Mispronouncing Thai

[4u2mad]

Hi, a long time ago there was a post on this site about foreigners mispronouncing Thai, and the amusing situations it caused. My Thai hasn't got a lot better, still getting in trouble. The latest "Kor doot" instead of "Kor Toot" whilst trying to get off the bus. Evidently I was telling people I farted, instead of "excuse me". C'on guys I need a good laugh!

[rak sa_ngop]

Heard 3 days ago:

Suk san wanke_r instead of wan kert for Happy Birthday!

I think this was a mispronounciation ha ha!

[xen]

Suay and Suay - beautiful and unlucky. I still can't use the right intonation in the appropriate situation

[Tod Daniels]

Easily the two most mangled and mispronounced thai words by foreigners here hafta be;

เกาะ - Island - gaw^L (often sa-pelled in engrish as Koh)

สิงห์ - The beer sa-pelled in engrish as Singha - sing^R (even though the ‘ha’ is silent).

In other news I sat a low intermediate thai language class a couple months ago where the teacher was going around the room asking students what they'd done here that they had never done before. One foreign gentleman said in thai; "Yesterday was the first time I ever ‘shat’ a moto-cy." Obviously mispronouncing the word ขี่ - to ride upon - khee^L with the word ขี้ - feces, waste - khee^F. To the teachers credit she asked in a totally deadpan voice, "Did it hurt?" When the gentleman gave a puzzled look, the teacher went into the toning error of the word.

This then rapidly evolved into a lively discussion of similarly sounding but dissimilarly toned thai words like; ชี้ - point with your finger - chee^H, ฉี่ informal for urinate - chee^L, then the three 'suea' words mat - เสื่อ, shirt - เสื้อ and tiger - เสือ. Which I learned to remember early on as; mats lay on the floor ( seuua^L) Low tone; shirts are pulled down over your head (seuua^F) Falling tone; and tigers jump up at you when they attack (seuua^R) Rising tone.

The we went thru the 'khao' words (which I won't bother spelling in thai ) like; enter, news, rice, white, foul odor, he-she-they, knee, animal horn, and then finally the 'mai' words like; new, wood, not, widow, burn, silk/question word, warrant/notice. It was a very enjoyable hour in my opinion.

One thing I will note. It is my experience that vowel length in a spoken thai word is just as important as the correct tone, maybe even more so, (as thais for the most part are pretty tone tolerant). The habit of native english speakers to draw out the pronunciation of a word like we do in english to enhance understanding will put someone further off the mark by changing the vowel length than saying the word with the correct vowel length and the wrong tone. There’s just no way you can change the duration of a thai vowel without going way off script.

Still, I’m sure the stories are endless about the way foreigners have mangled and mispronounced this IMHO pretty darned difficult language.

[legstrap]

Whilst talking to my now, Mother In Law, a couple of years back on Skype, she asked me how I was feeling (in Thai of course).

I replied back that I was 'Ngeian' = Horny...instead of 'Neuy' = Tired

Whoops

[cobyau]

I am on my work computer and dont have thai installed on here so I cant type the Thai characters for you all.

But in my opinion the funniest mispronunciation by far! is when I hear my fellow Martial Arts appreciating farangs say They train Muay Thai ....

Muay - Flat/Middle tone = boxing

Muay - High tone = half chinese/half thai girl

Muay - Rising tone = PUBIC HAIR <----------------------

so when alot of farang say they "like muay thai" and use a rising tone by accident (ALOT do this) .... they are saying they like Thai pubic hair ..

I suppose it wouldnt be much of a lie from most people saying it accidently .. LOL

[Peppy]

Muay - Flat/Middle tone = boxing

Muay - High tone = half chinese/half thai girl

Muay - Rising tone = PUBIC HAIR   <----------------------

The difference between the last two is actually the vowel sound, not the tone:

muay (หมวย) - rising tone - Chinese for "younger sister", equivalent to the Thai "Nong", commonly used as a nickname or to refer to a younger woman of Chinese heritage

moy (หมอย) - rising tone - a vulgar word for pubic hair

[GarryP]

When I first arrived here more than two decades ago, I was given some very strange looks and refused service at one restaurant when I attempted to ask for a banana milk shake. I found later I had been asking for a semen (or more correctly penis water) shake.

