke in my mother tongue purposely so you couldn't understand what I was talking about:

ฉันตั้งใจพูดภาษาแม่ เพราะไม่อยากให้คุณรู้ว่าฉันพูดเรื่องอะไร

chan dtung jai poot pah-sah mae, proeh mai yahk hai khoon roo wah chan poot reuang arai

ไม่ตั้งใจ mai dtung jai - by accident, unintentionally, to not mean to do something

Sorry, I broke your vase accidentally, I will pay for it:

ขอโทษนะครับ/ค่ะ ฉันไม่ได้ตั้งใจทำแจกันแตก ฉันจะจ่ายเงินให้เป็นค่าชดเชย

khaw toht na khrap/kha, chan mai dai dtung jai tum jae-gun dtaek, chan ja jaai ngern hai bpen khah choht choei

However, ไม่ตั้งใจ to me carries the connotation that you might be perceived as having meant to do what it is you said you didn't mean to do, like if you threw the vase on the ground in anger, not expecting it to break, and it broke, you might say ฉันไม่ได้ตั้งใจนะ!

If you don't expect that anyone would think you intended it to happen, you could use เป็นอุบัติเหตุ (bpen oo-but-het/oo-but-dti-het), "It was an accident!"

For example, ขอโทษครับ ฉันทำแจกันแตก เป็นอุบัติเหตุ (khaw toht khrap, chan tum jae-gun dtaek, bpen oo-but-het)

To those who read Thai, many apologies for my dreadful romanization!

I second Rumblecat's suggestion, and I would add Easy Thai by Gordon H. Allison (for writing) and Teach Yourself Thai by David Smyth (for reading, writing, and general conversation and vocab) as well. Finish all three, and throw in the next two Benjawan Poomsan Becker books for good measure, and you'll have a great foundation towards fluency.

(As an aside, the most important thing when it comes to learning anything isn't how you go about doing it--it's how often you do it. Twenty minutes a day for a year will get you far better results than ten hours a day for a week, so keeping yourself motivated for the long term is really far more important than the method you use to study. Good luck! )

also to bear in mind mai dai (different tone) can also mean 'didn't get'

Yes, and no. ไม่ได้ "mai dai" can mean "didn't get", as in the common phrase "ไม่ได้อะไรเลย/mai dai arai loey/didn't get anything"--but it's the same words with the same tones, no change!

I would also point out that 'mai dai' only refers to certain types of 'cans'. If you can't do something physically then you use 'VERB~ bpen'. The coffee shop lady told me today that she couldn't make coffee, by using the VERB~bepn phrase she indicated the coffee machine was broken.

I have seen some sources give a slightly different version:

Using ขับรถ (khap rot=to drive) as an example

ไม่เป็น (mai bpen) as 'I cannot drive (because I don't know how)

ไม่ไหว (mai wai) as 'I cannot drive' (because of a physical issue, maybe disability or fatigue)

Are these definitions correct? This might indicate that the coffee shop lady was saying she didn't know how to operate the equipment, not that it was broken. I think I have heard that usage in 7-11 when a particularly obtuse worker looked at my electricity bill with an air of panic before waving me off with a phrase including ไม่เป็น.

I agree with Rick's understanding that the woman didn't know how to use the coffee machine. I think if the machine were actually broken, she would have said ไม่ได้.

ไม่เป็น = cannot (lack of knowledge, training or ability) - as per Rick's example

ไม่ได้ = cannot (because it's impossible, inadvisable, or prohibited)

These two forms are often interchangeable. I think in most cases where someone can't do something because of lack of knowledge they'll use ไม่เป็น--but if you're unable to do something then it's probably correct to say that it's impossible to do it (or inadvisable to try), so using ไม่ได้ wouldn't be wrong. It really just depends on which aspect of the lack of ability you want to emphasize.

ไม่ไหว is more like "can't stand"-- the speaker is physically or mentally exhausted and is unable or unwilling to continue.

intensivist = แพทย์เวชบำบัดวิกฤต (paet way-cha-bum-but-wik-rit)

To explain what this person actually does, you might say เป็นหมอที่รักษาคนไข้ในห้องไอซียู--"a doctor who takes care of patients in ICU".