What Does This Mean?

[gizmo01]

I would be grateful for some help. What does this mean?

คุณพี่ขา ยูกาลังถ่ายหนังเรื่องอะไรเหอคะ

It was written by a photo of two of my friends. I have tried a few websites to translate myself, but couldn't make sense of it.

Thanks in advance

[ElZorro]

I would be grateful for some help. What does this mean?

คุณพี่ขา ยูกาลังถ่ายหนังเรื่องอะไรเหอคะ

It was written by a photo of two of my friends. I have tried a few websites to translate myself, but couldn't make sense of it.

Thanks in advance

I think it means "Mr Kha, what is the movie you are shooting about?"

I'm not sure about the meaning of ยู, maybe it's just "you" (many Thais, specially children use "you" and "I" when they speak with a foreigner, as in "you เข้าใจ I ไหม")

กาลัง should be กำลัง

เหอ I don't know what this means

[Briggsy]

It is written in spoken Thai like a comic caption

Something like

'Ere, Wot's dis film ur making about.

I also am not sure about the ยูกาลัง

เหอ is onomatopoeia for a confused question noise, I believe "huh?"

[gizmo01]

Cheers for the help

[aanon]

คุณพี่ขา ยูกาลังถ่ายหนังเรื่องอะไรเหอคะ

girl: so, what's the movie you're shooting?

หนังเรื่องอะไร: what movie?

all the best.

[siamesekitty]

Just to confirm & add to the replies above.

คุณพี่ขา ยูกาลังถ่ายหนังเรื่องอะไรเหรอคะ

Khun p' kha.. what movie are you shooting kha?

comments & corrections:

คุณพี่ = khun p' = respectfully addressing a p' (elder), in this case in a joking way, kinda like "wow, sir.."

ยู = you

กาลัง = กำลัง (doing at the moment) - either a typo, or intentionally spelled as กาลัง, as part of playful speech

เหอ - typo -> เหรอ = หรือ

[ElZorro]

Just to confirm & add to the replies above.

คุณพี่ขา ยูกาลังถ่ายหนังเรื่องอะไรเหรอคะ

Khun p' kha.. what movie are you shooting kha?

comments & corrections:

คุณพี่ = khun p' = respectfully addressing a p' (elder), in this case in a joking way, kinda like "wow, sir.."

ยู = you

กาลัง = กำลัง (doing at the moment) - either a typo, or intentionally spelled as กาลัง, as part of playful speech

เหอ - typo -> เหรอ = หรือ

Thanks Kitty, but I still have a doubt: What does ขา at the beginning stand for? is it an alternative or wrong spelling of คะ or is it the name of the person addressed?

[siamesekitty]

Thanks Kitty, but I still have a doubt: What does ขา at the beginning stand for? is it an alternative or wrong spelling of คะ or is it the name of the person addressed?

Oops, forgot to add that to the list of comments.

ขา = part of the คะ/ค่ะ gang, said playfully

Actually, คะ ค่ะ (formal) / ขา ค่า ค๊า (playful variations) are all used in different situations. I think I'll put together a separate post explaining the usage.. but not tonight, getting sleepy.. *yawn*

[katana]

...Actually, คะ ค่ะ (formal) / ขา ค่า ค๊า (playful variations) are all used in different situations. I think I'll put together a separate post explaining the usage.. but not tonight, getting sleepy.. *yawn*...

I'd be interested in seeing that if you get round to it. The literature can sometimes be a bit sparse on some of the particles.

Edited March 2, 2008 by katana

[Rikker]

More on ขา:

ขา in this sense is the 'vocative' form of the ค่ะ/คะ particles, which is a fancy word to say it's used to address someone. In English we use intonation to achieve the exact same purpose. "John, what book are you reading?" There is a specific intonation on the word 'John' in that kind of usage.

(The reply, if the hearer were a female, would also be ขา.)

So you have:

ค่ะ = affirmative/declarative (statement, e.g. ไม่ไปค่ะ 'I'm not going')

คะ = interrogative (question, e.g. ไปไหมคะ 'Are you going?')

ขา = vocative (addressing someone, e.g. แม่ขา หนูหิว 'Mom, I'm hungry')*

ขา = responsive** (responding to someone addressing you, e.g. child: แม่ขา mother: ขา/จ๋า, child: 'Mom?' mother: 'Yes/Yes, dear')

There are similar set for other particles, but they're sometimes the same words:

จ้ะ = affirmative/declarative

จ๊ะ = interrogative

จ๋า = vocative/responsive

จ้า = stressed affirmative

And the basic male set looks pretty boring:

ครับ

ครับ

ครับ

ครับ

There are plenty of nuanced ways to alter the effect of particles by manipulating stress, vowel length, and so on. These are just the basics about the different forms.

* You can also use คะ here, particularly if it's someone you're not familiar with, like a woman getting a stranger's attention would probably say คุณคะ 'Excuse me, sir/ma'am'

**There is no fancy name that I know of for this type of particle, so I made that up.

Edited March 2, 2008 by Rikker

[Briggsy]

Great post again Rikker.

Often I hear a sort of drawn out ครับ sounding like คร๊าบ to exaggerate politeness. Have you ever encountered this in written form?

[Rikker]

Oh, sure. It's just not "standard" use. But you'll see it all over the web, in comics, character dialogue in fiction.

ครับบบบ

คร๊าาาบ

ครับป๋ม (for ครับผม)

And so forth.

[siamesekitty]

Thanks Rikker. (อิอิอิ ไม่ต้องเขียนแล้ว.. )

[katana]

Anyone know what elongation of the vowel length does to the meaning (or mood) for คะ/ค่า and คะ/ค้า?

[siamesekitty]

Anyone know what elongation of the vowel length does to the meaning (or mood) for คะ/ค่า and คะ/ค้า?

Add playfulness and/or sarcasm, for both ค่ะ/ค่า and คะ/ค้า (sometimes informally spelled ค๊า). The longer the sound is dragged out, the more playful/sarcastic it sounds.

[katana]

Thanks >^..^<

[merck]

Hi Kitty

Can you give an example sentence in Thai where ค้า/ค่า is used in a sarcastic way?

[withnail]

Hi Kitty

Can you give an example sentence in Thai where ค้า/ค่า is used in a sarcastic way?

I get these from my girlfriend, I believe, to indicate that she wasn't listening quite as intently to what I was saying or with quite as much interest as I'd have liked. So ค่า like ค่ะ could be a response to "Do you understand what it is I want you to do?" In the sense of "Yes, I get it. Stop going on."

ค้า in my experience could be placed at the end of "Do you want to go to Central?" When a woman of course means "Take me to Central, now."

I could be confusing these with other particles, but I think this is close.

Edited March 6, 2008 by withnail