[rak sa_ngop]

Muay - Flat/Middle tone = boxing

Muay - High tone = half chinese/half thai girl

Muay - Rising tone = PUBIC HAIR   <----------------------

The difference between the last two is actually the vowel sound, not the tone:

muay (หมวย) - rising tone - Chinese for "younger sister", equivalent to the Thai "Nong", commonly used as a nickname or to refer to a younger woman of Chinese heritage

moy (หมอย) - rising tone - a vulgar word for pubic hair

Reminds me of learning Laos at the Dong Dock University where the professors got a big kick out of Japanese students who had a tendency to instead of saying เมือยหลาย (very tired in Laos) would mispronounce it as หมอยหลาย (lots of pubic hair). It was a bit of a standing joke that many farangs copied on purpose to get a laugh.

[Tod Daniels]

In the 'fox-paws' <sic> faux pas foreigners have related on this thread so far, it is apparent that at least most of us suffer a LOT from mother language interference in regards as how something is actually pronounced in thai, and what we as foreigners 'hear' when a thai says a word .

In reading the some of the most recent entries about the confusion between the word banana - กล้วย - gluay^F, and (what I believe the O/P was referring to), the vulgar word for penis ควย - khuay^M, it is clear those two words have, in actuality, very little in common. They neither share the same initial consonants, (in fact banana is made up of the compound consonant กล; pronounced like a 'gl' in engrish) while the second ค is most definitely a 'k' sound, nor do they share the same tone, (one being a falling tone and the other a mid tone).

I still find the thread amusing, especially given the HUGE number of 'fox-pawz' I routinely make (or appear to make) when sitting outside my apartment gate on the side of the soi with my thai friends.

I'll say something in thai, they'll look at me like I'm crazy. I'll say the phrase again, then once again, and finally someone will shout out, what to me, sounds EXACTLY like I think I had been saying; then everyone will understand, laugh and joke about it .

Unfortunately (mostly for the thais you speak to early on ) the only way to increase the understandability of your spoken thai is to actually speak thai to thais.

I for one am thankful I have such great thai friends . They are fairly close to my age (+/- 6 years or so), we share similar interests; current events in thailand, sports, politics, pretty women, and we have similar educations). They are both patient as well as pretty darned good drinkers too !

It seems to help us both get thru the language barrier(s) in regards to them speaking english and me speaking thai. Although we inevitably reach a point of diminishing returns after imbibing a few too many bottles of Blend 285, SangSom, or on occasion even that vicious red colored YaaDong.

Edited November 4, 2010 by tod-daniels

[mca]

I still have to take a millisecond pause in my mind to think if I'm going to say " grandfather " or " crab "

[bhoydy]

Having only recently mastered the ป.ปลา (bpor bplaa)sound i avoided asking if such a person was someone's aunt ป้า (bpaa), for a long time, because it always came out like i was asking if that person was a crazy loony บ้า (baa).

[Rikker]

Having only recently mastered the ป.ปลา (bpor bplaa)sound i avoided asking if such a person was someone's aunt ป้า (bpaa), for a long time, because it always came out like i was asking if that person was a crazy loony บ้า (baa).

I've met plenty who are both.

[singa-traz]

A few month ago, the in-laws didn't believe me when I told them I saw a "green rat" in the garden.

[Richard W]

Heard 3 days ago:

Suk san wanke_r instead of wan kert for Happy Birthday!

I think this was a mispronounciation ha ha!

One London Thai restauranteur used to warn his Thai staff not to say it to customers lest the final /t/ was overlooked. The consequences of such a misunderstanding might have been rather unfunny.

