Thai Sayings and Phrases Wanted

[the scouser]

Hi Som Nam Na,

It's possible to say "khon sorng naa - คนสองหน้า" - 2-faced. A similar phrase is "nok sorng hua - นกสองหัว" which roughly translates as meaning an untrustworthy person.

Scouse.

[bannork]

A good one for two- faced is หน้าไหว้หลังหลอก naa wai lang lork-pay respects in front or to the face, but behind deceive or cheat.

bannork.

[snowleopard]

I just happened to be looking at Snow Leopard's post containing "chang hua man" when my wife started wittering on about nothing in particular. I responded with the phrase much to her amusement. Nowt wrong with it.

Scouse.

Using it shouldnt cause any retribution in most settings.

It's a synonym for ช่างมัน "chaang mun" which lots of people use frequently.

ชั่งหัวมัน "chang hua mun"= It doesn't matter; never mind; no matter; don't worry etc.

A couple of antonyms to the above expressions would be...

1. แยแส "yae sae"

2.ใส่ใจ "sai jai"

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[Neeranam]

What about "gaw chang" - don't care

ก็ชช่าง ?

[snowleopard]

What about "gaw chang" - don't care

ก็ชช่าง      ?

Hi Neeranam,

It should be spelt ก็ช่าง "goh chaang" but the meaning is NOT "don't care"!

The meaning of ก็ช่าง "goh chaang" is like the English "accordingly".

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[maitembot]

My favourite is:

Mai tem baht = not the full shilling

I never liked that 'full' feeling

[Neeranam]

Hi Neeranam, 

It should be spelt ก็ช่าง "goh chaang" but the meaning is NOT "don't care"! 

The meaning of ก็ช่าง "goh chaang" is like the English "accordingly". 

Cheers. 

Snowleopard.

Sure Snow?

I gotthat out of a book.

Neeranam

[bannork]

Neeranam,

You're right, ก็ช่าง means'let it be','so be it ' ,'accordingly' can have a negative ring in a formal sense,though it's rarely used by native speakers nowadays .

He was lazy, accordinglyhe failed his exams. Here accordingly means 'so' in the sense he deserved it, no need to do anything about it.

Snowleopard is wrong, ก็ช่าง we learn everyday.

Yours,

bannork.

[snowleopard]

Neeranam,

You're right, ก็ช่าง means'let it be','so be it ' ,'accordingly'  can have a negative ring in a formal sense,though it's rarely used by native speakers nowadays .

He was lazy, accordinglyhe failed his exams. Here accordingly means 'so' in the sense he deserved it, no need to do anything about it.

Snowleopard is wrong, ก็ช่าง we learn everyday.

Yours,

bannork.

Snowleopard is wrong, ก็ช่าง we learn everyday.

Hold your horses there,you... "hicks from the sticks"!

(i.e. cowhands out in "barn-nok")

I'd say that the best translation for ก็ช่าง "goh chang" in this Thai sentence is "accordingly"!

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย เพราะไม่ได้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียในเรื่องนี้

Do you have a better one to offer there?

Neeranam,

Sometimes ก็ช่าง "goh chang" can be translated as "never mind".

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[TRIPxCORE]

One that I often hear when seeing a man taking a woman shopping is, "Nee la ka tao lai krap?"

Hehehehe....just kidding.

[bannork]

Snowleopard,

I would say the best translation of your sentence would be-

'They are not interested in the outcome of the present discussions/negotiations as they have no vested interests at stake'

If we translate it following the Thai sequence of words-

' The outcome of the present/ongoing talks will be WHATEVER, they are not interested as they have no vested interests at stake.'

This clearly sounds clumsy in English and could be improved by substituting 'will be whatever' by 'are irrelevant to them as they...'

I'm sorry, I just don't see how you can use 'accordingly' in your example

2 more examples of 'accordingly'-

'dress accordingly', ie dress appropriately

'The Thai language website degenerated into a discussion about the use of English words, accordingly, 99% of the viewers were bored to tears.'

Time to attend to the cows,

yours,

bannork. อยู่บ้านนอกของเราดีกว่า......

[meadish_sweetball]

I agree with Bannork and his interpretation here. In your quoted example, Snowleopard, the "ก็ช่าง" could be replaced with "ก็ตาม" which is more frequently used in writing.

[snowleopard]

Snowleopard,

I would say the best translation of your sentence would be-

'They are not interested  in the outcome of the present discussions/negotiations as they have no vested interests at stake'

If we translate it following the Thai sequence of words-

' The outcome of the present/ongoing talks will be WHATEVER, they are not interested as they have no vested interests at stake.'

