fluxweed

As a non native Thai speaker I struggle like most. My understanding of tones is hopeless, I just understand what is said in the context.

Whether is dog or horse bites you is usually understood as dogs tend to bite more than horses and you tend to ride a horse and not a dog.

And the tones are different in different dialects too. It's hard to explain but the word with High falling tone for example 'ห้า' (5) the tone sounds different in northern Thai.

I don't know much about Southern so I'm curious to know how that sounds.

It is interesting to know that there is some word usage that is the similar in Northen and Southern Thai that the Central people would not have a clue what we talk about. This is from real experience in a conversation between 3 people, each from the North, Central and South.

I am having the most difficult time with speaking บ and ป differently. My girlfriend says I say them the same even though I try to make the B and the BP sounds. I also have a hard time telling them apart when I listen. Is there some trick to making these two sound different?

I'm finding it extremely frustrating.

I know it's difficult for westerners.. i had this same problem teaching my french friend to speak.

it is better to compare ป to พ and ผ

because บ is clearly the sound of B in english. but ป พ ผ are P sounds.

for ป , the lips are pressed harder together when speak.. it's the hard 'p sound , the same sound as when you pronunce 'p' in the words 'speak, space, spirit, spark, etc..' in English. or 'p' sound in Italian and Spanish.

for พ and ผ, the lips are closed loosely as in the normal sound of 'p' in the word 'peak, pet, park ,etc. ' พ and ผ are both the normal 'P' sound but they have different tones in Thai. พ is mid tone, ผ is rising tone.

The latest post by iChubbyGirl seems pretty accurate about the time.

Although I want to add some more confusions.

I think nowadays it is more common to use 12 hour clock for the A.M. part of day, and only use 6 hour clock for P.M. part (at least in younger generations and in the northen area) That means, 7 am. is 'jed mong chao'. but 7 p.m is still ' nueng thum'. Therefore, people often omit 'chao' (means morning/early) in the morning times, for example 9 a.m. is just 'kaow mong' (using 12-hour clock), because you can't possibly confuse it with 9 p.m. ('saam thum', using 6-hr clock).

For afternoon times, it is common to omit 'mong' (but only for 2, 3 and 4 p.m. )

i.e. 1pm. = bai mong , 2 pm = bai song, 3 pm = bai saam, 4 pm. = bai see.

also 4 pm. = see mong yen /see mong

5 pm. = haa mong yen /haa mong.

again for 4pm and 5pm then word 'yen' can sometimes be omitted when it is understood in context because 'haa mong' more commonly refers to 'haa mong yen', not 'haa mong chao'

Except for 6 am. and 6 pm. 'chao' and 'yen' are needed to indicate morning and evening times.

Incidentally, how often do Thais use 'subtractive time', e.g. อีกสิบนาทีบ่ายสี่โมง /iik sip naathii baai sii moong/ for 15.50ม?

Richard, actually this is quite common in the context when you telling the current time. So when you ask a person, "what time is it, NOW?" he/she will often say ' iik sip naathii baai sii mong' = 10 to 4pm. for anything up to 15 minutes to the hour. However, when you're not talking about current time, for example you want to arrange a meeting with someone in advance, only 'baai sam haa sib' = 3.50pm is used. But we never say 10 past 4pm. for 4.10pm.

Another interesting point is that telling Thai time can be vague. Some people often round up the time especially when they use analogue clock. it's Thai habit i guess, since we're never on time. So when you ask this kind of people on the street for the time and it's 2.55 or 3.05 p.m. you'll get the same answer, 'baai saam mong' = 3.00pm. When I need to know the exact time I often ask back again if it is 'baai saam mong trong' = exactly 3.00pm. Therefore to avoid confusion you should use 'baai saam mong trong' to emphasize that it is 3.00pm not a few minutes before or after.