[someoneelse]

สิงห์ - The beer sa-pelled in engrish as Singha - sing^R (even though the 'ha' is silent).

Yet every time I ask for a "sing" beer at Thai restaurants in Australia, and at many farang oriented places in Thailand, they say "sing-ha" back at me.

*sigh*

[appropriate]

When I see a westerner mispronuncing something and the Thai doesn't understand, the westerner usually repeats it louder and louder.

It's just as well, because Thais understand LOUD mispronounced Thai.

[Tod Daniels]

When I see a westerner mispronuncing something and the Thai doesn't understand, the westerner usually repeats it louder and louder.

It's just as well, because Thais understand LOUD mispronounced Thai.

That particular trait of ramping up the volume when a thai doesnt understand a person the first go round seems to predominantly come from westerners. Althugh I hear it more from foreigners speaking engrish to thais than vice versa. It is easily one of the most frustrating things I hear foreigners do here .

I can't count how many times a foreigner will say something in what ever passes for engrish in their native accent, have a thai stare blankly, and then the foreigner will repeat it two or three more times with the volume increasing each time until theyre almost shouting .

On more than one occasion in places I frequently go and where I know the sales staff really well, I've butted in when foreigners do this. Ill usually say, "Hey, how about bringing the volume down a notch or two there bud. They couldn't understand you speaking in a normal volume, they're certainly not gonna understand you when you shout at 'em!!" Sometimes the foreigners I admonish in this way get quite pissy, but for the most part they sullenly dial it back.

I've had the same situation when foreigners 'think' they're speaking thai, only to have a thai give them the 'deer in the headlights' look. Now it is my experience this type of situation usually stems from one of two root causes;

1.) Firstly, the thai being addressed wasn't expecting a foreigner to actually speak something which even resembled thai. They had already seen a foreigner approaching and adjusted their ear reception to the receive engrish side of the dial . Therefore the thai didn't recognize they were hearing thai as they were listening for engrish. .

This situation occurs quite a lot, especially in 'cold' conversations. These are situations where the foreigner will go up to a thai and ask what ever it is theyre wanting to ask. Seeing as the foreigner didn't do what I call the 'thai-language-dance' FIRST, the thai doesnt always understand what was said.

What is exactly the thai-language-dance? That's where you go up to an unfamiliar thai youre going to engage in conversation; say hello, ask the mundane pleasantry question(s), possibly ask if they can speak engrish, and then finally get around to asking in thai if they can help you.

This doesn't take a lotta time, in fact most of it is just 'frozen phrases (things every thai says/hears countless times a day) . This serves as an 'ice breaker' letting the thai youre speaking to know several things;

A.) you can speak something which is at least close to thai.

B.) letting the thai hear your accent, (because yes, as a foreigner speaking thai here, believe me when I say, you most definitely DO speak thai with a foreign accent!)

Now once a thai has his head wrapped around your accented thai, you can move on to actually asking them what you needed to know in the first place.

2.) The second BIG problem occurs when foreigners intermix thai and english words in a sentence. This arises from a variety of reasons, two of which are;

A.) Foreigners lacking sufficient vocabulary or concepts of sentence structure in thai to actually speak with anything resembling clarity or cohesiveness.

B.) From a foreigner living with a thai significant other where that type of intermixed language (engrish-thai thai-engrish) is spoken as the norm in the household often leading the foreigner into mistakenly believing theyre speaking something any thai would understand.

I was reading a thai book by Andrew Biggs which goes over methods for thais to speak english like foreigners. He has an entire chapter written warning his readers NOT to mix the two languages together. His great examples are of some interviews on thai t/v with the thai superstars or 'dara where they throw in a word or two in english whilst speaking thai to the interviewer just to show off that they are 'inter' (or can speak engrish)...

The above things mentioned can and do lower how a normal run-'o-the-mill thai you're likely to encounter here and engage in conversation understands you.