This clearly sounds clumsy in English and could be improved by substituting 'will be whatever' by 'are irrelevant to them as they...'

I'm sorry, I just don't see how you can use 'accordingly' in your example

2 more examples of 'accordingly'-

'dress accordingly', ie dress appropriately

'The Thai language website degenerated into a discussion about the use of English words, accordingly, 99% of the viewers were bored to tears.'

Time to attend to the cows,

yours,

bannork. อยู่บ้านนอกของเราดีกว่า......

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย เพราะไม่ได้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียในเรื่องนี้

I'm sorry, I just don't see how you can use 'accordingly' in your example

Hi there Bannork,

How about using "accordingly" like this? ...Behold!

"Because they have nothing at stake,they are accordingly not interested in the negotiations and we are unsure of what the outcome will be this time."

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย เพราะไม่ได้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียในเรื่องนี้

Now you see?

'dress accordingly', ie dress appropriately

Sorry!You're wrong there Bannork."Appropriately" is no synonym for "accordingly"

Synonyms for appropriately=1.acceptably,2.adequately,3.amply,4.becomingly,5.fittingly,

6.properly,7.right,8.satisfactorily,9.suitably

Synonyms for accordingly=1.consequently,2. ergo,3. hence,4. so,5. then,

6.thereupon,7 thus;

(Idioms) 8.by reason of that 9.by reason of this,10. for that reason,

11. for this reason

อยู่บ้านนอกของเราดีกว่า......

ผมมีบ้านสามหลังอยู่แล้ว จึงไม่สนใจซื้อหลังนั้นที่เธอจะขายในชนบท

Cheers.

Snowleopard

[RDN]

I either heard or read this somewhere recently, and cannot for the life of me remember where. But the phrase was "Waen Kham": เวร กรรม which I interpret as "Karma turns", similar to "Som nam naa" - serves you right.

Can someone confirm this, and would it be OK to use in place of "Som nam naa"?

Edit:

What a wally! Sorry - it was on this very forum that I saw it! Stupid boy! Please ignore the above!

If only I could find some red-faced smileys...

Edited October 3, 2004 by RDN

[snowleopard]

I either heard or read this somewhere recently, and cannot for the life of me remember where. But the phrase was "Waen Kham": เวร กรรม which I interpret as "Karma turns", similar to "Som nam naa" - serves you right.

Can someone confirm this, and would it be OK to use in place of "Som nam naa"?

Check out this thread!

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17081

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[RDN]

Checkout this thread!

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17081

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

You're too quick for me, Snowey!!

[bannork]

Snowleopard,

In your sentence, ก้ช่าง is with ผลการเจรจา not with พวกเขา so if you use 'accordingly' there the sentence is 'the results went accordingly' which means according to plan,but the point in your sentence is they don't care about the outcome of the talks so you have to say'whatever the outcome' or 'regardless of the outcome', not 'accordingly.

I'm surprised you don't accept 'appropriately' as a substitute for 'accordingly' in the sentence 'dress accordingly'; you list 'suitably' and 'fittingly' as synomyns, I would argue native speakers could certainly include 'appropriately ' in that category.

Yours,

bannork.

[caughtintheact]

Try this one:

1. In a bar when the girls are mobbing you for drinks

2. When you are having a fight with the wife/gf

3. You just want have a laugh

อย่ารบกวนคนที่ไม่ครบ

[Neeranam]

Neeranam,

You're right, ก็ช่าง means'let it be','so be it ' ,'accordingly' can have a negative ring in a formal sense,though it's rarely used by native speakers nowadays .

He was lazy, accordinglyhe failed his exams. Here accordingly means 'so' in the sense he deserved it, no need to do anything about it.

Snowleopard is wrong, ก็ช่าง we learn everyday.

Yours,

bannork.

I asked my Thai friend who said that it means something like 'who gives a ######'.

Not to be used when not sure. An example may be if someone whom you hated died in an accident.

[snowleopard]

Snowleopard,

In your sentence, ก้ช่าง is with ผลการเจรจา not with พวกเขา so if you use 'accordingly' there the sentence is 'the results went accordingly' which means according to plan,but the point in your sentence is they don't care about the outcome of the talks so you have to say'whatever the outcome' or 'regardless of the outcome', not 'accordingly.

I'm surprised you don't accept 'appropriately' as a substitute for 'accordingly' in the sentence 'dress accordingly'; you list 'suitably' and 'fittingly' as synomyns, I would argue  native speakers  could certainly include 'appropriately ' in that category.

Yours,

bannork.

