I was trying to find the word for 'concentrate', as in for example, 'concentrate on your driving'.

So far, looking at google translate and two other dictionaries I have found quite a few variations:

ตั้งสมาธิ  มีสมาธิ  เอวใจใส่  เพ่ง  ตั้งใจ  จดจ่อ  ด่อม 

Would someone like to suggest the correct one to use in this instance, as still I'm wondering why there are so many?

 

I always saw  ตั้งใจ (tang jai) as to intend. 

4 hours ago, nikmar said:

I always saw  ตั้งใจ (tang jai) as to intend. 

I don't know, a dictionary had it as one option for concentrate: "ตั้งใจ direct one's thoughts or attention"

 

By concentrate you mean "to focus", thus โฟกัส

สมาธิ - samatee
Focus would also be acceptable, but just remember this is a “cool” borrowed, hip word, you must pronounce focus with a Thai accent, and outside of Bangkok I would guess people over 40 would know this word unless they were hip. :)

ex. from web:

7 วิธีการสร้างสมาธิไปตลอดวันทำงาน
7 methods to concentrate at work all day


ทำงานเป็นสุขด้วยสติสมาธิ
be happy at work with a focused mind

สมาธิในการทำงาน
Concentrate in your work





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16 hours ago, nikmar said:

I always saw  ตั้งใจ (tang jai) as to intend. 

As a poor Thai speaker who teaches English I could add- ตั้งใจรียน (tang jai riyan) also seems to mean studious.

เขาตั้งใจเรียนแต่ไม่มีสมาธิ
He/She is determined to study but has no concentration.






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'concentrate on your driving'.

sorry didn’t answer original
question:

เมื่อขับรถ ต้องมีสมธิ

when you are driving, you have to have concentration

shorter:

เขาขับรถมีสมาธิ

from the web:
จะเสียสมาธิมั้ย
will you lose concentration?

สมาธิและความพร้อมของผู้ขับ
concentration and readyness of drivers


การขับรถอย่างปลอดภัย ควรมีสมาธิ
for safe driving, you should have concentration

As a poor Thai speaker who teaches English I could add- ตั้งใจรียน (tang jai riyan) also seems to mean studious.

yes ตั้งใจทำอะไร does have the connatation of having concentration but in all the same way that somebody who is determined to do something also connotates having concentation at the task.

ตั้งใจ also does mean intend but with the connatation of being determined to do it, insomuch that determined is likely the better translation

2 examples showing how context may have you change the translation

เขาตั้งใจไปเรียนเมืองหนอก
He/she is determined to study abroad

เขตั้งใจเรียนทุกคาบ
He/she is studious in every class.

Thank you for all the replies.

 

I was interested in surfdog's suggestion  เมื่อขับรถ ต้องมีสมาธิ  mainly because he used สมาธิ, which was the word I had originally thought it might be.

The reason I thought that, was because years ago at a temple when I asked about the word for meditation, I was told นั่งสมาธิ - the way I saw it was basically 'sit and concentrate'

 

Thanks again.

 

yes that is correct basic Thai for meditation, but I beleive there is Pali language for the “correct” words for chanting, meditation, and likely other tasks of a monk. Because meditation is far more than just concentrating.




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Non standard tones I notice. สะมาทิ 

Does สมาธิในการทำงาน  really say “Concentrate on your work”? Surfdog? 

I don’t think it can grammatically but then, how many people use grammar?

 

 

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by tgeezer
Spelt it สมาติ,

7 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

Non standard tones I notice. สะมาติ. 

Does สมาติในการทำงาน  really say “Concentrate on your work”? Surfdog? 

I don’t think it can grammatically but then, how many people use grammar?

 

 

I pulled those examples from the web, afraid I might make a grammar mistake, so pulled the examples from native speakers...

sources for สมาติในการทำงาน

http://key-up.life/blog/8-ways-to-concentrate-at-work

https://women.mthai.com/women-variety/133467.html

https://www.jobthai.com/REACH/career-tips/7-วิธีการสร้างสมาธิไปตลอดวันทำงาน.html

 

Much more too, so obviously this is correct in Thai, however my translation might be wrong,

welcome to correct me :)

 

Perhaps concentrate in your work, concentrating at work, working with concentration, staying focused on working, with Thai to English I have no problems taking creative liberty, as long as the meaning stays the same.  Better to translate in context, and no reason why you couldn't translate as focus if it makes the translation more beautiful.  Such as "8 ways to focus at work."

 

also not to be a rambler, but 'literal' translation is literally the worst thing I ever saw my students do, creative liberty in translation produces the best results.

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by surfdog

30 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

Non standard tones I notice. สะมาทิ 

 

Could you explain about this please - why is it non-standard, and what does the tone become?

 

The only word I can think of right now that is non-standard is ศาสนา which my Thai teacher pointed out to me, otherwise I'd be none the wiser. He said it was ส that made นา become a falling tone.

