How Is Loo Yung Spelt In Thai?

[hijiji]

Gin khao loo yung? I'm trying to find the meaning and Thai spelling of loo yung. I get asked this often, I think they are asking if I have eaten already. What is the correct answer to this for "yes" and "no"?

I also got asked "gee wan loo yung", I may have missed a word in there, but I think I was being asked how many days have I been here.

Is there another thread to use for random words like this rather than starting a new thread?

[Kitsch22]

Gin khao loo yung? I'm trying to find the meaning and Thai spelling of loo yung. I get asked this often, I think they are asking if I have eaten already. What is the correct answer to this for "yes" and "no"?

I am pretty sure that you are referring to:

กินข้าวแล้วหรือยัง

which transcribes as: kin khao laew reu yang (have you eaten already or not yet?); it is a standard informal greeting encountered in the North and elsewhere.

[rgs2001uk]

Gin khao loo yung? I'm trying to find the meaning and Thai spelling of loo yung. I get asked this often, I think they are asking if I have eaten already. What is the correct answer to this for "yes" and "no"?

I also got asked "gee wan loo yung", I may have missed a word in there, but I think I was being asked how many days have I been here.

Is there another thread to use for random words like this rather than starting a new thread?

First question,

you were probably asked,

gin khao laew rue yang? have you eaten already or not?

answer, gin laew , have eaten already

or, yang mai gin, not yet.

Second question,

you were probably asked something like,

khun yuu thii muang thai gee wan laew?, how many days have you been in Thailand ?

Third question, honestly dont know, I usually just start a new thread.

[GarryP]

Often the "laew" is dropped in colloquial Thai, leaving "gin khao reu yang" (กินข้าวหรือยัง). It is often used as a friendly greeting and despite the meaning of the question, is not an invitation to join the questioner for lunch if you haven't yet had yours.

[oevna]

I like the หรือยัง (reu yang) construction. It is an abbreviation for หรือยัง(ไม่...) - reu yang (mai ...), which literally means "or still (not ...)" and figuratively means "or stile haven't done ...".

So, the question กินข้าวหรือยัง (kin kaao reu yang) is short for:

กินข้าวหรือยัง ไม่กินข้าว - kin khaao reu yang mai kin khaao - have you eaten or still not eaten?

(Of course, the subject "you" is also not usually spoken.)

Edited November 2, 2009 by oevna

[hijiji]

you were probably asked,

gin khao laew rue yang? have you eaten already or not?

answer, gin laew , have eaten already

or, yang mai gin, not yet.

Nice.

you were probably asked something like,

khun yuu thii muang thai gee wan laew?, how many days have you been in Thailand ?

Nah, there was definately lue yung in there, which got me all flustered as I started thinking about rice.

Often the "laew" is dropped in colloquial Thai, leaving "gin khao reu yang" (กินข้าวหรือยัง). It is often used as a friendly greeting and despite the meaning of the question, is not an invitation to join the questioner for lunch if you haven't yet had yours.

Good stuff, yeah I've only ever been asked the 4 word version

A bit like "how's it goin?", the person asking the question doesn't really give a crap about the answer.

[Tod Daniels]

The O/P could have been asked the question concerning how long he's been here like this;

อยู่ที่เมืองไทยนานหรือยัง (yuu-thii-mueng-thai-naan-ruu-yang).

That phrase is one I've heard quite often when asking how long a person's stayed in thailand.

It is also the one I hear most when someone is asking for what duration have you done a particular endeavor, i.e. studying the thai language;

เรียนภาษาไทยนานหรือยัง (rian-passa-thai-naan-ruu-yang)

I think it is interesting to note how disparate the spellings of หรือยัง are in english transcription by different people. Each person spells out what they "think" they hear in the phrase.

From the way the O/P writes it, he clearly hears a ล (-L-) for the first consonant even though it is spelled with a ร (-R-). This is often the case in colloquial speech where much less distinction is put on differentiating these two thai letters clearly, yet thais understand it universally. This also highlights the perils of relying on transcription to write what you hear in thai as foreigners can sometimes be off on a wild goose chase trying to find a word which they hear one way, yet is spelled completely different.

While slightly off-topic:

I find the different casual greeting phrases used by the thais quite interesting. The phrase กินข้าวหรือยัง (gin-khao-ruu-yang) is still very much in use today, just as ไปไหน (bai-nai) and ไปไหนมา (bai-nai-ma) are as well. This earlier phrase (rarely heard anymore) อาบน้ำหรือยัง (ab-nam-ruu-yang) was used in days gone by. The phrase เป็นอย่างไงบ้าง (bphen-yang-ngai-bang) or even it’s much abbreviated counterpart; ไงบ้าง (ngai-bang) are all still in use.

FWIW: สวัสดี (sa-wat-dii) is a relative newcomer and it wasn’t until the government decided to make it the “civilized” greeting in the mid 1930’s, and a field marshal decided to make it the “official” greeting in 1943 that it became so pervasive in the thai language.

[GarryP]

The "bai nai" or "bai nai mah" greetings used to get to me many years ago, especially from people you do not know very well. The question seemed very impolite. Now, I am so used to it, I never give it a second thought when asked where I am going.

When I was a kid my father would always answer me with "to see a man about a dog", a polite way of saying "none of your business", which does not work in Thai and they will give you funny looks if you say this.