Incompetant

[Deserted]

Does Thai have a word for incompetant? A colleague was saying that so-and-so was not good at his work and listed reasons. I said the word in English was incompetant. Do the thais have that word in their language or do they just say tamgnarn mai dee?

[DualSportBiker]

ไม่มีความสามารถ - Mị̀mī khwām s̄āmārt̄h

Does not have capability is the closest word-for-word translation back into English. FYI, Google translate...

[Will B Good]

12 minutes ago, Deserted said:

Does Thai have a word for incompetant? A colleague was saying that so-and-so was not good at his work and listed reasons. I said the word in English was incompetant. Do the thais have that word in their language or do they just say tamgnarn mai dee?

 

 

Might be best to learn how to spell it correctly.....incompetent......not you, the correct spelling.

 

 

 

[BigStar]

The basic "not skillful" is an easy catch-all and not so strong, though a captious Thai might find it insulting anyway.

ไม่เก่ง Mị̀ kèng

[digbeth]

15 hours ago, BigStar said:

The basic "not skillful" is an easy catch-all and not so strong, though a captious Thai might find it insulting anyway.

ไม่เก่ง Mị̀ kèng

ไม่เก่ง is not good, might be able to complete the task but slower, incompetent would mean unable to achieve the task at all

 

ไม่มีความสามารถ  mai mee kwam samart as mentioned above is better "...does not have (the) ability" 

 

ไร้ความสามารถ rai kwamsamart is a more direct translation and of more serious tone  "without ability"

[BigStar]

4 hours ago, digbeth said:

ไม่เก่ง is not good, might be able to complete the task but slower, incompetent would mean unable to achieve the task at all

 

ไม่เก่ง can also be a quasi-polite way of saying unable to achieve the task at all. Nor does incompetent necessarily mean total inability.

 

Formal Thai requires more precise expressions, true.