Indra

mangkorn, thank you for your explanation about หนู

Yes, I think that I ever overheard about it when my Thai teacher talked with somebody else during our lesson.

meadish_sweetball, it is hard for farang to understand the Thai language structure because it doesn't have clear structure like English (tenses and other type of sentences) and scheme of compound word (hence also influence the formation of the sentence)

It easier for me when I try to decrypt the sentence using the scheme of Indonesia language (yes, my mother tongue is Indonesia) because both language have similar structure.

Let's take an example of compound word: "dining table".

In Thai, it is โต๊ะอาหาร; If we translate it word-by-word, it becomes "table food"

In Indonesia, it is "meja makan"; If we translate it word-by-word, it becomes "table eat"

We see that the explaining word is put in front of the explained word for English structure and vice versa for both Thai and Indonesia.

Concerning ในเวลา3เดือน

ใน means "in"

เวลา means "time"

So, word-by-word translation would be "in time" or Indonesia language "dalam waktu"

"Dalam waktu", if correctly translated to English will become "within" or "for" (related to time like "for 3 months")

Hence, ในเวลา3เดือนไปสกอดแลน would mean "within 3 months going to Scotland"

Godwin,

Let me try to translate it as follows:

"Sister Ni, about making the visa, which one should we do either make ourselves or let him help giving recommendation that Nu has to go to Scotland for 3 months"

Her sister nick name is Ni

Your girlfriend nick name is Nu (the writing is exactly the same with rat, hence her nick name if translated into English is "rat")

As you might know, every Thai people have his/her own nick name.

My Thai friend, who just got his first child last month, told me that he had got nick name (ชื่อเล่น) for his baby but so far he and his wife hasn't decided the first name.

Perhaps, the one which make you confused is บ่าง (baang with low tone), which means flying sguirrel; However, I believe that she just mistyped it as the correct word should be บ้าง (baang with falling tone), which means any.

Hence the word sequence would be ยังไงบ้าง (yang ngai baang), which means "which one?"

That's what I know so far.

However, I am not a Thai, hence explanation from a real Thai would be better.

Yes, some words are Pali.

Usually it is used at the end of prayer.

I hope my information below is not redundant.

There 2 ways to have Thai character in your computer

1. If your computer is Windows XP, then you can enable the Thai character and switch between English and Thai; I provide the step-by-step instruction at the end of this posting, if you choose this method.
   
2. Go to http://english-thai-dictionary.com/index.p...on=thaikeyboard and use the virtual keyboard to get the Thai character, which you want to type, then using the copy-paste to put it into your document/email.
   

I personally like the second method because my keyboard is not a Thai keyboard (hence I need layout of Thai keyboard printed on a paper) and I am too lazy to switch back and forth between English and Thai language (although it is a matter of 2 clicks or 2 buttons)

Step-by-step of enabling Thai character in Windows XP computer:

• Make sure that you have your Windows installation CD handy
  
• Open control panel
  
• Double click on "Regional and Language Options" icon
  
• Click "Languages" tab
  
• Click "Details" button
  
• Click "Add" button
  
• Select Thai as "Input language" and "Keyboard layout"; For my computer, I selected both Kedmanee and Pattachote; I don't know what it is but it works well in my system until now
  
• Click "OK" button in "Add Input Language" window
  
• Click "Apply" button in "Text Services and Input Languages" window; You may need your Windows installation CD at this stage
  
• Back to "Text Services and Input Languages" window, in "Setting" tab, you can select on how to switch between English character and Thai character by clicking "Key Settings" button
  

Somehow you may find that this step-by-step is still confusing, then please feel free to drop your questions here (please don't pm me), I'll try to answer it.

Hi, I am not new, but not yet introduce myself here, hence I write this post.

I was in Bangkok since August 2007; Early this month move to Singapore, but my heart is still in Bangkok.

My wife is still also dreaming about going back to Bangkok but our office has moved to Singapore anyway.

I can write and read phasa Thai. But my vocabulary is still rudimentary.

If you are learning Thai language, http://www.thai2english.com/ and http://www.google.com/dictionary are a good dictionaries and http://english-thai-dictionary.com/index.p...on=thaikeyboard is a very usefull on screen Thai keyboard, especially if your keyboard is not Thai keyboard (you can install Thai character set in your Windows, but I have proven that it is troublesome to switch between English character set and Thai character set; Even my friend, who is a Thai, doesn't like to write mixed language between English and Thai)

Via this forum, I hope that I can taste a little Thai sense during the hectic time in Singapore.

Anyway, wishing you all Merry Christmas (เมอร์รี่คริสมาสต์)

Well, for 100 Baht, you can get your hair cut in Asok MRT station.

Just go down to the shopping area inside the station.

...

The airports MUST be re-opened ASAP as many people desperately do NEED to get in/out for medical or business reasons,

and a whole host of other essential travel reasons, not to mention the obvious exponential mounting costs to tourism

and every other sector of the economy from freight to pubs/hotels and on and on and on. HowTo without creating a larger conflict?

Simple, call an election. Then let the courts deal with the ensuing fall-out on both sides. Meanwhile, we can all get back to work, or holiday.

EDIT/to add: Last house session to do so? Dec 9 (at Somchai's house). Dissolution verdict? Possibly Dec 15 = tic-toc...

For the sake of Thai Nation itself, I think that airports must be re-opened within this week and nobody may try to close it again.

PAD is free to try to block government offices, but blocking the airports is one way to kill Thai economy.

Can any PAD leaders think that Bangkok airport is not only used as gate to come and out to & from Thailand, but also serves as regional and international hub?

Bangkok's achievement as international hub so far can be severely damaged by this blockage.

Where is PAD's sense of nationality?

I think that written Thai word is better than having to pronounce it, especially for a total stranger, who knows nothing about Thai language.

Even a foreigner, who has been 17 years in Thailand and has Thai wife (and children), he can still make mistake with pronunciation.

If you want to write Kho Fark, as suggested by meadish, you can write: ขอฝาก

Just copy the Thai characters into MS Word or Open Office Text and print it on a thick paper.

A more polite sentence would be: Kho Fahk Noi Khrap (ขอฝากหน่อยครับ) May I leave it for a little time, please.

Well, I think that explanation from mangkorn is easier to understand, at least for a total beginner as admitted by radius.

อ (aw - aang) is a unique character, which can acts as either a consonant or a vowel.

As consonant, อ is used to help a vowel to be pronounced by itself like อา (aa)

As vowel, อ is pronouced aw like in ร้อน (hot)