I am at about a low-intermediate level in my Thai language studies, and there is an occasional useful phrase that escapes me:

Here is one I could use some help with:

How does one say, in a situation like giving a Taxi driver directions, the following"

"It is across the street from ... "

Many thanks, people!

Richard in New York

I am at about a low-intermediate level in my Thai language studies, and there is an occasional useful phrase that escapes me:

Here is one I could use some help with:

How does one say, in a situation like giving a Taxi driver directions, the following"

"It is across the street from ... "

Many thanks, people!

Richard in New York

richard,

in a situation like that i would use the preposition for opposite, trong khaam.

hope this helps

I am at about a low-intermediate level in my Thai language studies, and there is an occasional useful phrase that escapes me:

Here is one I could use some help with:

How does one say, in a situation like giving a Taxi driver directions, the following"

"It is across the street from ... "

Many thanks, people!

Richard in New York

richard,

in a situation like that i would use the preposition for opposite, trong khaam.

hope this helps

Yes, trong khaam is also what I would say.

"It is across the street from..." yoo(low tone) trong (mid tone) khaam (falling tone) gab (low tone)...

I am at about a low-intermediate level in my Thai language studies, and there is an occasional useful phrase that escapes me:

Here is one I could use some help with:

How does one say, in a situation like giving a Taxi driver directions, the following"

"It is across the street from ... "

Many thanks, people!

Richard in New York

richard, i'm a pre-novice but this word ตรงข้าม dtrong-kham, the initial consonant is probably more accurately a "dt" sound. you have to listen to some examples to appreciate the difference between a "d" sound and a "dt" sound, but if you don't get it right, the thais will look at you with a puzzled expression. here's a link to some other words starting with this same letter. i've struggled with this myself.

talking dictionary

It is an unaspirated 't' sound. Unaspirated means 'takes no puff of air afterwards'. Aspirated, consequently, means 'takes a puff of air afterwards'.

We can all produce this sound - we do it automatically when we say 'strong' - but then there is an s in front that causes the sound.

Anyhow, if you use this as your starting point, and listen to yourself, trying to pinpoint the difference between how you would pronounce the t in 'trong' (nonsense word for the sake of this exercise). Then try to change the 't' there, which has a puff of air after it, with the 't' sound from 'strong', only this time without the 's' in front.

Articulation:

Place the tip of your tongue on the alveolar ridge, this is the ridge just behind your upper front teeth, making the tongue more tense than when pronouncing 'd'. Make your tongue spring off the ridge, and make sure that no puff of air escapes after the sound.

Hope that helps.

As for the wording, you also sometimes hear

yùu fàng trong khâam kàb ...X... (it is on the opposite side of the road from)

OR

yùu ìik fàng nèung kàb ...X... (it is on the other side of the road from)

"fàng" can mean "side" of the river, and also "side" of the street.

But when you want to say, 'by the side of the road' you would use

khâang thanon (for one object)

and similarly

taam thanon[R] (more like 'along the road' - 'taam' means 'to follow')

It is an unaspirated 't' sound. Unaspirated means 'takes no puff of air afterwards'. Aspirated, consequently, means 'takes a puff of air afterwards'.

We can all produce this sound - we do it automatically when we say 'strong' - but then there is an s in front that causes the sound.

Anyhow, if you use this as your starting point, and listen to yourself, trying to pinpoint the difference between how you would pronounce the t in 'trong' (nonsense word for the sake of this exercise). Then try to change the 't' there, which has a puff of air after it, with the 't' sound from 'strong', only this time without the 's' in front.

Articulation:

Place the tip of your tongue on the alveolar ridge, this is the ridge just behind your upper front teeth, making the tongue more tense than when pronouncing 'd'. Make your tongue spring off the ridge, and make sure that no puff of air escapes after the sound.

Hope that helps.

