Indefinite Pronoun

[Jeddah Jo]

Sorry if this has been done before, I did a search but could not see anything.

I was wondering in Thai how to begin a sentence with the indefinite pronoun one i.e say you wanted to say

One needs to be careful...

Normally I would say something like

คุณต้องการระวัง

But I am fed up with using คุณ all the time as it is not quite the same in my English speaking mind anyway.

Can you just use คน by any chance? How do Thais do it?

TIA

JJ

[5tash]

It really depends on who you are speaking with.

You could use the more respectful ท่าน in more formal situations,

เธอ for intimate/informal,

แก and มึง if you wanted to be impolite,

พวกคุณ if you were addressing more than one person.

[Richard W]

I was wondering in Thai how to begin a sentence with the indefinite pronoun one i.e say you wanted to say

One needs to be careful...

Normally I would say something like

คุณต้องการระวัง

But I am fed up with using คุณ all the time as it is not quite the same in my English speaking mind anyway.

Can you just use คน by any chance? How do Thais do it?

In speech I'd simply omit the initial pronoun - ต้องระวัง.

[aanon]

It really depends on who you are speaking with.

You could use the more respectful ท่าน in more formal situations,

เธอ for intimate/informal,

แก and มึง if you wanted to be impolite,

พวกคุณ if you were addressing more than one person.

you could use จงระวัง (ought to be careful) without any pronoun. or ควรระวัง, same story.

you can use คนเราจะต้องระวัง to mean 'people must be careful'. คนเรา usually used in slightly 'philosophical' statements about people (that is, broad general statements about the nature of humans, for example 'we're all born with nothing').

if you could give a full example sentence, maybe that will help in thinking of further options.

all the best.

[withnail]

Depending on the context it would also be appropriate to use more specific phrases (as you would in English) e.g. Children must be careful when talking to strangers. It would also be appropriate and I'd imagine a little more formal in sound to say we edit: I've just fully read aanon's post and have realised that he already said this.

I find the question a little bit odd to be honest as I can't for the life of me imagine a situation where I would naturally prefer to use the pronoun one over anything else. If it's an issue of formality though I would guess aanon's idea covers this. You could even add a time phrase like ในปัจจุบันนี้คนเราทุกคนต้องระวัง...

[Jeddah Jo]

I like

ในปัจจุบันนี้คนเราทุกคนต้องระวัง

I was really just wondering in English, when you use the word you, often times you are not referring to the person you are talking to directly but everybody i.e

You really need to be careful nowadays.

is basically the same as

People really need to be careful nowadays.

is basically the same as the rather stilted

One really needs to be careful nowadays.

I was basically just wondering if Thais think of the word คุณ the same way or does it really only mean the person you are talking with.

Guess will just have to use คนเราทุกคน from now on to avoid confusion

Thanks for feedback. Sorry I am not a very cunning linguist.

[aanon]

one more idea:

if you're not making the sort of 'philosophical' statement suitable for คนเรา, just using เรา is another good option:

eg.

ถ้าเราจะซื้อบ้านนะ เราจะต้องนึกถึงเรื่องทำเล และต้องดูประวัติการซื้อขายของบ้านหลังนั้นด้วย

if you're going to buy a house, you have to consider the location and check its history of sales too

note: the same sentence might also mean "if i was going to buy a house, i would....", depending on context. เรา can actually mean you or me or us or 'one', depending on the context.

all the best

I like

ในปัจจุบันนี้คนเราทุกคนต้องระวัง

I was really just wondering in English, when you use the word you, often times you are not referring to the person you are talking to directly but everybody i.e

You really need to be careful nowadays.

is basically the same as

People really need to be careful nowadays.

is basically the same as the rather stilted

One really needs to be careful nowadays.

I was basically just wondering if Thais think of the word คุณ the same way or does it really only mean the person you are talking with.

Guess will just have to use คนเราทุกคน from now on to avoid confusion

Thanks for feedback. Sorry I am not a very cunning linguist.

[siamesekitty]

for most of the cases that come to mind (mostly informal situations), we omit the pronoun.

eg. cooking class instructor: ต้องใส่น้ำปลา 2 ช้อนชา... ([you] have to put in 2 teaspoons of fish sauce)

also, notice in some of the translations I've posted here in the past, in Thai->English translations I'll have something translated as [you/me/he/she]. That's because in the original Thai content there was no pronoun, leaving the meaning open for interpretation based upon the situation.