 

If sometimes I'm not sure about the correct tone, I have a copy of Gordon Allison's English-Thai Dictionary, as it shows the tones for each word. In this case however, Allison translated concentrate as เอวใจใส่ so I can't use it to check.

 

never heard เอาใจใส่ but ใส่ใจ definitely connotates concentration but I believe effort is better because of the negative form which is used more often.

as in
ทำไมลูกน้องถึงไม่ใส่ใจในการทำงานเท่าที่ควร

How come the younger generation has no work effort?

(some creative liberty on that)

and

เลิกดีกว่ามั้ย? ถ้าแฟนไม่ใส่ใจแบบนี้

should you break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend? If they don’t put in the effort like this?


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"Concentrate on your work "..

As a Canadian I can assure you that this is correct.

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by BugJackBaron

3 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Could you explain about this please - why is it non-standard, and what does the tone become?

 

The only word I can think of right now that is non-standard is ศาสนา which my Thai teacher pointed out to me, otherwise I'd be none the wiser. He said it was ส that made นา become a falling tone.

 

If sometimes I'm not sure about the correct tone, I have a copy of Gordon Allison's English-Thai Dictionary, as it shows the tones for each word. In this case however, Allison translated concentrate as เอวใจใส่ so I can't use it to check.

 

สมาธิ The standard pronunciation is governed by the leading 'high class consonant' (อักษรนำ้) with the result สะหมาทิ  (L-r-h) . The non standard tones does not consider ส as governing the tone of the second syllable.

I think that you may have misunderstood your teacher, the same rule applies to ศาสนา> สาทสะหนา  (l-l--r) *

Easy to do but worth a mention, เอาใจใส่ is the spelling. >'bring heart put in' . Definition: ไฝ่ใจ ตั้งใจ . 

 

 

I agree with you surfdog in that context determines the meaning but rather than attempting a translation I tend to literally translate each word. This doesn’t always work because expressions have developed over time so that the original meaning is not always maintained so, having decided, I then research the English and try to imagine how that meaning derived from the literal meaning.

 

 

เอา is a word which Longdo avoids translating for example. There are so many meanings that it can’t always be recognised in expressions. 

สมาธิในการทำงาน I prefer to see as a ‘noun phase’ >concentration at work.  It could well be used to say ‘concentrate on your work’. 

นั้งสมาธิ ‘sit concentration’ If a monk says that too me I would understand it to mean ‘sit and concentrate’. 

‘Words in proximity’ is the best I can do to explain language as it is spoken; the written word is a different matter entirely. 

 

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

สมาธิ The standard pronunciation is governed by the leading 'high class consonant' (อักษรนำ้) with the result สะหมาทิ  (L-r-h) . The non standard tones does not consider ส as governing the tone of the second syllable.

I think that you may have misunderstood your teacher, the same rule applies to ศาสนา> สาทสะหนา  (l-l--r) *

Easy to do but worth a mention, เอาใจใส่ is the spelling. >'bring heart put in' . Definition: ไฝ่ใจ ตั้งใจ . 

 

Thanks for explaining.

When you said non-standard, I was thinking you meant just that one word สมาธิ. When I quoted ศาสนา I forgot which way it changed the tone, it was a while ago.

 

Regarding the leading high class consonant, I'm aware of ห to do this - หมอ, หมา, เหรียญ, but I thought it was only ห used as a special case, as it is silent.

I didn't realise that any high class consonant will do the same thing - is that correct? Now I'm guessing here - so apart from ห, other high class consonants are sounded, but still change the tone the same way?
 

So in the context of a classroom...Let's say a math teacher wants

to say to a not so diligent student.."You're not concentrating" as the student pretends to work on a problem in class....

 

In Thai , what would be natural to express this in this situation? Mai Dai Lian?

 

Dong Jai Keang gwa? 

Sorry about the transliteration..I'm still learning the Thai writing...

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by BugJackBaron

16 hours ago, BugJackBaron said:

So in the context of a classroom...Let's say a math teacher wants

to say to a not so diligent student.."You're not concentrating" as the student pretends to work on a problem in class....

 

In Thai , what would be natural to express this in this situation? Mai Dai Lian?

 

Dong Jai Keang gwa? 

Sorry about the transliteration..I'm still learning the Thai writing...

Confused about the one below.. ต้องใจแข็งกว่า  ?  You have to harden yourself or something?   I wouldn't say that.

 

The grammar doesn't quite match up because 'samatee' is more of a noun.  So you would use it in regards to having it, needing it, not having it, etc.

 

But 'Tung Jai Rian' may be better, got to be hard on those students.

ถ้าไม่ตั้งใจเรียนกลับบ้านเถอะ

If you don't intend to study (concentrate) then go home.

 

Maybe a better ending particle then เถอะ, I think this is a polite one, might soften this blow a bit.

