anchan42

Depend on your level of toleration, I suppose. Anything that is อับ is pretty much เหม็น to me.

Thanks for the replies. :jap: Three new words in my vocap right there.

rancid เหม็นหืน

musty เหม็นอับ

fetid เหม็นเน่า or เหม็นฉิบหาย

Just wondering if English has the word.

From England goal keeper performance,I would say เซ็งโคตร ,เซ็งเป็ด, เซ็งค่อดๆ.

1. It depends on which area you are talking about. If you go to yaowaratch, almost all the shop owner will be able to speak some. For the whole of Bangkok I would say about 10-20 percent.

2. Not very much. It got its own vocab, grammar, tones and also tone sandi rules. Some of the vocabs are also different between mainland Teochew and Thailand Teochew.

3. I think most of the resources on the internet use English or Mandarin as a medium.

4. They use traditional characters. Simplified characters are some time looked down at. If you go to a Chinese temple, there is a good chance you will meet someone who can read and write (beautifully I might add).

5. Depends on the person you are speaking too. I would be careful on this one. I would not want old grumpy Chinese lady hit me with a fish.

“have meet a few who claim to speak แต้จิ๋ว“ claim is a claim until proven otherwise.

Thanks for all the replies.

I can read and write and speak pretty good Thai, even speak over the telephone and i'm usually understood, so i know how to say ก ไก่ in Thai. And it definitely sounds a lot more like G than K.

And if you pronounce กรุงเทพ Grung-tep rather than Krung-tep i'm sure more non English speaking Thai people would understand you first time.

In my opinion, ก ไก่ in an ideal world, should be transliterated as G not K. But i now at least understand the reasoning behind it.

I think you are right. Most of Thai people will hear "G" as ก.

"Gotcha!"

That's very close. It is the kind of sound that difficult to write down exactly. The three variations fit your context just fine. Maybe it is also close to "aha!"

It's ฮั่นแน่. There are many variations though. อั่นแน่ อ้ะนั้นแน่ etc. they are carrying playful tone.

Not sure about the equivalent in English.

It is an interjection used when you discover something secret. The speaker thinks she's discover you feeling toward her.

I'm pretty sure if I order 'cow su-ay' somewhere that serves food, they will know which type of 'cow' I want without any tonal clues

I'm also pretty sure if I'm wiping my shoe on some grass and say 'khee maa' nobody is going to thing I am riding a horse.

or even mix'n'match your examples 'ow su-am su-ar see-cow', I'm hardly likely to be wanting to wear a rice tiger.

Do Thais talk about colours without using 'see'? I've never noticed that.

But to be fair, in a noodle shop I tried to order 'gu-ay tee-ow gai naam sai' and they didn'y understand because I had the rythm wrong ......

Although in a noodle shop I don't understand how they could possibly be so stupid as to not understand I wanted noodles ........ so I memorised the entire phrase for future use.

'Naam dtaan' is another word nobody seems to recognise no matter how I try, so I just write it on a piece of paper.

So you are having problem communicating with the locals? No wonder

Advising someone to forget about tones in Thai is like advising someone learning English to forget about tenses and person in English verbs, forget about singular and plural, forget about the difference between "l" and "r". forget about final s, aspirated t, final pronounced d (as in decided), and so forth. The result of such a truncation of English is a kind of pidgin English, generally comprehensible by a native speaker, but not pleasant (at least for me) to listen to. Moreover, I must confess that it is almost impossible for me to give the same weight and respect to a person speaking this way that I more or less automatically give to someone who speaks non-pidgin English. (I know this reflects my own prejudices and limitations, but I doubt that I am alone in this reaction). Actually, tones are even more central to Thai than the examples above are to English and so the analogy is only partial. Therefore, there just isn't any choice to learning tones unless, as an earlier response pointed out, one wants to limit ones communication to those few Thais who have so much contact with westerners that they can guess the meaning of the words being said. And in my experience, such Thais almost always speak English anyway. So what's the point of subjecting them to the pain of listening to tone-free Thai in the first place?

That is what I did and I still suffer from the result today. To be specific I ignored -ed and -s suffixes when I started learning English. It was not a good idea at all but I had no one to tell me better at the time.

Ignoring the tones can't be a good idea.

I think the sentence is tenseless. I am not sure if that make sense. The second part of the sentence is the future of the first part but the whole sentence can be in the past or future depending on the context.

“ขูดสังกะสี” or noise from scratching the tin roof.

You can say เสียงอย่างกับขูดสังกะสี.

Some also say เหล็กขูดสังกะสี or แมวขูดสังกะสี

If you want to comment someone’s singing ability, you could use เสียงอย่างกับแมวออกลูก = sounded like a cat having kittens.

โก elder brother

โก in this sense is actually a loan word from Chinese probably from Cantonese dialect.

It is the most prevalent in south of Thailand where most Cantonese live.