Whenever Im in doubt (which I seem to be frequently);

I stick to either all engrish or all thai.

I do the 'thai-language-dance' with them first to break the ice with unfamiliar thais.

And by all means I follow the acronym; K-I-S-S (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

Believe me I make no assertions that Im a frickin thai language pundit here . I offer out my observations after WAY too many hours spent listening to thai foreign interactions.

You mileage can and will vary, deal with it.

Edited November 7, 2010 by tod-daniels

[sfokevin]

I seem to remember a funny story of a Farang who had a banana tree in the front yard...

[rak sa_ngop]

When I see a westerner mispronuncing something and the Thai doesn't understand, the westerner usually repeats it louder and louder.

It's just as well, because Thais understand LOUD mispronounced Thai.

That particular trait of ramping up the volume when a thai doesn’t understand a person the first go round seems to predominantly come from westerners. Althugh I hear it more from foreigners speaking engrish to thais than vice versa. It is easily one of the most frustrating things I hear foreigners do here .

I can't count how many times a foreigner will say something in what ever passes for engrish in their native accent, have a thai stare blankly, and then the foreigner will repeat it two or three more times with the volume increasing each time until they’re almost shouting .

On more than one occasion in places I frequently go and where I know the sales staff really well, I've butted in when foreigners do this. I’ll usually say, "Hey, how about bringing the volume down a notch or two there bud. They couldn't understand you speaking in a normal volume, they're certainly not gonna understand you when you shout at 'em!!" Sometimes the foreigners I admonish in this way get quite pissy, but for the most part they sullenly dial it back.

I've had the same situation when foreigners 'think' they're speaking thai, only to have a thai give them the 'deer in the headlights' look. Now it is my experience this type of situation usually stems from one of two root causes;

1.) Firstly, the thai being addressed wasn't expecting a foreigner to actually speak something which even resembled thai. They had already seen a foreigner approaching and adjusted their ‘ear reception’ to the ‘receive engrish’ side of the dial . Therefore the thai didn't recognize they were hearing thai as they were listening for engrish. .

This situation occurs quite a lot, especially in 'cold' conversations. These are situations where the foreigner will go up to a thai and ask what ever it is they’re wanting to ask. Seeing as the foreigner didn't do what I call the 'thai-language-dance' FIRST, the thai doesn’t always understand what was said.

What is exactly the ‘thai-language-dance’? That's where you go up to an unfamiliar thai you’re going to engage in conversation; say hello, ask the mundane pleasantry question(s), possibly ask if they can speak engrish, and then finally get around to asking in thai if they can help you.

This doesn't take a lotta time, in fact most of it is just 'frozen phrases’ (things every thai says/hears countless times a day) . This serves as an 'ice breaker' letting the thai you’re speaking to know several things;

A.) you can speak something which is at least close to thai.

B.) letting the thai hear your accent, (because yes, as a foreigner speaking thai here, believe me when I say, you most definitely DO speak thai with a foreign accent!)

Now once a thai has his head wrapped around your accented thai, you can move on to actually asking them what you needed to know in the first place.

2.) The second BIG problem occurs when foreigners intermix thai and english words in a sentence. This arises from a variety of reasons, two of which are;

A.) Foreigners lacking sufficient vocabulary or concepts of sentence structure in thai to actually speak with anything resembling clarity or cohesiveness.

B.) From a foreigner living with a thai significant other where that type of intermixed language (engrish-thai thai-engrish) is spoken as the norm in the household often leading the foreigner into mistakenly believing they’re speaking something any thai would understand.

I was reading a thai book by Andrew Biggs which goes over methods for thais to speak english like foreigners. He has an entire chapter written warning his readers NOT to mix the two languages together. His great examples are of some interviews on thai t/v with the thai superstars or 'dara’ where they throw in a word or two in english whilst speaking thai to the interviewer just to show off that they are 'inter' (or can speak engrish)...

