I was at a restaurant with a couple of friends, one of whom had a farrang boyfriend (on holiday from his home country) with her and the age-old subject of ladyboys came up. He announced that his opinion on the subject was "he means he and she means she, it's as simple as that".

 

The girls didn't understand what he meant and I was asked to translate. Now of course I could have come up with a lose translation such as "ผู้ชายคือผู้ชายแล้วผู้หญิงเป็นผู้หญิง แค่นั้น". However I was feeling a little mischievous, and I didn't really want to be involved in yet another such conversation anyway, so I told him that it's not possible to directly translate what he wants to. He challenged me as to why and, after a short ponder, I came up with this little explanation of why his original comment could not be translated:

 

"Because in the Thai language he means he, except when it means you, her, or they. And she means she, unless it means you or me."

 

I think I've managed to cover all the major pronoun ambiguities in one small concise phrase. But did I miss anything out?

 

On 11/9/2023 at 6:03 AM, JayClay said:

"ผู้ชายคือผู้ชายแล้วผู้หญิงเป็นผู้หญิง แค่นั้น".

 

Why would you use คือ the first time and then เป็น? The sentences are equivalent right, so shouldn't you use the same word for each?

On 1/21/2024 at 12:35 PM, kikenyoy said:

 

Why would you use คือ the first time and then เป็น? The sentences are equivalent right, so shouldn't you use the same word for each?

 

I'm no expert in Thai language but it's my understanding that คือ and เป็น have the same meaning in this context, as far as I'm aware. So why not use them interchangeably?

 

Trying to think of an English equivalent example from the top of my head (and I'm sure there are better examples) I could say something like "My girlfriend went for a walk into town, while I wandered down to the beach". Same meaning; it just makes the sentence a little less robotic sounding.

 

As I say, I don't consider myself any kind of Thai language specialist (for sure!), so I'm happy to be corrected.

I think the girl didn’t understand the concept of preferred pronouns.