 

careful listening to me as well, I had a few students cry over the years, but I sure whipped the rest of them in line.

 

  

Edited May 11, 20188 yr by surfdog

21 hours ago, bluesofa said:

 

 

Regarding the leading high class consonant, I'm aware of ห to do this - หมอ, หมา, เหรียญ, but I thought it was only ห used as a special case, as it is silent.

I didn't realise that any high class consonant will do the same thing - is that correct? Now I'm guessing here - so apart from ห, other high class consonants are sounded, but still change the tone the same way?
You have probably forgotten this. 

You know that the tone is determined by the initial consonant and the vowel and/or the final consonant, if the syllable has a pair of initial consonants then the first one governs the tone. 

If there is a tone mark, it is put over the last sounded consonant. 

Both ห>หว่าง and อ> อย่าง are silent. 

 

 

Edited May 11, 20188 yr by tgeezer

 

16 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

You have probably forgotten this. 

You know that the tone is determined by the initial consonant and the vowel and/or the final consonant, if the syllable has a pair of initial consonants then the first one governs the tone. 

If there is a tone mark, it is put over the last sounded consonant. 

Both ห>หว่าง and อ> อย่าง are silent. 

หว่าง อย่าง 

You're right, I had forgotten about this, hence my asking about it recently. Yes, I'd also forgotten to mention อ when I mentioned ห

 

Regarding tone marks and two initial consonants, your example above - หว่าง, the ไม้เอก above ว refers to controlling ห, making it a low tone - that's correct?

However, that reminded me of ห่วง, where there are two initial consonants, but the tone mark goes above the first one for some reason?

 

On 5/8/2018 at 7:50 AM, Slip said:

As a poor Thai speaker who teaches English I could add- ตั้งใจรียน (tang jai riyan) also seems to mean studious.

I like to  often translate this as 'pay attention in class.'

8 hours ago, bluesofa said:

 

You're right, I had forgotten about this, hence my asking about it recently. Yes, I'd also forgotten to mention อ when I mentioned ห

 

Regarding tone marks and two initial consonants, your example above - หว่าง, the ไม้เอก above ว refers to controlling ห, making it a low tone - that's correct?

However, that reminded me of ห่วง, where there are two initial consonants, but the tone mark goes above the first one for some reason?

 

The tone mark in ห่วง is consistent ห is not silent and the vowel is อัว , hooang. There are not always good clues like that, once I read the town name สองแคว as if ว was the final consonant and everybody mocked me.  It must be the แคว which is mispronounced Kwai in Bridge over the River Kwai. . 

 

6 hours ago, bannork said:

I like to  often translate this as 'pay attention in class.'

 ช่วยตั้งใจเรียนและมีสมาธิด้วย Is a suggestion. 

5 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

The tone mark in ห่วง is consistent ห is not silent and the vowel is อัว , hooang. There are not always good clues like that, once I read the town name สองแคว as if ว was the final consonant and everybody mocked me.  It must be the แคว which is mispronounced Kwai in Bridge over the River Kwai. . 

 

OK, so if ห is sounded, then that means the tone mark goes above it, and that's the clue. Sometimes it makes me want to pull my hair out - if I only had enough of it!

 

Regarding สองแคว, I just asked my wife who pronounced erroneously, the same as you did. It was only when I pasted into google translate and got it to say the word, it put คว as as initial consonant pair - kw-air.

Guessing that's maybe local knowledge, my wife's from Udon.

 

7 hours ago, bluesofa said:

OK, so if ห is sounded, then that means the tone mark goes above it, and that's the clue. Sometimes it makes me want to pull my hair out - if I only had enough of it!

 

Regarding สองแคว, I just asked my wife who pronounced erroneously, the same as you did. It was only when I pasted into google translate and got it to say the word, it put คว as as initial consonant pair - kw-air.

Guessing that's maybe local knowledge, my wife's from Udon.

 

The river in Kanchanaburi , so oftern misspelt in English kwai- Bridge On the River Kwai- is actually แคว- khwair

7 hours ago, bannork said:

The river in Kanchanaburi , so oftern misspelt in English kwai- Bridge On the River Kwai- is actually แคว- khwair

Bannork, this prompted me to look up the word แคว which is something I should have done before. 

I have deduced that the bridge was built across the แม่นำ้แม่กลอง and the confluence of the tributaries แควใหญ่ and แควน้อย is higher up.  After crossing the river the railway ran up the แควน้อย valley so that this was the name known to the prisoners.  Being a sizable river confusion arises when it is referred to as แควน้อย which is probably why that part of the river was renamed แคว after the story of the prisoners of war was written. 

 

Another thing which I found interesting is that the tributaries of both the แม่กลอง and เจ้าพระยา rise and flow within Thailand's borders.  

 

Edited May 12, 20188 yr by tgeezer

Too late to edit but since it is a 'Slow news day' I have tried Google maps. I am confused, the แควน้อย appears to be below the bridge!