In normal speech we just use ญาติ. ญาติโกโหติกา used when we want to emphasize that there are lots of them. It usually (not always) imply annoyance.

ถูกหวยทีญาติโกโหติกามากันเต็มไปหมด a lot of relatives showed up when I won a lottery ticket.

ญาติ pronounce like "yad" on it own but yad-ti in ญาติโกโหติกา.

สึก is the word for the disrobing of a Buddhist monk, but it is used for both voluntary and involuntary disrobing and doesn't have the negative connotation of disrobing (at least I don't think it does)

You're right, it doesn't have a negative connotation-therefore the word can be used for voluntary disrobing.

Just want to add on to that.

voluntary disrobing is ลาสึก or more formal ลาสิกขา

involuntary disrobing, as above posts said, จับสึก

If a monk breaks the Buddhist rules they say ต้องอาบัติ. There are many types of อาบัติ. If the rule he break is a serious one, it might result in losing the robe forever then it is classified under ปาราชิก or more fully ต้องอาบัติปาราชิก. They say it is comparable to capital punishment. I think ปาราชิก means "lose" as in losing a battle. Another similar word is ปราชัย means lose.

ie grammatically incorrect, or correct but no one says it like that for some 'strange' reason?

I don't really know. My explicit knowledge of Thai grammar is minimum but they sound really off.

Not very much help, is it?

Little troubled by your tone there, mate. My post was meant tongue in cheek and not as an opportunity to slam me or my gf. Just for the record, if you would like to have a phone conversation and compare Thai ability sometime, I'd welcome the opportunity. Started speaking Thai in 2508 (if you can figure out when that was --just to adopt your attitude for a moment). Pass for a native over the phone most of the time. How about you?

Sorry that I make you feel that way. After reread my post I can understand why. You post reminded me of a couple who lived together for long time but yet refused to learn or help each other learn from each other.

This is not in any way suggest you are like that.

You have been here since 2508? Wow!! that was before I was born.

People did take me for a Chinese over the phone once or twice. With my inadequate Chinese, I can hardly see that it is my false.

Congrats on your achievement in Thai.

I dare not invent my own rule but I can tell you which one sound right and which one sound strange.

ผมซื้อหนังสือมาที่คุณชอบ strange, you can say ผมซื้อหนังสือมา เล่มที่คุณชอบ or better yet ผมซื้อหนังสือมา เป็นเล่มที่คุณชอบ

ผมซื้อหนังสือที่คุณชอบมา ok

ผมทำแบบนี้มาแล้ว I have done this before.

ผมทำแบบนี้มา This is what I have been doing.

ผมมาที่นี่ตั้งแต่มานานแล้ว strange, this sounds better. ผมมาที่นี่ตั้งแต่นานมาแล้ว

I've never heard ทับศัพท์ used in reference to the myriad of Thai words borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Khmer

Same here.

I occasionally 'hang out' with monks and they'll either say เป็นทับศัพท์ for words taken from English, or มาจากภาษา... for words of any other language.

As for 'เฮา อาร์ ยู', I've only heard that referred to as เขียนเป็นอักษรไทย (if I remember right).

I think tabsab means loan words from any language. We hear it more often with English loan words simply because most of the recent loan words are from English.

Thanks. Coming from a native Thai speaker, (hope I'm correct in this assumption), I'll take that as validation of my statement.

Your very quick to validate your own statement when your assumed native Thai speaker (i believe you're right there though) has just said the 'tone rules can be a bit bendy,' while you said 'whilst still maintaining adherence to correct tone'. I mean they're either adhered to or they're not.

Yes soap operas would be a better example, unless it's a karaoke scene.

To me; the phrase...'can be a bit bendy', indicates the practice in question does not occur very often. I enjoy listening to Thai pop music and my observations regarding adherence to tones is based on two years personal experience.

I stand by my earlier post, and the statements it contained.

I think you are right. It is not very often. I could not think of a good example. Stop listening to music seriously long time ago.

And yes, I am Thai.

คุณ is also a title. Normal people use นาย, นาง or นางสาว but some have been endorsed to use คุณ, for example คุณทองแดง the king’s dog or คุณพุ่ม the king’s late nephew.

It is probably similar to Sir. in English.

I think your first sentence works best.

And just for the sake of argument, I'd say: "By the time the government realizes what they have done, Thailand will no longer be the same."

I second that.

The singer will almost always be able to load words with different emotive values, (intonations), whilst still maintaining adherence to correct tone.

I don't listen to a lot of Thai music by choice, but i do hear songs around in daily life. I was under the impression that in Thai songs the correct tone is not always adhered to, rather the melody of the tune is followed. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

All I can say is, that's not what I hear. Obviously, your listening / interpretation is different to mine. Perhaps a better example would be to listen to a Thai television soap opera.

Tones rule in Thai songs can be a bit bendy but only occasionally. Artistic license, I supposed.