Walk around

[nausea]

How do you say "walk around" in Thai. The other day I went to the local market and my SO asked me what I was doing, and I said "oh, just walking around" - she said you mean Dern L.. L.. .Now usually I can get it after a few repeatings, but this time I'm totally flummoxed. 

[Seligne2]

Try:

 

เดินเที่ยว dəən-tîiao vi.
promenade (roam); ramble (walk for pleasure)

 

เดินเล่น dəən-lên vi.
go for a walk; promenade (take a walk); ramble (walk for pleasure); saunter (stroll); stroll; wander (take a walk)

[surfdog]

เดินไปเดินมา walk back and forth
เดินไปเทียว go out walking for fun
เดินไปเชยๆ เชิยๆ ?? not sure spelling on "chery" walking meaningless without purpose, "for fun"
เดินรอบๆ walk around and around, circling

seeing as you heard "dern l.." likely "dern len" as translated above. Perfect translation is our semi retired English word saunter.

Next time confuse her statement by saying "ไม่ไช่ แค่เดินเชยๆ"

mai chai, kay dern chery chery

"Nah, I just walking aimlessly"

(as saunter implies purpose, the purpose of fun)


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[Pete1980]

23 hours ago, surfdog said:

เดินไปเดินมา walk back and forth
เดินไปเทียว go out walking for fun
เดินไปเชยๆ เชิยๆ ?? not sure spelling on "chery" walking meaningless without purpose, "for fun"
เดินรอบๆ walk around and around, circling

seeing as you heard "dern l.." likely "dern len" as translated above. Perfect translation is our semi retired English word saunter.

Next time confuse her statement by saying "ไม่ไช่ แค่เดินเชยๆ"

mai chai, kay dern chery chery

"Nah, I just walking aimlessly"

(as saunter implies purpose, the purpose of fun)


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เฉยๆ

[surfdog]

thanks Pete! coudn't find it in the dictionary but now know why. Another example of how knowing the spelling can better my speaking, for me I always heard "ช" but obvious now to me it is a bit softer.


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[BritManToo]

chery chery = เฉยๆ

If you're not sure of the spelling try talking into 'Google translate' app on your smartphone.

It often gets the right spelling, although the translation is often wrong.

Edited January 4, 2019 by BritManToo

[eric67]

เฉยๆ isn’t softer than เชยๆ, it just has a different tone...

[surfdog]

can you explain how the tones are different? I actually see it (opening of mouth) and hear it as a different consonant altogether.


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[Percy Penguin]

If you ask a Thai to say the consonants in isolation I think they will say them both the same (apart from the tone), but in real life some words with ช often seem to get pronounced with a sh sound (เชียงไหม่ for example), while others always have the harder ch sound (ช้าง). I can't think of any words with ฉ that get pronounced with the sh sound though. That doesn't mean there aren't any, but it could be the difference surfdog is on about.

 

Maybe the ch only gets softened when the word has a mid tone, which won't happen if it's spelt with ฉ. Don't know, just flying a kite on that one.

 

I don't think Thais can hear much of a difference, because they never hear the difference between English words like shoe and chew. For them I think it's basically the same consonant, much like ป and ผ are basically the same to us, at least before we start in on Thai.

[surfdog]

If you ask a Thai to say the consonants in isolation I think they will say them both the same (apart from the tone), but in real life some words with ช often seem to get pronounced with a sh sound (เชียงไหม่ for example), while others always have the harder ch sound (ช้าง). I can't think of any words with ฉ that get pronounced with the sh sound though. That doesn't mean there aren't any, but it could be the difference surfdog is on about.

 

Maybe the ch only gets softened when the word has a mid tone, which won't happen if it's spelt with ฉ. Don't know, just flying a kite on that one.

 

I don't think Thais can hear much of a difference, because they never hear the difference between English words like shoe and chew. For them I think it's basically the same consonant, much like ป and ผ are basically the same to us, at least before we start in on Thai.

 

Thai's are taught they are different, but unless you are a newscaster are not annunciated due to lazy speaking. For example I wrote เดินเชยๆ because that is what I heard, but เชย means old fashioned. That I have got away with mispronouncing because when I use in context it is clear, because เชย is used more like a standalone adjective. I know and use เชย be ause when said it is said long and annunciated like you are disgusted. Old fashioned in Thai from what I've seen is insulting btw :)

 

So my curiousity asked the misses how do I pronounce เดินเชยๆ and she replies great you got it. But then I asked spell it, and oh how is that different from ช. Then all of a sudden she is annunciated it for me and saying เดินเฉยๆ and showing what must do to say ฉ

 

You make a frown and lower tongue to bottom of mouth to pronounce differently, it is not our "sh" sound and it is not our "ch" sound. Wife explained this is how kids are taught in schools to speak "properly".