As for the wording, you also sometimes hear

yùu fàng trong khâam kàb ...X... (it is on the opposite side of the road from)

OR

yùu ìik fàng nèung kàb ...X... (it is on the other side of the road from)

"fàng" can mean "side" of the river, and also "side" of the street.

But when you want to say, 'by the side of the road' you would use

khâang thanon (for one object)

and similarly

taam thanon[R] (more like 'along the road' - 'taam' means 'to follow')

hi all,

following meadish, i'll add another possibility...

เยื้อง ๆ means almost opposite but off to a slight angle.

at the risk of going off on another transliteration tangent, it's pronounced yeuang with what i'd call a high tone (starts mid-high and goes up higher).

you'd say

อยู่เยื้อง ๆ กับ X

yoo yeuang yeuang gab X

it's almost opposite X

all the best.

ps. meadish, as far as ต instructions go, i find the tip of my tongue is between my teeth and it's a point a couple of centimetres from the tip that sits on the alveolar ridge.

Aanon, that is interesting to hear about your ต, it probably proves you can produce the sound in more than one way - I definitely have the tip of the tongue behind the teeth even though it does touch them slightly - and it sounds authentic anyway.

I even recorded it and listened to myself to catch if I had been mispronouncing it, but it really sounds like it should - and for what it's worth, I have never had a Thai mishear any words with ต or had a teacher correct me in this respect.

I just tried your method, and it works too... but feels weird to me. Could be a question of our native language starting points perhaps?

Aanon, that is interesting to hear about your ต, it probably proves you can produce the sound in more than one way - I definitely have the tip of the tongue behind the teeth even though it does touch them slightly - and it sounds authentic anyway.

I even recorded it and listened to myself to catch if I had been mispronouncing it, but it really sounds like it should - and for what it's worth, I have never had a Thai mishear any words with ต or had a teacher correct me in this respect.

I just tried your method, and it works too... but feels weird to me. Could be a question of our native language starting points perhaps?

hi meadish,

starting points might be it. i have tried and can make the ต sound the way you describe too but, as you said, it feels weird! i've been trying ตรี, โต๋เต๋, ต่อ and so on and people around here think i'm going crazy!

i think thais might pick a difference if we tried a string of ตะ ๆๆๆๆๆๆๆ or similar, but obviously our ตs are both working for us!

all the best.

Aanon, that is interesting to hear about your ต, it probably proves you can produce the sound in more than one way - I definitely have the tip of the tongue behind the teeth even though it does touch them slightly - and it sounds authentic anyway.

I even recorded it and listened to myself to catch if I had been mispronouncing it, but it really sounds like it should - and for what it's worth, I have never had a Thai mishear any words with ต or had a teacher correct me in this respect.

I just tried your method, and it works too... but feels weird to me. Could be a question of our native language starting points perhaps?

hi meadish,

starting points might be it. i have tried and can make the ต sound the way you describe too but, as you said, it feels weird! i've been trying ตรี, โต๋เต๋, ต่อ and so on and people around here think i'm going crazy!

i think thais might pick a difference if we tried a string of ตะ ๆๆๆๆๆๆๆ or similar, but obviously our ตs are both working for us!

all the best.

aanon, meadish: another variation is to actually place the tip of the tongue between the teeth - as one does for the English /th/. That might be too weird for some people, but it comes naturally to some Spanish-language speakers, who are more used to rapid movements of the tongue to get around words. (It's also the only way to pronounce the /d/s in "Madrid," in proper Spaniard way; I'm not Spanish, but many latinos also use that method to pronounce beginning and middle /d/s, even if many of us aren't aware that we do it). Try it in saying the Thai word for "turtle," if you're of a mind to, and see how that works. Cheers.

Oops...

I misread aanon's post on pronunciation, before adding my own.

Apropos that: what is your preferred way to say "embarassed," after having committed a faux pas? I tend to go with "naa dtaek" or "kaai naa" - for losing face - but there are so many possibilities.

'naa dtaek' is what I use... but I usually don't worry too much about minor mistakes I make since I know next time it will be somebody else's turn.