The above things mentioned can and do lower how a normal run-'o-the-mill thai you're likely to encounter here and engage in conversation understands you.

Whenever I’m in doubt (which I seem to be frequently);

I stick to either all engrish or all thai.

I do the 'thai-language-dance' with them first to break the ice with unfamiliar thais.

And by all means I follow the acronym; “K-I-S-S” (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

Believe me I make no assertions that I’m a frickin’ thai language pundit here . I offer out my observations after WAY too many hours spent listening to thai foreign interactions.

You mileage can and will vary, deal with it.

I cerainly agree with sticking to one langauage. So many times I haven't a clue what the Thai person is saying in Thai to me, but when I ask for repeats (usually more than one) there are English words in the sentence, poorly pronounced and in a Thai accent.

Also I wholeheartedly agree about 'breaking the ice' with commom introductions in Thai to let the Thai person know that you are speaking Thai with them.

And also what I hate is the show off farangs who have to shout their usually excreable Thai to let everybody know how great they are. Unfortunately these farangs are in denial and think they can speak Thai really well (because every Thai person tells them that). Ughhhhh!!

[rametindallas]

When I see a westerner mispronuncing something and the Thai doesn't understand, the westerner usually repeats it louder and louder.

It's just as well, because Thais understand LOUD mispronounced Thai.

That particular trait of ramping up the volume when a thai doesn't understand a person the first go round seems to predominantly come from westerners. Althugh I hear it more from foreigners speaking engrish to thais than vice versa. It is easily one of the most frustrating things I hear foreigners do here .

I can't count how many times a foreigner will say something in what ever passes for engrish in their native accent, have a thai stare blankly, and then the foreigner will repeat it two or three more times with the volume increasing each time until they're almost shouting .

On more than one occasion in places I frequently go and where I know the sales staff really well, I've butted in when foreigners do this. I'll usually say, "Hey, how about bringing the volume down a notch or two there bud. They couldn't understand you speaking in a normal volume, they're certainly not gonna understand you when you shout at 'em!!" Sometimes the foreigners I admonish in this way get quite pissy, but for the most part they sullenly dial it back.

I've had the same situation when foreigners 'think' they're speaking thai, only to have a thai give them the 'deer in the headlights' look. Now it is my experience this type of situation usually stems from one of two root causes;

1.) Firstly, the thai being addressed wasn't expecting a foreigner to actually speak something which even resembled thai. They had already seen a foreigner approaching and adjusted their 'ear reception' to the 'receive engrish' side of the dial . Therefore the thai didn't recognize they were hearing thai as they were listening for engrish. .

This situation occurs quite a lot, especially in 'cold' conversations. These are situations where the foreigner will go up to a thai and ask what ever it is they're wanting to ask. Seeing as the foreigner didn't do what I call the 'thai-language-dance' FIRST, the thai doesn't always understand what was said.

What is exactly the 'thai-language-dance'? That's where you go up to an unfamiliar thai you're going to engage in conversation; say hello, ask the mundane pleasantry question(s), possibly ask if they can speak engrish, and then finally get around to asking in thai if they can help you.

This doesn't take a lotta time, in fact most of it is just 'frozen phrases' (things every thai says/hears countless times a day) . This serves as an 'ice breaker' letting the thai you're speaking to know several things;

A.) you can speak something which is at least close to thai.

B.) letting the thai hear your accent, (because yes, as a foreigner speaking thai here, believe me when I say, you most definitely DO speak thai with a foreign accent!)

Now once a thai has his head wrapped around your accented thai, you can move on to actually asking them what you needed to know in the first place.

2.) The second BIG problem occurs when foreigners intermix thai and english words in a sentence. This arises from a variety of reasons, two of which are;

A.) Foreigners lacking sufficient vocabulary or concepts of sentence structure in thai to actually speak with anything resembling clarity or cohesiveness.

