Same,Same But Different Words/Phrases

[ozzieovaseas]

I don't know if this has been done in any previous threads, but it would be handy to know of some common phrases meaning the same thing.

It seems to be the biggest hurdle i've had in studying Thai...many different ways of saying the same thing,(or rather, many different words and phrases used for the same thing.)

It can get a bit embarrassing when asked a basic question in Thai, but in a different way than previously learned...you end up producing the "stunned mullet" look for what is a pretty basic question

ie. "Where do you come from?" has been a tricky one for me..it seems there are a few different ways of going about it.

Since ive seen many others pop up it makes me think i will never get a decent grip on this language.

One observation today:

เมื่ออาทิตย์ก่อน (muea arthit gaawn)

and

สัปดาห์ที่แล้ว (sabda tee laew)

So there is ก่อน and แล้ว. ?

Also the "arthit" word and "sabda" are different words for the same thing but also in the same sentence!! What the?

Anyways, if we were to look at this and any other specific terms:

1. Which would be the more commonly heard and applicable?

2. In this case does the ก่อน come from the English word "gone"? (just wondering)

And more importantly:

3.Are there any other majour ones we should know about?

[Peppy]

I'm afraid I can't give you a list--I wouldn't know where to begin. I think in every language the number of phrase pairs/triplets/quadruplets etc. that say the same thing in different ways is quite literally endless. This is certainly the case with English--take "last week" versus "a week ago", "I haven't got a car" versus "I don't have a car", "Where do you come from?" versus "Where are you from?"... they just go on and on, and learning the different forms is part and parcel of learning a new language.

To answer your specific question though, (เมื่อ)...ที่แล้ว means "last". So เมื่อสัปดาห์ที่แล้ว is "last week". (เมื่อ)...ก่อน means "the previous ..." or "the ... before", so เมื่อเดือนก่อน is "the previous month" or "the month before". And no, I'm quite certain "ก่อน" has no relation to the English word "gone".

(Oh, and there's also (เมื่อ)...ที่ผ่านมา "the past ..." for example เมื่อวันจันทร์ที่ผ่านมา "the past Monday".)