How Do I Say Would In Thai?

[wasabi]

How would I say

I would have been hit by the car if I didn't jump out of the way.

I would like you to visit me at work.

I would go with you but I have a doctor's appointment already.

Thanks.

[oevna]

How would I say

I would have been hit by the car if I didn't jump out of the way.

I would like you to visit me at work.

I would go with you but I have a doctor's appointment already.

Thanks.

The word would has many definitions, and each of your sentences uses a different one. Thai grammar has three different ways of expressing these ideas. I don't know if there is some more idiomatic way of saying some of these things (such as jumping out of the way of a car, or making a doctor appointment), so I have just put those together literally. There might be a more common way of saying them, but the grammar should be correct. Others please feel free to correct or add to this. In my examples, I am using the male first person pronoun ผม phom for I/me. For a female speaker, replace this with ฉัน chan.

I would have been hit by the car if I didn't jump out of the way.

This is expressing a conditional, so you would probably use the construction "ถ้าผม (action) ผมก็ (resulting action)," where the resulting action is in the passive voice, like this:

ถ้าผมไม่ได้กระโดดหนีรถมา ผมก็จะถูกรถชน

thaa phom mai dai kradot nii rot maa phom kor ja thuuk rot chon

(Litarally: "If I didn't flee by jumping from the coming car, I would have been hit by it." In this case, the future tense marker จะ ja is used to express the fact that the car would have hit me.)

I would like you to visit me at work.

This is expressing a wish or desire for someone to do something, so you would probably use "อยากให้คุณ (action)"

อยากให้คุณมาเยี่ยมผมที่ทำงาน

yaak hai khun maa yiam phom thii tham ngaan

(Litarally: I want to have you come visit me at work.")

I would go with you but I have a doctor's appointment already.

This is expressing a probability of something happening in the past or present. Thai also has this, but in this case you would probably express it as a desire to go with them อยากไปด้วย yaak pai duay, and follow it with the conjunction แต่ tae (but), followed by the excuse:

อยากไปด้วย แต่ผมนัดหมอแล้ว

yaak pai duay tae phom nat mor laew

(Literally: "I want to go with you, but I have made an appointment with the doctor already.")

Edited June 1, 2009 by oevna

[Jay_Jay]

How would I say

I would have been hit by the car if I didn't jump out of the way.

I would like you to visit me at work.

I would go with you but I have a doctor's appointment already.

Thanks.

Here are some possibilities that I think get the feeling of 'would' across in spoken Thai:

I would have been hit by the car if I didn't jump out of the way.

ถ้าไม่ได้กระโดดหลบรถก็คงโดนรถชนแน่ๆเลย

tha mai dai kradod lop rot ko kong don rot chon nae nae loey

I would like you to visit me at work.

อยากให้เธอมาหาที่ทำงาน

yak hai thoe ma ha thi tham ngan

I would go with you but I have a doctor's appointment already.

ก็อยากไปนะ แต่เผอิญนัดหมอไว้แล้ว

ko yak pai duay na tae pa-oen nat mo wai laew

Or

เสียดายที่นัดหมอไว้แล้ว มิงั้นก็คงจะไปด้วย

sie dai thi nat mo wai laew mingan ko kong ja pai duay

Edited June 2, 2009 by Jay_Jay

[wasabi]

Thanks for the awesome replies it seems ก็ is key in getting across the concept of would in some cases.

[Rikker]

I agree that "would" covers many separate meanings. But if there's a single word to capture the common idea here, it's จะ, which is not strictly a future tense marker. Rather, it's an "irrealis" marker used for several related grammatical purposes. That's why you regularly see จะ much more than just future.

For your sentences, I think อยากจะ and คงจะ could be used.

อยากจะ = would (i.e. "it is my will that x will happen")

คงจะ = would have (i.e. "x would have happened")

อยากจะให้มาเยี่ยมที่ทำงาน "I'd like you to visit my work"

As seen in the previous suggestions, though, it's not always strictly necessary to get the idea across.

I think it's interesting to look at a list of words จะ appears with (straight from the dictionary):

ที่จะ อาจจะ น่าจะ อยากจะ คงจะ ควรจะ กำลังจะ ถึงจะ มักจะ ถ้าจะ ก่อนจะ จึงจะ ก่อนที่จะ เพื่อจะ พอจะ ต้องการจะ การที่จะ แทนที่จะ เห็นจะ ดูจะ ออกจะ เกือบจะ ย่อมจะ จ้องจะ ใคร่จะ จวนจะ ติดจะ คอยจะ ราวจะ จนกว่าจะ

And if you listen to everyday use by native speakers, it's clear that จะ means a lot more than just future "x will y".

[oevna]

Thanks for that insightful explanation of จะ Rikker. It sums up some confusion I have had over its exact description.