 

Best example I think is ชั้น and ฉัน yes vowels are different but I can always hear the consonant difference in ฉ when used in ฉัน.

 

 

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[Stevey]

Hi,

 

Sorry to butt in. I was told by a Thai along time ago that เชยฯ cherย cherย means pipe down , not so fast, calm down. The kind of thing I say to an over zealous salesperson on entering the shop or to calm a situation maybe two people holding each others hair maybe and always got an acknowledging smile or loosening of grip so I'm sure I'm correct in its use. And the Paiboon dictionary app girl pronounces it spot on, anyone come across it ? 

[digbeth]

เชย in popular use to mean antiquated/quaint is only around 80 year old, it was popularized by a novel series พล นิกร กิมหงวน where there's a character named ลุงเชย or uncle choey that is from upcountry and acts quaints, and thus the word become associated with quaintness 

[surfdog]

เชย in popular use to mean antiquated/quaint is only around 80 year old, it was popularized by a novel series พล นิกร กิมหงวน where there's a character named ลุงเชย or uncle choey that is from upcountry and acts quaints, and thus the word become associated with quaintness 

where you at is it used negatively? like a step down from บ้านหนอก or even equal.

Most commonly I see เชย used to refer to fashion.


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[digbeth]

21 minutes ago, surfdog said:

where you at is it used negatively? like a step down from บ้านหนอก or even equal.

Most commonly I see เชย used to refer to fashion.


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Yes, but even the word เชย has become out of fashion too, kids these days have many exciting words to describe being 'out', เฉิ่ม เห่ย

 

anyway, to get back on topic, while เฉยๆ is a perfectly good adjective/adverb, it is not normally used to describe walking

 

เดินเล่น is more commonly seen 

 

maybe you could answer เดินเฉยๆ when asked how did you trip up and fall on top of the housecat when going to get something from the fridge. เดินเฉยๆ doesn't inply intent but whereas เดินเล่น would satisfy the asking party more with why would you be out in the midday sun.

[digbeth]

On 1/5/2019 at 5:52 PM, Percy Penguin said:

If you ask a Thai to say the consonants in isolation I think they will say them both the same (apart from the tone), but in real life some words with ช often seem to get pronounced with a sh sound (เชียงไหม่ for example), while others always have the harder ch sound (ช้าง). I can't think of any words with ฉ that get pronounced with the sh sound though. That doesn't mean there aren't any, but it could be the difference surfdog is on about.

 

Maybe the ch only gets softened when the word has a mid tone, which won't happen if it's spelt with ฉ. Don't know, just flying a kite on that one.

 

I don't think Thais can hear much of a difference, because they never hear the difference between English words like shoe and chew. For them I think it's basically the same consonant, much like ป and ผ are basically the same to us, at least before we start in on Thai.

You could consider ฉ ช to have same consonant sounds,

but ฉ is of higher tone, or considered to have higher base tone

where as ช is of the lowest tone

 

musically maybe it's like they are on a different key  ฉัน (me/myself) vs ชัน (steep) ชั้น (shelves/level) no matter how high vowel you add to ช you can never get it to sound like ฉ

[tgeezer]

According to my book ช is weak vocal cord vibration and with a puff of air (เสียงหนัก ) whereas จ is the same but no puff of air (เสียงเบา) ฉ is in the same group as both ช and จ but has neither a puff or a non puff! But all three are said to be ระเบิด (ให้ลมพุงออกมารวดเร็ว) there are 8 more consonants in this group!

I can read pretty well and it makes no sense whatsoever to me.

How for example do you make a low tone with a consonant which is ไม่ก้อง eg. ต เต่า without going strong vibration of the vocal cords(ก้อง)?

I think that the answer is that you don’t.

I am sure that we have all been criticised for our production of consonants and vowels and been unable to see where we are going wrong.

Do you think that it is because every word is unique and in spite of ต being ไม่ก้อง when it appears with a vowel which let’s face it is produced by the same vocal cords and the tone is low the damned consonant actually becomes ก้อง?

 

 

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