B.) From a foreigner living with a thai significant other where that type of intermixed language (engrish-thai thai-engrish) is spoken as the norm in the household often leading the foreigner into mistakenly believing they're speaking something any thai would understand.

I was reading a thai book by Andrew Biggs which goes over methods for thais to speak english like foreigners. He has an entire chapter written warning his readers NOT to mix the two languages together. His great examples are of some interviews on thai t/v with the thai superstars or 'dara' where they throw in a word or two in english whilst speaking thai to the interviewer just to show off that they are 'inter' (or can speak engrish)...

The above things mentioned can and do lower how a normal run-'o-the-mill thai you're likely to encounter here and engage in conversation understands you.

Whenever I'm in doubt (which I seem to be frequently);

I stick to either all engrish or all thai.

I do the 'thai-language-dance' with them first to break the ice with unfamiliar thais.

And by all means I follow the acronym; "K-I-S-S" (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

Believe me I make no assertions that I'm a frickin' thai language pundit here . I offer out my observations after WAY too many hours spent listening to thai foreign interactions.

You mileage can and will vary, deal with it.

Thank you for the very helpful post. I love how so many Thais are willing to help me with my language skills but was mildly surprised when a waiter at DM airport complimented me on my usage of Thai slang. I didn't know I was speaking slang and wouldn't have if I knew better. My bugaboo word is Glie, meaning either 'close' or 'far' depending on the tone used. I asked somone directions (in Thai) to my hotel and after they gave me the directions, which were simple, I asked, "Glie mai"? and they replied, ""Glie". I hailed a taxi and he took me the five blocks to my hotel. I could have walked. I also have witnessed farang hearing Thai speak English with Thai pronunciation e.g. cola, burger, comuter, etc., where the last sylable is high tone, or i' for ice, motorcy for motorcyle, 'ber for number, and the farangs are not understanding 'Bangkok English', My Thai GF still laughs about when I wanted to buy some sunglasses (without her) and asked for 'wentha atit' i.e. glasses of the sun, or so I thought. It is correctly said, 'wentha gun dad'. What fun.

Edited November 7, 2010 by rametindallas

[Tod Daniels]

While this is more than a little OFF-TOPIC: I still feel it is of high value to anyone attempting to speak the thai language with thais.

<SNIP>I wholeheartedly agree about 'breaking the ice' with commom introductions in Thai to let the Thai person know that you are speaking Thai with them.

If there’s anything I’ve learned here that has actual ‘bang-4-the-baht’; it’s when speaking to unfamiliar thais, doing what I mentioned in a previous post; the ‘thai language dance’ can grease the proverbial wheels. It even works when a foreigner is speaking terribly mangled thai. More times than not it can turn out to your advantage, in so far as you’ll get the answer(s) you’re looking for and you might even make a new thai friend too.

Nowadays (in predominantly engrish speaking countries) it seems to be the habit of english speakers to just approach the nearest person and ask whatever you want to ask. To any thai, that type of interaction is blunt to the N-th degree, and even almost bordering on plain rude.

It is my observation; this seems to be partly due to the built-in almost mandatory politeness in the thai language when thais meet unfamiliar people. Speaking very to the point right outta the gate just doesn’t seem to ‘play’ well here. This situation seems to be exacerbated when a foreigner is speaking thai with a thai who doesn’t know them from ‘Adam’. Or maybe I guess a little better analogy here is, if the thai doesn’t know you from ‘Somchai’.

I cerainly agree with sticking to one langauage. So many times I haven't a clue what the Thai person is saying in Thai to me, but when I ask for repeats (usually more than one) there are English words in the sentence, poorly pronounced and in a Thai accent.

I concur with that assessment; the mixing of thai-engrish words when a thai speaks, sometimes makes for a tough ‘row to hoe’. I’ll hafta ask them to repeat it again, and maybe again before I’ll realize there are poorly accented engrish words mixed in and finally get what they’re talkin’ about.

