luckyfarang

I never watch the soaps, so I am not exactly current on this but my impression was that

ผีดิบ would translate as "zombie", I agree with Mole on that.

I agree with R7BKK that:

"I think the most common way to refer to a vampire is "Pee Doot Leuat" (ผีดูดเลือด).

People also say "Vampire", but with a Thai pronunciation so more like "wam - pie" (แวมไพร์)."

But the word for "vampire" that I always hear used in my personal experience is:

มนุษย์ ค้างคาว meaning "human bat". This probably derives from the original vampire "Dracula", and many Thais seem to know the word Dracula, probably from some Thai TV version.

I think I'd translate this as "How did he come to be wrongfully arrested?"

... or perhaps 'mistakenly' arrested to reflect the 'ผิดตัว' bit? Not much in it, perhaps.

I agree with Rick Bradford and would translate this as "How could he be mistakenly arrested?"

The use of ผิดตัว indicates to me that they are referring to a case of mistaken identity.

The term for false arrest (wrongful arrest) would be จับมั่ว

"to arrest at random"

From the Bird song แฟนจ๋า : รักจริงไม่อู้

Is the อู้ here used as in Northern dialect? If not,

how would this phrase translate? The other meaning of อู้ is something like to loaf, to slack off, to dawdle. That doesn't seem to apply here.

แค่เพียงมองตาเธอใต้แสงเงาจันทร์หยุดฝันถึงวันข้างหน้าช่วงเวลา ที่ฉันมีเธอ

From the same song. I'm not clear on the use of the word เงา here. Also, why does the look in her eyes STOP him dreaming of days to come?

Here is my rough guess:

Just one look in your eyes in the shadowy moonlight Stops me dreaming about the days ahead The time when I will have you

เรารักกันก็ได้แต่ว่ากายของฉันมีเข้าครอง

เป็นเจ้าของ หมดทั้งตัว

Can anyone help translate this? From the Sek Loso song: เก็บดาวมาให้เธอ

My rough guess is: We may love each other, although I feel overpowered You are in total control

ปิดฉากไปเสียดีกว่า

from the Seua Thanapon song

Any idea what this phrase means?

I'm guessing something like

"Better to close the curtain and be done with it"

I'll throw another word in here - มโนธรรม - which I think conveys the English sense of moral or religious right and wrong best. It is, however, another word that is not used colloquially. For that you'd probably do best, as others have suggested above, with "มีสติรู้ผิดรู้ชอบ"

I previously looked at มโนธรรม but decided to eliminate it after seeing this example of usage:

ในแง่ความรู้สึกของสาธารณะชน ต้องเป็นผู้มีสำนึกทางมโนธรรมแห่งความรับผิดชอบ

"The feelings of the general public are that (the persons chosen) must be conscientious in (undertaking) their responsibilities."

But now I notice that the word สำนึก is also defined as "conscience" or "conscientious" as one possible meaning. So I am guessing that มโนธรรม can be a good definition for "conscience", although not really usable in colloquial conversation.

Which brings up the question of how to define the phrase: สำนึกทางมโนธรรม and how it differs from สำนึก?

"ชี้เหตุ = [H]chii [L]heed ... This is typical newspaper jargon. I still do not have a good translation for it, and thai2english does not combine the two as one expression in their division either. The basic construction is easy enough - ชี้ = to point (out); indicate; mark; show; direct + เหตุ = cause, reason; by reason of; due to."

ชี้เหตุอัปยศ might translate here as "a disgraceful ruling" by the referee.

Chaos -

Can you give examples of the usage of ทำไม่ลง?

I have not heard this used before, but it seems like it might be a more colloquial

version of สนับสนุนไม่ได้ or รับไม่ได้

I'm going to take a stab at this, since I have often wondered the same thing.

Having looked at all the alternatives, I'm going to say that the closest thing to an accurate translation would be:

หิริโอตตัปปะ

But this is probably a word only the educated Thais would know, and is probably never used in conversation, probably used mainly by monks in sermons.

The closest thing that would be useful in conversation I believe is:

สติรู้ผิดรู้ชอบ

which could be translated as having "a sense of right and wrong".

Then there is this:

ความละอายและเกรงกลัวต่อบาป

which would be widely understood, and the dictionary gives "conscience" as one definition,

but I would translate this more like "being God fearing"

I believe it conveys more a fear of the consequences of sin rather than a natural inborn sense of right and wrong.

Anyone know what this means?

วัวสันหลังขาด เห็นนกกาบินผาดก็ตกใจ

The spineless cow flinches as the crow flies by?

My dictionary says "Conscience makes cowards of us all."

but I have no idea what that means, and it doesn't seem to correspond to the Thai phrase.

My guess would be something closer to: "A coward dies a thousand deaths"

I don't see anything there that would involve "conscience"

In the Da Endorphine song " เพื่อนสนิท" she uses

อัดอั้นใจ to mean "frustrated"

Mole, I appreciate your input, but I disagree. You are a native Thai speaker, correct?

Where did you learn to speak English?

ทิ่งมาได้เลยจะไม่บ่นสักคำ

I would guess this means "Leave me and I won't say a word"

I'm familiar with ทิ่งไป but ทิ่งมา?

ทิ้งมาแค่เพียง เสี้ยวหนึ่งก็พอ

เสี้ยวหนึ่ง is what confuses me. One quarter? Does this refer to the month?

แม้มีทุกข์คับใจเธอเมื่อไร

My guess is "even when I'm suffering and unhappy with you"

เธอกลับทิ้งลงที่ฉน "You throw it back at me?"

รอคอยว่าคงสักวัน วันที่เธอเห็นใจ

Should I wait for the day you sympathize?