"Because they have nothing at stake,they are accordingly not interested in the negotiations and we are unsure of what the outcome will be this time."

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย เพราะไม่ได้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียในเรื่องนี้

Snowleopard,in your sentence, ก้ช่าง is with ผลการเจรจา not with พวกเขา

Bannork,

Firstly,you cannot use your concept of an English sentence and then apply it directly onto a Thai counterpart.

There are no commas,question marks and such.

You know very well from your previous post how awkward a direct translation would become.

Secondly,"accordingly" is an adverb so it cannot modify "พวกเขา=they",which is a pronoun.

Now,I will take some time and try to explain my translation.

You don't have to agree with anything;and,frankly,I don't care whether you do or not but just bear with me awhile,will you?

One of the keywords in my sentence is "AND".

Let's divide the sentence into three parts and fill in some omitted parts which I felt would have made it tautological and accordingly left out.

1.Because they have nothing at stake,_2.they are accordingly not interested in the negotiations (and)_3.we are accordingly unsure of what the outcome of the negotiations will be this time.

If you join 2 and 3 with an "AND",do you really need to use both "accordingly" and "negotiations"twice?

If you analyzed the whole sentence,what would your conclusion be?

The Thai sentence is confirmed as accurate.I think my analysis and translation is okay too.Some colleagues and students whom I've shown it to agree as well.

I'm surprised you don't accept 'appropriately' as a substitute for 'accordingly' in the sentence 'dress accordingly'; you list 'suitably' and 'fittingly' as synomyns, I would argue  native speakers  could certainly include 'appropriately ' in that category

I listed "fittingly" and "suitably" as synonyms for "appropriately",NOT for "accordingly"!

To avoid confusion,let's quote my post with the synonyms again,shall we?

Synonyms for appropriately=1.acceptably,2.adequately,3.amply,4.becomingly,5.fittingly,

6.properly,7.right,8.satisfactorily,9.suitably

Synonyms for accordingly=1.consequently,2. ergo,3. hence,4. so,5. then,

6.thereupon,7 thus;

(Idioms) 8.by reason of that 9.by reason of this,10. for that reason,

11. for this reason

I'm surprised you don't accept 'appropriately' as a substitute for 'accordingly'

The reason people can understand "dress accordingly",when it is said,is because it's understood from the context in which it is used,or from what's been said,but not because it's a direct synonym to "dress appropriately".

You should always dress appropriately.

Let's remember that "accordingly" has two different definitions.Here they are...

1.Accordingly= for that reason;therefore/Example/:"They are accordingly not interested in the negotiations...=They are therefore not interested in...".

2.Accordingly= in a manner that is suggested by what is known or has been said/Example/:"You know we are going fishing so dress accordingly".(i.e.appropriately).

First you need to know according to what norm and particular task you're supposed to dress appropriately.Then dress accordingly.

I'm using the first definition of "accordingly"in my sentence and translation so let's not confuse it with the second one now,shall we?(i.e.accordingly=therefore)

In Thai;"appropriately" would be_ อย่างเหมาะสม "yaang moh-som"_ and that wouldn't be appropriate in the above translation at all.

Hope this post has narrowed the gap a bit or even bridged it?

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[craftwork]

"Because they have nothing at stake,they are accordingly not interested in the negotiations and we are unsure of what the outcome will be this time." 

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย เพราะไม่ได้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียในเรื่องนี้

I think you are right to break the sentence into parts, though for the benefit of the readers here you could have explained which parts of your English sentence correspond with which parts of the Thai sentence.

A distinctive feature of Thai is that a sentence can be put together in many, many different ways to yield a similar meaning. We could also recast the English, and still end up with a meaning that is faithful to the Thai. Much will depend on the context in which the sentence appears.

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง

I gather that for this part, you give us this meaning in English:

''...and we are unsure of what the outcome will be this time."

This is - forgive me saying so - loose. I think we could also say this:

The result of the talks this time could come out any way, regardless (ie it doesn't matter)...

Nothing appears in this sentence to suggest the speaker is worried, uncertain or doubtful about the outcome....yet that is the impression I take away from the English.

I can think of half a dozen different ways we could recast this in Thai, to yield a similar meaning, or perhaps change the register a little: make it less formal, add words to give a sassy or spiky emphasis (if that's what we want).

Those variations might be just as ''accurate''...once again, it will depend on the context, and what the speaker is trying to get across.

If I wanted to make it less formal, the first thing I would do is break the sentence up. In trying to squeeze all these ideas into one sentence we end up with something which (in my view) looks rather formal and clumsy....but then maybe the speaker wants a formal tone, and to be more concise!

