Rikker Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Another coincidental sound-alike (more or less) is ไฟ / fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cognos Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 Oy...oy...oy.. ( sometimes Thai women say that during sex ) .. i used to live in Belguim, and parents would say... Oy.. oy.. oy !!! to their children when they were angry..ok, not the same.. one is to express pleasure.. the other to express anger.. signed: homonym Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchan42 Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 (edited) There are many words that sound similar but the meanings are different. Classic example ฟัก sound like fu_k in English but it means gourd in Thai, It is also many people's name. Porn or พร: People name in Thai cow pad - ข้าวผัด Poo - ปู Shit - ชิต again people name. "Yet" is a very rude word in Thai means having sex. Edited March 6, 2010 by anchan42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moetownblues Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 kcfmcdonalds whiskey joke airport coke MONEY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bifftastic Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 there are the obvious ones that have been 'transported' over like computer but then that's done in many languages too, modern devices often have the same or similar names in many tongues, 'remote' (leemote) for the remote control for the 'Tee Wee' has obviously come from English. OK seems universal what did surprise me was CaaLott carrot, how did that happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bifftastic Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Oy...oy...oy.. ( sometimes Thai women say that during sex ).. i used to live in Belguim, and parents would say... Oy.. oy.. oy !!! to their children when they were angry..ok, not the same.. one is to express pleasure.. the other to express anger.. signed: homonym you sure it's pleasure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_l Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 (edited) The coincidental sound-alikes are the more interesting I think. จด/jot (down) is kind of one, is "arcade" / อาเขต another one ? I'm not sure if it's derived from เขต in some way, or if it's just an unusual transliteration from English. The more standard transliterations อาร์เคด/อาเคด are also used sometimes. Edited March 6, 2010 by mike_l Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patong Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 playboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiero Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 what I love about these loanwords is that lots of thai's don't relise they are english words to start with. leo-leo why didn't you say U-Turn? I didn't think you'd understand that word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loz Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Gay Ladyboy Sex Short time Pay Money 555+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mauGR1 Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Has anybody mentioned "beer"? I think "furniture" sounds about the same too. There are many words in Thai which come from Hindi-Sanskrit,but apparently not at all from Chinese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonN Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Another coincidental sound-alike; พก/pok to pocket something, carry in the pocket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NADTATIDA1 Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Tissue Air Shampoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard W Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 What did surprise me was CaaLott carrot, how did that happen? A lot of foreign vegetables were introduced in the 19th century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosompoi Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 (edited) the list so far... 7-11 (normally abbreviated to just 7) Air airport Album amazing apartment apple Arcade autistic avocado bar beer brim broccoli broccoli bus cafe (coffee) cake cantaloupe carbohydrate carrot CD cheese Cheeseburger chocolate cholesterol classic cock coke computer condo copy cow pad dangeri (dangerous) Dinosaur discoteque DVD email FARANG (Thai word) farm fashion fi (fire) film football free furniture Gay (also means old in Thai) guitar Hamburger hello ice cream idea idiot jacket jeep joke jot (as in write down) kcf Ladyboy lift lipstick lorry lottery Margarine McDonalds microwave Money monitor motorcycle ok OT (over time) pad Thai Pay Pickup truck pizza plan plastic Plastic Bag Playboy Poo Porn postcard rim romantic Screwdriver sensitive serious Sex sexy Shampoo shirt Shit shopping Short time slope snook (snooker) Sofa spaghetti stamp steak strawberry supermarket Tampon taxi Technology Thai Tissue tractor TV Video (VDO) vitamin Volley web whiskey kilo kilogram Edited March 7, 2010 by gosompoi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosompoi Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 (edited) How about thai words that sound like english but have different meanings than the english words. Just some examples. Thai English men = stinks (smells bad) she = urinate ( to piss or pee) by = go bye bye = go go my = no my = burn sue = buy quart = bottle song = two see = four sip = ten met = meter new = inch kit = think sing = fast wing = run running Edited March 7, 2010 by gosompoi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardie Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Is this a joke? Many of these 'Thai' words are not even legitimate loan-words, just 'farang talk.' 'Screwdriver, airport, sensitive, idiot, plan, joke, idea, cholesterol', etc. all have common and frequently used 'real Thai' counterparts. This may be somebody's idea of fun, but not for anybody who wants to really learn Thai. More interesting to me are Sanskrit-derived words which- via Greek or Latin- may retain a related meaning in English, such as 'pawn' or my favorite, 'eke.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somefellow Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Legitimate words for the list would be those which have different etymologies but happen to sound similar & mean the same thing in both languages. Including a zillion loan words doesnt count..... obviously they will sound alike. One that comes to mind for me is to die in english, or ตาย in thai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmu Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Hardie: This is not a joke! It's really sad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardie Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Okay, S-F and Jimmu, no insult intended to you other guys or the bars you learn your 'Thai' from, but linguistics is no joke. Something more rewarding in the long run might be to actually open the book and learn the language! Then you can have some real fun when you study Khmer and notice the similarities and mutations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munns Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 cake, TV, broccoliVery similar: microwave, shirt, snooker, supermarket Unsure: OT (=overtime - not in my English, and in Thai I'm more acquainted with '[M]tham [M]oo' = 'do overtime') How much you give me (bar Girl ) 10,000 baht not enuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchan42 Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Is this a joke? Many of these 'Thai' words are not even legitimate loan-words, just 'farang talk.' 'Screwdriver, airport, sensitive, idiot, plan, joke, idea, cholesterol', etc. all have common and frequently used 'real Thai' counterparts. This may be somebody's idea of fun, but not for anybody who wants to really learn Thai. More interesting to me are Sanskrit-derived words which- via Greek or Latin- may retain a related meaning in English, such as 'pawn' or my favorite, 'eke.' Hmmm.. show Thais a screwdriver and ask them what it called in Thai. You will be surprised. What is Thai for "cholesterol"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevymac Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finlaco Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 kcfmcdonalds whiskey joke airport coke Different word in Thai for airport. Sanam bin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cognos Posted March 7, 2010 Author Share Posted March 7, 2010 oxygen, hydrogen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cognos Posted March 7, 2010 Author Share Posted March 7, 2010 someone wrote porn, it sounds the same, but in thai it means "dress", or "blessed" in Thai. I know this because my wife's name is Varaporn.. but when I look at her ass, I sometimes think porn in the farang way.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombkk Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Ok This is the most spoken word in the world - no surprise that Thailand is not an exception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchan42 Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 Ok This is the most spoken word in the world - no surprise that Thailand is not an exception. We got an expat here who most of Thai agreed that he has the most difficult accent. (Mind you, he's a standard British accent but people here might be more familiar with American accent.) When he started, many people walked off scratching their head after talking to him and asked "What the h_ll อะไข่ means?". He was saying "OK". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loz Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 Thanks Hardie. saved me a lengthy post. I almost cried when I read Dangeri - Dangerous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rak sa_ngop Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 One that took me a long time to work out. Hint:spoken a lot on New Year's Eve: Cowdow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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