ทิ่งเสี้ยวหนึ่งของหัวใจ ลงที่กลางใจฉน

Any help would be appreciated. Usually I'm pretty good at translating, but this is an example of simple words being used so idiomatically, combined with dropping most pronouns, to make it confusing for me.

This is one of those English words that will translate into many different Thai words in different contexts, and there is no one perfect translation.

Having said that, I am extremely frustrated with the poor translations found in dictionaries, and would like to hear the forum members' own experiences with its usage.

อัดอั้นใจ, อัดอั้นตันใจ - I have never heard this used in real life or in my reading, so I have only the dictionary to go on. I would be interested in hearing its usage from anyone that has heard it used.

แห้ว - I've never heard this one used to mean "frustrated" either

คัดใจ - This is the one that I have heard used, and I think native Thai speakers would recognize, but I can't seem to find this in the dictionary. I remember it from Sathienpong's dictionary, but not sure of the spelling.

หงุดหงิด - This one I hear commonly, and have seen it translate as "frustrated" in the Becker dictionary, but I think this is a bad translation. In my experience, it means "grouchy", "irritable", "grumpy"

อึดอัดใจ - Here is another "close but no cigar". I would translate this as

"to feel out of place" or "to feel ill at ease" or "feel (mentally, not physically) uncomfortable"

กระวนกระวายใจ - This one is my second favorite from the dictionary, but I haven't heard it used in real life yet, so I'm curious to hear some comments.

คับข้องใจ - This one is my favorite candidate from the dictionary, but I haven't yet heard it used.

ผิดคาด - This one fits the meaning of "to frustrate" (broken expectations), but not to "feel frustration"

ผิดหวัง - This one I would translate more as "disappointed" (broken dreams)

Ideally, one should be able to take the best term for "frustrated", and add the word ความ in front of it to make the word "frustration"

A literal translation might not get your meaning across.

My suggestion is:

ฝรั่งรู้มากไม่ดีเลย

ใจคอ My dictionary lists this as meaning "mood" and "disposition".

I have a feeling that this is a highly useful phrase, but I have never heard it used. I need to get a feel for it so that I can use it myself, and the dictionary is never very good with idioms like this.

"I don't want to be too predictable"

ไม่อยากเป็นคนคาดเดาได้ง่ายง่ายนะ

Not a native speaker, but that's how I would say it.

I am still having trouble with the passive voice particles ถูก and โดน, both with their usage and with the choice of which one to use.

I'm guessing the choice of which word to use would be influenced by the situation being discussed.

e.g. As โดน also has the meaning of to hit , strike, collide etc, I'd guess that it would be used in situations where some sort of actual violence is involved, whereas ถูก would be used in other none violent situations,

But reading through the examples on another website there doesn't seem to be 'set rule' to follow.

Is it up to the toss a coin?

My experience is that both are used in front of a transitive verb to form the passive tense.

But โดน is only used with a negative connotation and ถูก can be used to form the passive with either a positive or negative connotation.

So if you want to say that you were shot, or hit by a car, you could use either one. But if you won the lottery, you would only use ถูก

I suggest เจัาจิตอิสระ

Sort of captures the idea for me.

The literal definition of ทับศัพท์/tapsap is "transliteration" (like writing "เฮา อาร์ ยู" so people who don't read English can say "How are you"), but as farangnahrak says it's most often used in reference to words used in Thai which were borrowed from English. Perhaps this is to encourage the idea that using borrowed words is somehow "wrong", since they're "not real Thai words, they're transliterations of English words". I've never heard ทับศัพท์ used in reference to the myriad of Thai words borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Khmer, and despite their best efforts, I don't think the guardians of the Thai language are having much success in their efforts to stop the flow of English words into Thai. There are even some who go so far as to suggest that Thais should say "คณิตกรณ์/kanit-gorn" instead of "คอมพิวเตอร์/computer", or "การละเล่น/gahn la-len" instead of "เกม/game", but have you ever heard anyone use these words?

Peppy -

I have found that many Thais will totally deny that a tapsap is borrowed and claim that

it is a Thai word.

They have seen it spelled in Thai and heard it pronounced in Thai since birth, so

they just assume it is Thai.

LEUA® ?

how's that fit? what's it mean?

not something left over, I gather...

LEUA®-GERN - - - - - - excessive

Or use as shown in blue:

If you want to sound natural in conversation, I recommend the following usages:

NAA(f) KUN doo KUN(h) KUN(h) - - - - - You look familiar (your face looks familiar)

This is the way Thais say it and they always use the word "face" when saying you look familiar or they don't recognize you.

In actual usage, they dropped the 'doo'

ถ้าจะดืมมากเกินไป เป็นเรืองคุณ

ถ้าจะเลิก (ดืม) เป็นเรืองเรา

I like that.

Maybe with "suraa"(alcohol) added.

I like DEUM MAAK(f) LEUA® GERN better. translates as "drink to excess"

If you drink too much, it's your business.

If you want to stop, it ours.

Does anyone have ny suggestions as the best way to translate this?

Cheers

N N

DEUM LAO(f) MAAK(f) LEUA® GERN, TOO-RA(h) KAWNG® KUN

YAAK(l) JA(l) LERK(f), TOO-RA(h) KAWNG® RAO

Years ago I found the word KHAW® TAAN in the dictionary defined as "beg for alms"

When I asked why the monks come around every morning and beg for alms, I quickly learned the word

BIN-DTA(l)-BAAT(l)

And then there was the time that I was up north long ago and ordered what I thought was red snapper, and instead got canned sardines. You figure it out.