For novices like myself, here are some words I here frequently on TV. As a matter of fact, while preparing this post last night I heard them all except the first. The post preview looks fine, but down here where I can edit, the words I copied from thai2english are shown as numbers. I will go ahead and post and see what happens.

สดชื่น ( sòt chêun )

be fresh ; be lively ; be vigorous be happy ; be pleased ; be delighted

ธรรมชาติ ( tam-má-châat )

nature ; natural ; creation

ที่ผ่านมา ( têe pàan maa )

preceding ; last

พระเจ้าอยู่หัว ( prá jâo yòo hŭa )

king ; His Majesty

เหมือนเดิม ( mĕuan derm )

as before ; still ; as it was

How about this one then? From a currently running Nescafe commercial. This is my translation. The first line I am pretty sure is - no matter what I do. The second line I'm not sure. Expenditure love to give fun? Anyone?

ไม่ว่าจะทำอะไร รายจ่ายให้รักสนุก

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai raai jàai hâi rák sà-nòok

It's on youtube:

How about this one then? From a currently running Nescafe commercial. This is my translation. The first line I am pretty sure is - no matter what I do. The second line I'm not sure. Expenditure love to give fun? Anyone?

ไม่ว่าจะทำอะไร รายจ่ายให้รักสนุก

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai raai jàai hâi rák sà-nòok

It's on youtube:

Are you perhaps hearing " เร้าใจ [raaoH jaiM] [ADJ] stimulating; arousing; encouraging". The tag line would then be, "Stimulating us to have fun"; the reference is to caffeine. A direct affront to Red Bull!

My Thai wife likes the Nescafe commercial which happened to come on TV again. Apparently I missed the first word which I will probably misspell as as เอออี. uh-ee with rising tone. She asked me if I knew that word and said it meant crazy people. I don't usually ask the wife the meaning of words because I get the same answer. "Huh? Whaaat? I can't understand you." So I try to figure them out myself. The other day she told me to stop trying to speak Thai because I was giving her a headache. But I still enjoy learning to read and listening. Do you know the word uh-ee? Thanks for the help.

My Thai wife likes the Nescafe commercial which happened to come on TV again. Apparently I missed the first word which I will probably misspell as as เอออี. uh-ee with rising tone. She asked me if I knew that word and said it meant crazy people. I don't usually ask the wife the meaning of words because I get the same answer. "Huh? Whaaat? I can't understand you." So I try to figure them out myself. The other day she told me to stop trying to speak Thai because I was giving her a headache. But I still enjoy learning to read and listening. Do you know the word uh-ee? Thanks for the help.

uh-ee is an interjection used to add emphasis of surprise to a response or subject, similar to Wow! or Really! No Way! etc in english. You will hear many of these interjections in everyday Thai and they do seem to sound exagerated within a sentance.

One of the most common ones i hear is Oh-Hoa with 'Hoa being very drawn out in a rising tone.

คุ้มค่า ( kóom kâa )

be worthwhile ; be worth ; be break even ; be enough to cover

Personally, I wouldn't drink anything called Lactasoy, but they say it is delicious and a good value for 10 baht.

อร่อยคุ้มค่า สิบบาท ( à-rôi kóom kâa sìp bàat )

Also on TV I heard this Bao We song. The first line has me stumped. My translation was alone in the sea. But the last word is not ทะเล ( tá-lay ), he does sing the word tóng. What is the last word ท้องเล ? Is it a Thai hillybilly dialect for a body of water? Any assisstance appreciated. Thanks

The line:

โดดเดียวเดียวดายในท้องเล ( dòht dieow dieow daai nai tóng lay )

My vocabulary list:

โดด ( dòht )

alone ; single ; solitary ; lone ; sole jump ; leap ; spring ; skip ; bound ; hop ; bounce keep away from working or ; desert one's post ; take French leave

เดียว ( dieow )

only ; sole ; one only ; single

เดียวดาย ( dieow daai )

be lonesome ; be lonely ; be solitary solitarily

ท้อง ( tóng )

abdomen ; stomach ; belly

The song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elsIjJkdzkU

ท้องเล = 'the sea'. In poetic language ท้อง is added in front of ทะเล and ฟ้า - it does not change the meaning, it is just a poetic embellishment.

I think the shortening of ทะเล into เล is a Southern Thai thing but I could be wrong about this.

Thanks for the help. Just one more for now, as my main goal was to change the color of the embarrassing gray suitcase.

