คุณแพะช่วย!

[klons]

In my attempt to learn Thai, I thought it would be a good idea to try and think in Thai. There have been many occasions in Thailand where I found myself thinking to myself

Holy Cow! . At thailanguage.com I ran across คุณแพะช่วย! which is an equivalent Thai exclamation for Holy Cow!, so I now use that instead. Is there any explanation anyone knows

to คุณแพะช่วย! ? Mr. goat help?

Also, when one knows one has gotten oneself into a situation where the outcome can only be bad, is there a Thai equivalent for "I'm screwed!" ? TIA for any replies.

[SoftWater]

"I'm screwed" or maybe "Oh shit!" - I used to watch Winnie the Pooh cartoons with my kids in Thai. Winnie, who's always getting into such situations, commonly cries 'แย่แล้ว'

[Rikker]

คุณแพะช่วย isn't widely used, in my experience. It's certainly a pun on the more common phrase คุณพระช่วย.

Similar terms are โอ้แม่เจ้า แม่เจ้า พระเจ้าจอร์จ etc.

[Peppy]

"I'm screwed" or maybe "Oh shit!" - I used to watch Winnie the Pooh cartoons with my kids in Thai. Winnie, who's always getting into such situations, commonly cries 'แย่แล้ว'

For the more vulgar register, there's also แย่แล้วกู "I'm screwed!", and ซวยแล้วกู "<deleted> me!".

[yoot]

คุณแพะช่วย!

For my whole life, I have never heard any Thai people say it. Try google and get no hit for this saying either.

Holy Cow!

โอ้โฮ! or แม่เจ้าโว้ย!

Also, when one knows one has gotten oneself into a situation where the outcome can only be bad, is there a Thai equivalent for "I'm screwed!" ?

แย่แล้ว, ซวยแล้ว, งานเข้าแล้ว, ฉิบหายแล้ว

[Rikker]

คุณแพะช่วย!

For my whole life, I have never heard any Thai people say it. Try google and get no hit for this saying either.

There are hits for it on Google, though few. Guess you didn't actually Google it..

[yoot]

คุณแพะช่วย!

For my whole life, I have never heard any Thai people say it. Try google and get no hit for this saying either.

There are hits for it on Google, though few. Guess you didn't actually Google it..

Thanks and sorry for my mistake.

[hiero]

คุณแพะช่วย!

For my whole life, I have never heard any Thai people say it. Try google and get no hit for this saying either.

Holy Cow!

โอ้โฮ! or แม่เจ้าโว้ย!

Also, when one knows one has gotten oneself into a situation where the outcome can only be bad, is there a Thai equivalent for "I'm screwed!" ?

แย่แล้ว, ซวยแล้ว, งานเข้าแล้ว, ฉิบหายแล้ว

how rude are these? like, แย่แล้ว = only with friends?? or ซวยแล้ว = with friends only if it's really serious ฯลฯ

[Peppy]

แย่แล้ว, ซวยแล้ว, งานเข้าแล้ว, ฉิบหายแล้ว  

how rude are these? like, แย่แล้ว = only with friends?? or ซวยแล้ว = with friends only if it's really serious ฯลฯ

From least to most offensive, I'd say:

งานเข้าแล้ว Darn!

แย่แล้ว D*mn!

ซวยแล้ว <deleted>!

ฉิบหายแล้ว Motherf*cker!

Note that the Thai words don't work in all the same contexts as the translations do--I'm just using the English to give you a rough idea of the words' relative vulgarity. I think the แล้ว on the end suggests that something's happened that needs to be rectified, like when you're driving along and suddenly your car sputters and dies because it's out of gas--"Oh, f***ck! / ซวยแล้ว!". This idea of a situation where extra, unwanted work is required is especially true with งานเข้า, whether it has แล้ว attached to it or not.

Also note that, like in my earlier post, you can add "กู" to the end for that extra oomph of personalization; I think of this as being somewhat equivalent to the "me" in "Screw me!", "<deleted> me!", etc., or the "I" in "I'm screwed!" or "I'm f*cked!" (And it's always "กู"--it just doesn't work with any other pronoun.)

Ultimately, I guess, when to use which word, if at all, depends on what kind of friends you have. 

[Murf]

My favoutire is ไอ้เหี้ย ai heer mixed with วะ wa

It has a similar placement to F*uck in an English sentence, or can be slid in where you would expect to find a <deleted>....

What the <deleted> is happening/just happened? เกิดเหี้ยอะไรวะ gert heer a rai wa

What the <deleted> are you doing/did you just do? มืงทำเหี้ยอะไรวะ meung tam heer a rai wa

Definitely ONLY to be used with very close friends, unless you want to have a fight

[Murf]

My favoutire is ไอ้เหี้ย ai heer mixed with วะ wa

It has a similar placement to F*uck in an English sentence, or can be slid in where you would expect to find a <deleted>....