And also what I hate is the show off farangs who have to shout their usually excreable <sic> (EDIT: Maybe you meant 'execrable' as in "extremely bad"? ) Thai to let everybody know how great they are. Unfortunately these farangs are in denial and think they can speak Thai really well (because every Thai person tells them that). Ughhhhh!!

The instance where foreigners feel the need to shout out their piss-poor thai, just plain makes me cringe!! Sometimes to the point I’m actually embarrassed to be seen as another ‘white skinned, long nosed foreigner’ in the same vicinity!

Sadly I must also concur; I wish (with all my heart!!) I had a single baht every time a thai told me, พูดภาษาไทยเก่งมาก, as I’d retire here with more baht than I could ever count.

The overt in-grained politeness I mentioned earlier in the post seems to be greatly exaggerated in the situation where thais will pile on praise to any foreigner who can spit out even 3 semi-understandable words in thai. It can be quite the ‘downer’ to foreigners who actually want to learn to speak something close to 'real' thai, because it gives the speaker a false sense of their ability in speaking the thai language.

In fact, just the other day, I had a thai tell me they knew another foreigner who could speak thai (in their opinion) “very well” and that we should all meet for coffee. When I met him and listened, it was oh-so apparent he spoke ‘frozen phrases’ pretty good. However, once the subject veered even slightly “off script” he was like a fish outta water.

And NO FWIW; I am most definitely NOT a ‘showy foreign thai speaker’ (if anything, I am a VERY reticent thai speaker ) . I only spoke thai a very little bit in that situation, preferring to compel the thais I was sitting with to deal with me speaking just engrish for the most part.

Edited November 7, 2010 by tod-daniels

[Tod Daniels]

<SNIP> My Thai GF still laughs about when I wanted to buy some sunglasses (without her) and asked for 'wentha atit' i.e. glasses of the sun, or so I thought. It is correctly said, 'wentha gun dad'.

What ever you do; DON'T, for the love of GOD ask for แว่นตากันแตด (waaen^F dtaa^M gan^M dtaaet^L) ("glasses to protect you from a woman's clitoris") instead of แว่นตากันแดด waaen^F dtaa^M gan^M daaet^L (sun glasses). The first phrase is spoken with the last word as starting with a "DT" mixed together and means what I previously mentioned . The second phrase has a real "D" as the beginning letter in the last word. They are close but NO cigar. ..

However, it can make for a funny situation on the Soi buying sunglasses ...

[rametindallas]

<SNIP> My Thai GF still laughs about when I wanted to buy some sunglasses (without her) and asked for 'wentha atit' i.e. glasses of the sun, or so I thought. It is correctly said, 'wentha gun dad'.

What ever you do; DON'T, for the love of GOD ask for แว่นตากันแตด (waaen^F dtaa^M gan^M dtaaet^L) ("glasses to protect you from a woman's clitoris") instead of แว่นตากันแดด waaen^F dtaa^M gan^M daaet^L (sun glasses). The first phrase is spoken with the last word as starting with a "DT" mixed together and means what I previously mentioned . The second phrase has a real "D" as the beginning letter in the last word. They are close but NO cigar. ..

However, it can make for a funny situation on the Soi buying sunglasses ...

I had no idea I was so close to a crudity. Thank you. I will be in the LOS in ten days and will make SURE I can differentiate the two. These tonal and pronunciation mistakes can be a hoot to tolerant Thais. It took some 'letting go' to pronounce 'Pinklao' and 'Pitsunoloke' with to proper amount of rising tone on the last sylable.

[appropriate]

whenever I have the shits I just say 'mee kee nam'.

Far more interesting than the real phrase.

Dominic.

[Tod Daniels]

whenever I have the shits I just say 'mee kee nam'.

Far more interesting than the real phrase.

Dominic.

