เช่นกัน (chen-gan) Same Here.

[nakriian]

If I ask someone how are you via คุณสบายดีไหมครับ and they say คิฉันสบายดีค่ะ can I then say ผมสบายดีเช่นกันครับ to mean "I am fine also". In that sentence, would that be a proper way to utilize เช่นกัน (chen-gan)?

[bannork]

เหมือนกันครับ you could use either this or เช่นกัน

I often hear เช่น alone as 'for example' or such as'

Edited February 12, 2007 by bannork

[Khun Bob]

But if your not asked how you are why are you saying ?

Sorry no thai script (just bad transliteration...) - if your lady friend says dichan sabaydii ka khun la then she is asking how you are and the response could be just chen gan khrap

Of course if you do want to say you could reply (gor) phom sabai dii duay khrap

I'm no expert but the above seemed to work for me !

[jeabsun]

Khun Bob,

The place of gor (ก็๗ (if you want to use them) is after Phom... Phom gor sabai dee Khrap. You do not need "duay" at all. Actully I am not sure what "duay" is but I guess you refer to ด้วย.

[Khun Bob]

Thanks for the reply.

Duay, as far as I am aware, means as well - of course saying this would depend on the first person saying the same response as the second person.

Can I ask why phom gor, rather than gor phom (I'm aware that got is a joining word or a follow on word - in the above case saying "gor phom" would be following on from what the first speaker said. Like I said I'm no expert and the Thais I have talked with I know have been very understanding !

Cheers

Khun Bob,

The place of gor (ก็๗ (if you want to use them) is after Phom... Phom gor sabai dee Khrap. You do not need "duay" at all. Actully I am not sure what "duay" is but I guess you refer to ด้วย.

[jeabsun]

gor (ก็) means "also". Similar to English language, a sentence starts with the subject of the sentence. That's why you have to say "Phom (I'm) gor (also) sabai dee (fine) khrap", not "Gor phom sabai dee khrap".

In this case, even though "duay" means "also" as well, but it sounds very funny if you use "duay". I am trying to think in which situation you should used "duay" in the sentences. I come up with two common situations that you can use duay. Sometimes, both "duay" and "gor" can be used together in the same sentence. But I don't want to make you confused about it.

(1) If someone say that he is going to do something (or to eat something) and you want to do (or eat) it as well. You could say. "Phom yaarge tum (or kin) dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากทำ (หรือกิน) ด้วย (คน) ครับ

(2) If someone say that he is going to go to somewhere and you want to go there as well. You could say, "Phom yaarge pai dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากไปด้วย (คน) ครับ

ps: I am not sure if you tried to say that when you said "Gor phom sabai dee (dauy) Khrap", your Thai friends understood it. I agree. We (Thais) can guess what you want to say because it can easily guess according to the conversation. However, the example I wrote is the correct way to say. You can ask your Thai friends (if you would like to verify my explanation) whether you should say "Phom gor sabai dee khrap" or "Gor Phom sabai dee khrap" when you wanna say "I am fine also" in Thai.

Hopefully, I can answer your question.

Edited March 7, 2007 by jeabsun

[Khun Bob]

Khun Jeabsun - no need to verify - your explanation is excellent ! And it makes perfect sense - as always learning Thai, I remember far more by making a mistake and having a good person like yourself explain than, by trying to read and remember from books. And thank you for writing Thai script as well - I can read Thai and want to get away from transliteration - it is just much slower and more difficult for me to type Thai script (partial excuse - I can do it but tend not to...)

Khun Jeabsun may I ask - I presume you are Thai, but also your English is very, very good. Is this because you have studied abroad or are you born outside of Thailand ?

Thanks for your help - It is nice to progress/understand more everyday and today you have helped me do that !

Cheers

KB

PS I have not seen the use of kon (คน) in "Phom yaarge pai dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากไปด้วย (คน) ครับ - what does คน mean in this case or is it a polite/persuasion particle like na or khrap ?

gor (ก็) means "also". Similar to English language, a sentence starts with the subject of the sentence. That's why you have to say "Phom (I'm) gor (also) sabai dee (fine) khrap", not "Gor phom sabai dee khrap".

In this case, even though "duay" means "also" as well, but it sounds very funny if you use "duay". I am trying to think in which situation you should used "duay" in the sentences. I come up with two common situations that you can use duay. Sometimes, both "duay" and "gor" can be used together in the same sentence. But I don't want to make you confused about it.

(1) If someone say that he is going to do something (or to eat something) and you want to do (or eat) it as well. You could say. "Phom yaarge tum (or kin) dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากทำ (หรือกิน) ด้วย (คน) ครับ

(2) If someone say that he is going to go to somewhere and you want to go there as well. You could say, "Phom yaarge pai dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากไปด้วย (คน) ครับ

ps: I am not sure if you tried to say that when you said "Gor phom sabai dee (dauy) Khrap", your Thai friends understood it. I agree. We (Thais) can guess what you want to say because it can easily guess according to the conversation. However, the example I wrote is the correct way to say. You can ask your Thai friends (if you would like to verify my explanation) whether you should say "Phom gor sabai dee khrap" or "Gor Phom sabai dee khrap" when you wanna say "I am fine also" in Thai.

