If somebody ask me, If I`m feeling good or not, I tell him "Yes I'm fine" and now I want to know if he is also feeling good. I use แล้วคุณล่ะ. At Thai-Language I find this with and also แล้วคุณละ without Mai Eek. It is only a small difference in speaking. But on Pimleur's Thai course they teach "laeo khu la" instead, without the "n"-sound of "khun" and with a low tone on "la". What is the right form? And how to write the "laeo khu la"?

To my non-native speaker ear, ละ sounds a little.....I started to say harsh. Maybe abrupt is more like it. There's just something about ละ that doesn't sound that polite to me. I would prefer แล้วคุณหร์อ ครับ or if I knew the person better, maybe แล้วคุณเป็นยังงัย (ครับ)

Just imho. Need some native speakers to address this issue.

As far as I know ล่ะ is a particle that is used (among other uses) to denote a change of subject and is perfectly polite. You could add krap afterwards or repeat their question...something like แล้วคุณล่ะ, sabaai dee mai krap? (sorry about the karaoke Thai, I'm too slow at typing in Thai script).

The use of the words ละ and ล่ะ is described very succinctly in "ไวยากรณ์ภาษาไทย" by อาจารย์ นววรรณ พันธุเมธา on หน้า 124:

"ละ ใช้ในประโยคถามให้ตอบ ผู้พูดต้องการทราบคำตอบ" She then provides several examples.

"ล่ะใช้ในประโยคบอกให้ทำ มักเป็นการสั่งห้ามล่วงหน้าทั้งที่เหตุการณ์ยังมิได้เกิดขึ้น" Examples are provide here also.

And, there is one more usage:

"ละ ใช้ในประโยคแจ้งให้ทราบ บอกเล่าสิ่งที่คิดว่าผู้ฟังยังไม่รู้ไม่ใช่ในประโยคคำตอบ" And, yet more examples.

This one has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I learned แล้วคุณล่ะ from a book a looong time ago (cant' remember which one), and tried using it frequently, but I have never used it successfully.

Whenever I have tried, it's always been met by being ignored or a slightly odd look from the other person. In every case, it's always been a conversation killer, so I simply stopped using it.

As to whether it was my poor pronunciation or what, I can't say. My wife says it is correct (both the expression and my pronunciation), but I've never heard her or anyone else ever actuallly use it themselves.

EDIT: Oh, I should add, I'm talking about using this expression as a continuation of the สบายดี dialogue. It works perfect well in other contexts (What do you want for dinner? Pizza, how about you - แล้วคุณล่ะ - ? Nooo problem )

Edited July 18, 201015 yr by SoftWater