I thought this would be a good topic for one of the permanent pinned topics. Although I can't think of many at the moment, ไม่เป็นไร is a great example because if you look up those words in a dictionary, it translates to "not be what", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense and the phrase has a much deeper meaning than that. Most people are familiar with that one and have a pretty good idea of what it means, but there have been other idioms I have heard, or received in Thai emails, that I simply could not understand, where the words seem to have nothing to do with the actual intended meaning. It is one of the biggest barriers for me to understand everyday spoken Thai. I thought it would be a great idea to have a running list of Thai idioms and what they mean. I have a few examples of English idioms that would certainly confuse any non-English speaking person, and any of us would admit that we have heard Thai idioms that we just didn't understand.

Some English examples of idioms are:

take it with a grain of salt

odds and ends

jump the gun

barking up the wrong tree

burning your bridges

bury the hatchet

every dog has his day

Great suggestion, Lonely American. Welcome to Thaivisa, where you will hopefully not feel so lonely anymore.

Since we already have a long-running thread with idioms and sayings, I pinned it here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49928

Closed.