While for you it might seem "far more interesting than the real phrase"; sadly to a run-of-the-mill thai, aka; the-thai-on-the-street that phrase means nothing, it's just foreign b/s thai-speak . Maybe with hand gestures, and miming out the problem they'd get it, but normally, unmmm, no. This is especially so if you can't pronouce the words ride; ขี่ khee^L and shit; ขี้ khee^F clearly in thai .

The real phrases are;

ท้องเดิน thaawng^H deern^M - stomach walks (everyone will know what you're saying).

ท้องร่วง thaawng^H ruaang^F - stomach falls or drops

BUT the one phrase every thai in the entire country knows 100% is;

ท้องเสีย thaawng^H siia^R - stomach broken

I have also heard to a lesser extent the thai phrase;

ลงท้อง lohng^M thaawng^H - my stomach came down

However I have NEVER EVER heard the phrase มีขี้น้ำ meeM khee^F naam^H or in engrish; "have shit water" spoken here .

Stick with ท้องเสีย thaawng^H siia^R and everyone will both know what you're on about as well as hopefully point you to a bathroom with ample toilet paper!

Again it would seem to be a case of mother language interference, where you use your words to make a thai sentence. While we think that translates straight across the board, in reality it usually is not understood.

My advice is NEVER translate word for word (thai to engrish or engrish to thai)!! Learn the many, MANY thai 'frozen phrases'. Words that together carry a similar meaning in thai as they do in engrish.

Was the post I quoted funny, YES! Was it meaningful for anyone learning thai. .. You figure it out

Edited November 7, 2010 by tod-daniels

[bhoydy]

A phrase that's used here where i live is ขี้แตก (kee dtaek).

[Tod Daniels]

A phrase that's used here where i live is ขี้แตก (kee dtaek).

You know; I ALMOST posted that phrase as well!

I'll even write it in bigger font ขี้แตก and use some engrish pronunciation too;

ขี้ khee^Fแตก dtaaek^L which could only translate as "shit broken", but of course that is word by word and when the thai words are joined together it carries the colloquial meaning of 'having diarrhea'

However, as it's soo something you'd NEVER EVER say to someone you don't know really well, unless you're runnin' for the toilet, I purposely left it out .

Mostly due to "us" foreigners NOT knowing when it's okay to use phrases like that (as in with close friends or family ) and when it's NOT appropriate to say something so coarse or rough in thai .

[wolf5370]

My hardest words are the "Mah"s : come, dog and horse - I can rarely get horse out right at all (I can copy a Thai fine, but 2 minutes later gone again - some kind of linguistic/mental block!), also struggle with dog sometimes - I have no problems with many of the others mentioned here (though I must admit to using Khee Nahm a few times too - maybe with Bpen in the middle).

Near and far used to get me - but I learned to pronounce them OK (I usually use just 'near' and say 'near' and 'not near' rather than 'far', but not for any scientific reason - just habbit I guess)

[mca]

Firstly, the thai being addressed wasn't expecting a foreigner to actually speak something which even resembled thai. They had already seen a foreigner approaching and adjusted their ‘ear reception’ to the ‘receive engrish’ side of the dial . Therefore the thai didn't recognize they were hearing thai as they were listening for engrish.

Yeah I'm sure we all know about this one.

A couple of instances.

Went to a Family Mart to buy a pack of Krong Thip ( classy bugger that I am ). I knew it was going to go a bit wrong when I noticed the slightly panicky look in the cashier girls eyes at having to deal with a westerner. She simply didn't understand my request in Thai despite 2 or 3 repetitions. Completely blanked out. Then the manager strolled over, I repeated myself and he handed me what I wanted, turned to her and jokingly said " Didn't you understand him? "

Was in a restaurant with my wife, daughter and some Thai friends. Every single thing I ordered the waitress gave a "Huh?" look and turned to my wife who repeated the order. Now I'm no Andrew Biggs by any stretch of the imagination but my Thai acquaintances assure me that even though it's obviously a westerner speaking Thai I'm perfectly understandable. My daughter got a fit of the giggles at daddy's slightly pissed off snotty look.