the plot of land next to our condo is being cleared of trees and bushes and tall grass.

i wanted to know why (e.g. is there to be some construction in the near future) and went down to ask the guy on the bulldozer.

i couldnt think of a word or phrase to use for "clearing the land" , so i asked him why he was cutting down the trees , (although he wasnt actually cutting trees) . he told me why it was being done (thankfully , no construction , but just to improve the view down to the beach for the houseowner on the plot behind)

my question is ..... how do you say .. "to clear" ... as in clearing a piece of land?

could i use

ว่าง as in "unoccupied and vacant"

ปลอด as in "free from"

or

โล่ง as in "bare"

thanks for any answers

Believe it or not the word we use in the road construction business is "clearing".

Sorry, don't have any tender forms near me to see how it is spelled or whether it is just a "re-use" of the English word supplied on specs.

Will have a look at some tomorrow & check it out.

Cheers.

These from Lexitron which basically describe the process of clearing land for agriculture:

หักร้าง [V] clear land for farming; clear the jungle

Syn. ถางพง, หักร้างถางพง

Def. ฟันป่าลงให้เตียน.

Sample:สองคนผัวเมียช่วยกันหักร้างป่าแห่งนี้ให้เป็นที่ทำกิน

"The husband and wife worked hard to clear this land to create a place to work."

หักร้างถางพง [V] clear the jungle; clear land for farming; make a clearing in a virgin forest

Def. ฟันป่าลงให้เตียน.

Sample:ชาวไร่ช่วยกันหักร้างถางพงเข้าไปทำมาหากินในป่า

"The farmers helped each other clear the land to make a place where they could farm in the jungle."

หักร้างถางพง [V] clear a path

There is also: บุกเบิก [V] reclaim; open up

Def. ถางป่าเข้าไปให้เป็นไร่นาใช้ประโยชน์ได้.

"To clear jungle in order to make the land available for farming."

I would be interesting to see if these same words would be used by Thais in the context of clearing land to construct homes and buildings.

Any reaction from members of our Thai community?

I always use 'boog beug' and am well understood.

BTW, the same thing happens everywhere; in my area they did that during the night only. They took rubble for filling in the land and it is now up for sale. No wonder townhouses are falling apart...

ถาง

seeing your reply , i think the bulldozer man might have used these words , ถางพง , in his reply to me.

he had no teeth , a cigarette in his mouth and above the noise of the machine it was difficult (impossible) for me to catch unfamiliar words !!

looking in the dictionary this means " to clear land of brush and tall grass ", which describes exactly what he was doing.

Once a year or so, the people here clear all the land around the coconut palms, leaving the trees but slashing and burning all the undergrowth between them, they often call it 'cleaning' the land, ทำ สะอาด .

I would be interesting to see if these same words would be used by Thais in the context of clearing land to construct homes and buildings.

Any reaction from members of our Thai community?

I would say ปรับพื้นที่เพื่อก่อสร้างบ้านและอาคาร.