Hopefully, I can answer your question.

[meadish_sweetball]

PS I have not seen the use of kon (คน) in "Phom yaarge pai dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากไปด้วย (คน) ครับ - what does คน mean in this case or is it a polite/persuasion particle like na or khrap ?

It's just an optional component of the overall expression with ด้วย.

[jing jing]

PS I have not seen the use of kon (คน) in "Phom yaarge pai dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากไปด้วย (คน) ครับ - what does คน mean in this case or is it a polite/persuasion particle like na or khrap ?

It's just an optional component of the overall expression with ด้วย.

Hmm, I always thought it was ด้วยกัน (gan) not คน (kon). Is that entirely incorrect?

[meadish_sweetball]

Both work.

[jeabsun]

Khun Bob,

Thank you very much. I am Thai and I was born in Thailand. I am trying to improve my English. I can speak English without thinking in Thai. However, I still have some problems with pronunciation and English grammar. I always make some mistakes when I speak or write.

In my previous reply, I used kon (คน) , not gun (กัน). It's hard for me to explain it in English. Unlike English language, there is a special type of word called sap-pa-nam สรรพนาม in Thai language. It is something like a unit of thing. For example, in English, you can say "There are three oranges on the table". If you say it in Thai, you need to use "sap-pa-nam" to refer to the unit of orange. For this example, I can say this sentence in Thai as "มีส้มอยู่ 3 ผล บนโต๊ะ". ผล (pon) is the sap-pa-nam of orange. Different things have different sap-pa-nam. For example, sap-pa-nam for car is kan (คัน). Some different things share the same sap-pa-nam. For example, sap-pa-nam for several types of fruit is pon (ผล).

There are two cars in the garage. <--- มีรถอยู่ 2 คันในโรงรถ

Sap-pa-nam of people is "kon". For example, there are five people in that house. <--- มีคนอยู่ 5 คน ในบ้านหลังนั้น

For these examples, those sap-pa-nam cannot be omitted.

Go back the the sentence in my previous reply, "kon" (คน) in that sentence is the sap-pa-nam of "I" which refers to a person. However, in that sentence, it can be omitted. I wish I could tell you why we can omit it. I am not sure if there is any rule about this.

I would say that if you are talking about the number of things or people and it is the important information of the sentence, you need to add sap-pa-nam after the number just like the unit of that thing. For example, I would like to buy 2 toothbrushes <--- you have to say "ผมอยากซื้อแปรงสีฟัน 2 อัน". If you do not put "อัน" after number "2", it would sound a bit strange. But, of course, we can understand it.

Edited March 8, 2007 by jeabsun

[meadish_sweetball]

Unlike English language, there is a special type of word called sap-pa-nam สรรพนาม in Thai language.

The English term for ลักษณนาม is 'classifier'.

Example: The classifier for ส้ม is ลูก.

When counting a noun in Thai, just like khun jeabsun says, we need to know the classifier that goes with that noun.

So, 'Could I please have 1 glass of beer' is ขอเบียหนึ่งแก้ว

(the pattern is noun + numeral + classifier)

[yoot]

สรรพนาม - pronoun

ลักษณนาม - classifier

[jeabsun]

So, should I call it สรรพนาม or ลักษณนาม? I always think that it is called "สรรพนาม". I could be wrong. Oh after I checked it, I now remember it. Pronoun in English is like a group of words to replace noun such as he, she, it, they, her, him, you, and etc. I would say that the examples of pronoun in Thai are เขา เธอ มัน, am I right?

I checked with a dictionary and it seems that classifier is correct word to describe what I was talking about. This may help English native speakers understand more clearly. Voot and meadish sweetbal, thanks for your correction and information. I am sorry for my mistake.

[Johpa]

"Phom yaarge tum (or kin) dauy (kon) khrap" ผมอยากทำ (หรือกิน) ด้วย (คน) ครับ

Sorry, but I don't recall hearing "คน" (transliterated as khon) used in the above manner where it is neither being used as a pronoun nor a classifier.

Maybe I have been out of country too long, but it strikes my Farang ear as being ungrammatical.

Edited March 9, 2007 by Johpa

[Richard W]

gor (ก็) means "also". Similar to English language, a sentence starts with the subject of the sentence. That's why you have to say "Phom (I'm) gor (also) sabai dee (fine) khrap", not "Gor phom sabai dee khrap".

The logic is not quite so neat, though this is a nice way of remembering the rule. Both ก็ [sF]gaw and จึง [MS]jueng 'therefore' are 'postpositive conjunctions', i.e they are normally preceded by the subject. The classicists amongst us may like to compare them to Latin igitur and enim, and several Greek conjunctions, such as gar.