What the <deleted> is happening/just happened? เกิดเหี้ยอะไรวะ gert heer a rai wa

What the <deleted> are you doing/did you just do? มืงทำเหี้ยอะไรวะ meung tam heer a rai wa

Definitely ONLY to be used with very close friends, unless you want to have a fight

[Groongthep]

คุณแพะช่วย isn't widely used, in my experience. It's certainly a pun on the more common phrase คุณพระช่วย.

Similar terms are โอ้แม่เจ้า แม่เจ้า พระเจ้าจอร์จ etc.

I hear คุณพระช่วย fairly often too. I have always taken it to mean something equivalent to "Dear God!" or "God Help Me!" in English

Holy Cow!

แม่เจ้าโว้ย!

Help me out on this one. In English, Holy Cow! is a rather mild and gentle exclaimation. It was made somewhat famous by the late sports announcer Harry Carray who often used it on the air in the days when broadcasting was much more polite than it is today.

The times I have heard แม่เจ้าโว้ย! however, has usually been when I was in the company of Thai men only and talking about sexy women or something sexy about a woman. Not a particularly strong or vulgar statement mind you, but considerably more gruff than the English "Holy Cow"!

I would be interested in yoot and Rikker's take on this.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Groongthep

[Tinkelbell]

คุณแพะช่วย!

For my whole life, I have never heard any Thai people say it. Try google and get no hit for this saying either.

.................................................................................................................................

Second.

Very first time when I read this expression, I only smile to myself. to be honest never heard it before, only can think may be the OP meant to write ' คุณพระช่วย.'

[klons]

คุณแพะช่วย!

For my whole life, I have never heard any Thai people say it. Try google and get no hit for this saying either.

.................................................................................................................................

Second.

Very first time when I read this expression, I only smile to myself. to be honest never heard it before, only can think may be the OP meant to write ' คุณพระช่วย.'

No, I didn't mean to write ' คุณพระช่วย.' I got คุณแพะช่วย! from here:

http://www.thai-language.com/id/208872

[yoot]

คุณแพะช่วย!

For my whole life, I have never heard any Thai people say it. Try google and get no hit for this saying either.

.................................................................................................................................

Second.

Very first time when I read this expression, I only smile to myself. to be honest never heard it before, only can think may be the OP meant to write ' คุณพระช่วย.'

No, I didn't mean to write ' คุณพระช่วย.' I got คุณแพะช่วย! from here:

http://www.thai-language.com/id/208872

I don't know why this saying have been added in their dictionary. The explanation there said "euphemistic exclamation with an attempt to avoid blasphemy and profanity" which is not true in Thai culture. In fact, it's kind of unrespectful to use the term "แพะ" instead of "พระ". From the hits on google, this term is used in sarcastic or playful manner only.

คุณพระช่วย - Oh, my goodness. - This exclamation is used when you witness something shocking. I rarely use this exclamation myself, let alone a pun "คุณแพะช่วย". Thai culture is differnt to western culture for this matter. Thai people who often say "Oh my good", "Oh, my goodness" or even "คุณแพะช่วย!" try to imitate western culture, that's it.

When I witnessed something shocking, I mostly said "ตายแล้ว", "ตายห่าแล้ว".

Khun Groongthep,

Help me out on this one. In English, Holy Cow! is a rather mild and gentle exclaimation. It was made somewhat famous by the late sports announcer Harry Carray who often used it on the air in the days when broadcasting was much more polite than it is today.

The times I have heard แม่เจ้าโว้ย! however, has usually been when I was in the company of Thai men only and talking about sexy women or something sexy about a woman. Not a particularly strong or vulgar statement mind you, but considerably more gruff than the English "Holy Cow"!

You might hear แม่เจ้าโว้ย! often used when talking about sexy women or something sexy about a woman, but in fact, it's just an exclamation of surprise, something unbelievable or something unreasonable.

You can see some examples from this pages;

แม่เจ้าโว้ย!

แม่เจ้าโว้ย เพิ่งเคยทำ จริง ๆ นะเนี่ย

แม่เจ้าโว้ย นี่จินตรา พูนลาภ จริงหรือเปล่า

Hope this helps.

[Rikker]

I agree that คุณแพะช่วย should definitely not be in thai-language.com's dictionary. As Google reveals, it's used by a handful of people as a pun, but it's nowhere nearly common enough to warrant a dictionary entry. Virtually no Thais will have ever even heard it.