Formal Thai

[2009]

Hi guys,

 

What are some common formal, polite Thai words and expressions?

 

Example: "yin dee" (for you're welcome), instead of "mai ben rai"

 

Any other common everyday expressions that have a more formal way of saying them?

 

Cheers

[Pottinger]

Many more formal words, such as ทราบ instead of รู้, กรุณา and (ได้) โปรด for please. Apart from many examples such as these, the addition of particles is generally used to indicate respect and hence formality. For example the นะ you hear frequently on the TV before ค่ะ or ครับ.

[tgeezer]

A word which I say when giving way to people is เชิน.  When almost colliding with someone boarding or alighting public transport, going for the only free seat etc. เชินครับ Cheun <deleted>. 

Yin dee (ยินดี) is a good reply to korb cune  (ขอบคุณ) how does it compare with my ben rai (ไม่เป็นไร) do you think? 
 

[Barnabe]

On 9/28/2020 at 9:03 AM, Pottinger said:

Many more formal words, such as ทราบ instead of รู้, กรุณา and (ได้) โปรด for please. Apart from many examples such as these, the addition of particles is generally used to indicate respect and hence formality. For example the นะ you hear frequently on the TV before ค่ะ or ครับ.

Isn’t นะ used to make it softer, therefore less formal?

 

 

[tgeezer]

22 hours ago, Barnabe said:

Isn’t นะ used to make it softer, therefore less formal?

 

 

นะ is spoken Thai and shows how the speaker feels. According to my modern grammar book นะ is an order or Invitation to do something depending on the นำ้เสียง.   
Examples from a modern grammar book: 

ไปเดียวนี้นะ  

ทีหลังยาทำนะ 
เดินตรงไปทางนี้นะ  

เชิญมาเที่ยวกันอีกนะ 

ขอนำ้ส้มหน่อยนะ 
 
น่ะ  2nd tone: 

เปิดประตูน่ะ 

อย่าแกล้งน่ะ 

อย่ามากวนน่ะ 

 

Then น้า and นา I think that a Thai would hear what was appropriate rather than what was said so they can't be considered definitive therefore not formal I think. 

 

 

On 10/3/2020 at 10:12 AM, tgeezer said:

A word which I say when giving way to people is เชิน.* When almost colliding with someone boarding or alighting public transport, going for the only free seat etc. เชินครับ Cheun <deleted>** 
 

* As you will notice เชิน is spelt wrongly, it should be เชิญ .  No body noticed so I assume nobody knew! 
**Also <deleted> is not what I wrote! 

[ColeBOzbourne]

10 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

No body noticed so I assume nobody knew! 

OK, I wouldn't want you to think I didn't notice this one then. I'm wondering about the word (นำ้) that you wrote up above, as in (นำ้เสียง).  ????

Edited October 6, 2020 by ColeBOzbourne

[tgeezer]

22 hours ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

OK, I wouldn't want you to think I didn't notice this one then. I'm wondering about the word (นำ้) that you wrote up above, as in (นำ้เสียง).  ????

Thanks for noticing. นำ้เสียง กระแสเสียง, คำพูด I don't bother with the second definition in the RID because these particles are supposed to be showing อารมณ์ที่มีอยู่ในใจ 

I see your problem now, I missed out the explanation for นะ sorry about that.
Here it is: ใช้สั่งหรือบังคับหรือแน่นำเชิญชวนแล้วแต่นำ้เสียง 
So since the only way of knowing บังกับ แน่ะนำ or เชิงชักชวญ applied is นำ้เสียง (composition of the sentence, context, what was said) I offered the examples. 
 

There are seldom correct answers because I think that the dialogue depends on the relative status and body language can not be accurately written, perhaps that is what นำ้เสียง means as well, which is why I said the listener would hear what was appropriate and why I don't think that นะ could be formal Thai. 

If you want to play, can you guess what น่ะ shows from the second set of examples? 
 

NB. As you read these you may notice that I wrote ยา instead of อย่า in the second example of นะ So, ทีหลังอย่าทำนะ and อย่าแก้ลงน่ะ are different moods. 

 

Nobody should feel that they must learn these particles because the source of my research is a book written by a professor at Chula. for University students at Chula who one would assume, already speak their native language. 

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by tgeezer

[ColeBOzbourne]

I think I got myself into trouble here. I was actually referring to the tone mark over the vowel in (นำ้เสียง). I figured it was a blooper of copy/paste but thought I'd give you a hard time about it. I appreciate all of your posts, even though most go way over my head.

[johnray]

Rab Pra Taan Ahaan Yang - Have you eaten yet?

Arun Sawad Kap - Good morning.

Nakrian Tangmod Tam Kwaam Kaorob - Everyone show respect to the teacher (only for students)

 

The full name of Bangkok.

 

But people will laugh if you say these.

[tgeezer]

ColeBOzbourne:  I did wonder and initially wrote that it appeared as น+ำ + ้ on both your post and mine, then I decided that it probably wasn't that. 
Why did you think that it was a blooper, hopefully not because I make so many mistakes. I never copy and paste unless quoting posts is copy and paste. 
 

Edited October 7, 2020 by tgeezer

[ColeBOzbourne]

31 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

ColeBOzbourne:  I did wonder and initially wrote that it appeared as น+ำ + ้ on both your post and mine, then I decided that it probably wasn't that. 
Why did you think that it was a blooper, hopefully not because I make so many mistakes. I never copy and paste unless quoting posts is copy and paste.

No, I don't think you make many mistakes nor do you need to copy/paste. I thought it was a blooper because I had copied some reading materials for myself from a PDF file to MS Word and in the paste the tone mark moved to a new position or was lost all together. I figured the same must have happened here. I think I've seen others comment as well that sometimes bloopers occur with C/P.

 

When I copy/pasted นำ้เสียง into the thai-language.com dictionary, I was not able to get the cursor between the letter and the vowel in นำ้ so I could fix the mistake. I can't do it here either. So it makes me wonder, what is the difference on the keyboard between using the key that has ( ำ) together, or using the two separate keys that have ( ํ + า)? I hope that makes sense.

Edited October 7, 2020 by ColeBOzbourne

[tgeezer]

That used to be a common problem caused by typing the tone mark before the vowel or vice versa, but I think that most programmes have sorted it out now. 

[ColeBOzbourne]

Back to the OP's original question. As for 'traditions', I think ขนบธรรมเนียม is the formal, and maybe Royal, version of ประเพณี