แสดง saL daaengM means to act; perform; demonstrate; show; or display according to thai-language.com

i hear it used a lot and my take is, i would translate แสดงว่า to something like "it looks like ..." or "it looks as if ...". would you agree or maybe i've got it wrong?

P.S. i can barely read thai but i don't understand the spelling of แสดง at all! shouldn't it be something like สะแดง?

แสดง saL daaengM means to act; perform; demonstrate; show; or display according to thai-language.com

i hear it used a lot and my take is, i would translate แสดงว่า to something like "it looks like ..." or "it looks as if ...". would you agree or maybe i've got it wrong?

P.S. i can barely read thai but i don't understand the spelling of แสดง at all! shouldn't it be something like สะแดง?

Your translation gives the general idea, that it is often used in situations like "because of x then I'll assume y." eg. I see someone looking very tired and I say, "You look tired, you must not have slept much last night." คุณดูเหนื่อยจัง แสดงว่าเมื่อคืนนอนไม่หลับ ( koon doo nèuay jang sà-daeng wâa mêua keun non mâi làp)

Lexitron dictionary gives the tranlsation of แสดงว่า [V] show (that); signify

Def. ชี้ให้เห็นว่า.

Sample:เด็กที่เป็นหวัดและเจ็บคอแล้วต่อมามีอาการปวดหูแสดงว่าหูอักเสบ ( dèk têe bpen wàt láe jèp kor láew dtòr maa mee aa-gaan bpùat hŏo sà-daeng wâa hŏo àk-sèp)

This translation in applied to my example sentence would be, "You look tired, this signifies/shows that you didn't sleep much last night.

You understand this relationship by giving the it looks like, or it looks as if translation but I think the "show/signify" is a more precise translation.

แสดง saL daaengM means to act; perform; demonstrate; show; or display according to thai-language.com

i hear it used a lot and my take is, i would translate แสดงว่า to something like "it looks like ..." or "it looks as if ...". would you agree or maybe i've got it wrong?

P.S. i can barely read thai but i don't understand the spelling of แสดง at all! shouldn't it be something like สะแดง?

It does seem like it should be spelled สะแดง doesn't it? In Lao that is how they would spell this type of word but Thai typically leaves out the ะ vowel in the first syllable of two syllable words. Someone can probably give you a good rule for this, I guess I just do it by feel. Actually, I found that Lao spelling is much simpler. They don't have all the extra repetitive consonants, especially for final consonants, and the vowels are more straightforward, like this example, or the Thai invisible โ and such.

Not quite the same thing but I remember when I first came to Thailand and was first learning to read I misread the Thai singer ผลผล- as pŏn pŏn when it's actually - pà lá pŏn, how was I supposed to know?

It also lead to an embarrassing mistake where I misread ฤดู - rí-doo =season, (time)period as rá-doo which meant I was going around telling all my friends how in America we have a hot menstruation, and a cold menstruation and so forth (instead of a winter, summer...)

This is also a good source of jokes, like asking for some น้ำ เป ลา ( náam bpày laa ) instead of น้ำเปล่า ( náam bplào )

แสดง saL daaengM means to act; perform; demonstrate; show; or display according to thai-language.com

i hear it used a lot and my take is, i would translate แสดงว่า to something like "it looks like ..." or "it looks as if ...". would you agree or maybe i've got it wrong?

P.S. i can barely read thai but i don't understand the spelling of แสดง at all! shouldn't it be something like สะแดง?

แสดงว่า : in it's most straightforward usage it means "to show that" or "to demonstrate that"

eg.

อาการแสดงว่าจะคลอด (symptoms that show that you're about to give birth)

หลักฐานที่แสดงว่าคุณเป็นคนไทยแท้ 100% (evidence which shows that you're 100% thai)

[obviously these are quite literal translations, just to illustrate the use of the word]

แสดงว่า is often used to start a sentence, and in this case could be translated as:

So, that means....

So, .....

You're saying....?

แสดงว่า เขายังอยู่ที่บ้าน

So, that means he's still at home.

all the best.

แสดงว่า is often used to start a sentence, and in this case could be translated as:

So, that means....

So, .....

You're saying....?

แสดงว่า เขายังอยู่ที่บ้าน

So, that means he's still at home.

all the best.

thanks, that's kind of how it seemed to be used in the few occasions i've noticed it in a sentence.

P.S. i can barely read thai but i don't understand the spelling of แสดง at all! shouldn't it be something like สะแดง?

Thai's basically kept the old Khmer spelling but inserted a vowel to make it pronounceable by Thais.