Another popular song going around has a simple 3 word refrain (I thought.) My interpretation was this:

มีเงินข้าว ( mee ngern kâao )

I thought it was I have rice money or money and rice. I consulted with the wife and she said no, they sing I have a

job coming, which I write as this:

มีงานเข้า ( mee ngaan kâo )

My question is, would my interpretation as written in Thai mean anything or would there need to be another word inserted like and or for?

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai "raai jàai" hâi rák sà-nòok

Change to

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai "ploy-jai" hâi rák sà-nòok

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai "raai jàai" hâi rák sà-nòok

Change to

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai "ploy-jai" hâi rák sà-nòok

Thanks for the suggestion. For the word ploy I came up with ปล่อย. Which I think would make the phrase mean - release the spirit to have fun. But I don''t hear that in the ad, so I have to go with rao jai as suggested by Houston.

My Thai wife likes the Nescafe commercial which happened to come on TV again. Apparently I missed the first word which I will probably misspell as as เอออี. uh-ee with rising tone. She asked me if I knew that word and said it meant crazy people. I don't usually ask the wife the meaning of words because I get the same answer. "Huh? Whaaat? I can't understand you." So I try to figure them out myself. The other day she told me to stop trying to speak Thai because I was giving her a headache. But I still enjoy learning to read and listening. Do you know the word uh-ee? Thanks for the help.

uh-ee is an interjection used to add emphasis of surprise to a response or subject, similar to Wow! or Really! No Way! etc in english. You will hear many of these interjections in everyday Thai and they do seem to sound exagerated within a sentance.

One of the most common ones i hear is Oh-Hoa with 'Hoa being very drawn out in a rising tone.

น่าประหลาด is on the spoken thai audios from the 1940's (Mary Haas?) as meaning marvelous. Yesterday on TV there was a couple minutes of English lessons for Thais. One phrase taught was " Wow! that's amazing. " The Thai version used (as I heard it) was:

Oh-Hoa นั้นน่าประหลาดจังเลย (Oh-Hoa nán nâa bprà-làat jang loie)

น่าประหลาด ( nâa bprà-làat )

be strange ; be extraordinary ; be unexpected

จังเลย ( jang loie )

so much ; extremely ; greatly

Is there a handy reference list of these interjections somewhere?

Also on TV I heard this Bao We song. The first line has me stumped. My translation was alone in the sea. But the last word is not ทะเล ( tá-lay ), he does sing the word tóng. What is the last word ท้องเล ? Is it a Thai hillybilly dialect for a body of water? Any assisstance appreciated. Thanks

The line:

โดดเดียวเดียวดายในท้องเล ( dòht dieow dieow daai nai tóng lay )

My vocabulary list:

โดด ( dòht )

alone ; single ; solitary ; lone ; sole jump ; leap ; spring ; skip ; bound ; hop ; bounce keep away from working or ; desert one's post ; take French leave

เดียว ( dieow )

only ; sole ; one only ; single

เดียวดาย ( dieow daai )

be lonesome ; be lonely ; be solitary solitarily

ท้อง ( tóng )

abdomen ; stomach ; belly

The song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elsIjJkdzkU

What is the tranlsation of the last line of the commercial ... I got Nesacafe ... lol

How about this one then? From a currently running Nescafe commercial. This is my translation. The first line I am pretty sure is - no matter what I do. The second line I'm not sure. Expenditure love to give fun? Anyone?

ไม่ว่าจะทำอะไร รายจ่ายให้รักสนุก

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai raai jàai hâi rák sà-nòok

It's on youtube:

Are you perhaps hearing " เร้าใจ [raaoH jaiM] [ADJ] stimulating; arousing; encouraging". The tag line would then be, "Stimulating us to have fun"; the reference is to caffeine. A direct affront to Red Bull!

What is the tranlsation of the last line of the commercial ... I got Nesacafe ... lol

PS: Sorry about the last message I'm still getting use to the forum

Nescafe... สำหรับคนรักสนุก

"Nescafe, for people who love (to have) fun."

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai "raai jàai" hâi rák sà-nòok

Change to

mâi wâa jà tam à-rai "ploy-jai" hâi rák sà-nòok

Thanks for the suggestion. For the word ploy I came up with ปล่อย. Which I think would make the phrase mean - release the spirit to have fun. But I don''t hear that in the ad, so I have to go with rao jai as suggested by Houston.

i agree with AKC -- and your translation using ปล่อย is about right, klons.

Nescafe... สำหรับคนรักสนุก

"Nescafe, for people who love (to have) fun."

Thanks !!!!