If you are translating, you are almost obliged to spell out the different possibilities. Apart from anything else, it helps avoid arguments such as the one which appears below.

In your sentence, ก้ช่าง is with ผลการเจรจา not with พวกเขา so if you use 'accordingly' there the sentence is 'the results went accordingly' which means according to plan

Accordingly as it is used here is just another word for ''so'', or as snowleopard says, 'therefore'. You could even knock it out of the English and still keep the meaning.

Who uses words like ''accordingly' and 'therefore' anyway? I don't...they look ugly, and I try to avoid them.

[Neeranam]

Now you have lost me guys!

[meadish_sweetball]

"Because they have nothing at stake,they are accordingly not interested in the negotiations and we are unsure of what the outcome will be this time."

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย เพราะไม่ได้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียในเรื่องนี้   

Now you see?

Sorry, I don't see. Your breaking up of the sentence infers lthings which are actually not there in the Thai version.

As the previous speaker says, these inferred things all depend on the actual circumstances. If you have additional background information about this sentence, maybe you are right to infer these things, but a professional translator should not 'fill out the gaps' unless he is absolutely certain what the real situation is.

There is no information in the Thai sentence that tells us whether the outcome of the talks is uncertain or not. The core message is that "they" are not interested in the ourcome of the talks because they are not involved and will not be affected / have nothing at stake.

'They are not interested in the outcome of the talks since it will not affect them (their interests). '

To get the proper meaning of the words ก็ช่าง they should be analysed together with อย่างไร (อย่างไรก็ช่าง - which is similar to อย่างไรก็ตาม which gives the meaning "whatever / irrespective of / no matter / irrelevant"

Secondly,"accordingly" is an adverb so it cannot modify "พวกเขา=they",which is a pronoun.

'Accordingly' is a word you filled in when you made your translation, it is not the actual meaning of ก็ช่าง ... Sure, 'accordingly' is an adverb in English. Please give me a sentence constituent analysis of your Thai sentence that shows that ก็ช่าง is an adverb in Thai?

The Thai sentence is confirmed as accurate.I think my analysis and translation is okay too.Some colleagues and students whom I've shown it to agree as well.

Yes, the Thai sentence is correct. There is no disputing that. But your claim that ก็ช่าง means 'accordingly' is incorrect. Your interpretation that the outcome of the talks is UNSURE is not substantiated by any evidence from this sentence.

[craftwork]

...these inferred things all depend on the actual circumstances. If you have additional background information about this sentence, maybe you are right to infer these things, but a professional translator should not 'fill out the gaps' unless he is absolutely certain what the real situation is.

Well put!

There is no information in the Thai sentence that tells us whether the outcome of the talks is uncertain or not.

My point above.

But your claim that ก็ช่าง means 'accordingly' is incorrect.

I wasn't aware anyone was asserting that...I assumed it was just dropped in to the English to smoothen it out. If that was the intention, then you are right: ก็ช่าง cannot be used to mean 'accordingly'.

To get the proper meaning of the words ก็ช่าง they should be analysed together with อย่างไร (อย่างไรก็ช่าง - which is similar to อย่างไรก็ตาม which gives the meaning "whatever / irrespective of / no matter / irrelevant"

Yes.

พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย

This, coupled with จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง suggests to me that the tone of the sentence is much sassier than suggested by the English translation we have been given.

It is almost as if the speaker is saying, ''Well, these talks can come out any which way, because we're not interested (now)...''

In that case, this English translation ..''and we are unsure of what the outcome will be this time''...sounds out of place.

As you say, there is nothing in the Thai to suggest anyone is uncertain. And if the tone is as sassy as I suggest, then no one would care how the talks come out...they are beyond the point of caring what the result is.

If it is a sassy, throwaway tone we want, we could add particles and speech inflections to the sentence to express that idea more clearly.

[meadish_sweetball]

Yes... if that is it, it's hard to get the exact 'flavour' of the sentence.

'They could not care less about....' might be an alternative to achieve that effect.

[craftwork]

The Thai sentence is confirmed as accurate.I think my analysis and translation is okay too

I don't think the English meaning you ascribe to it is adequate, for the various reasons given above.

I suspect it is much sassier than suggested by the English given in your translation. We don't have the context from which you took this sentence, so we are forced to make a guess based on the information given.

If you know anything about translation, you will know what a painstaking craft it is. When you read Thai texts translated from other languages, sometimes you can almost see the other language sitting beneath...though this is not always a sign of quality.

The translator has to tread a fine line between capturing the meaning intended by the original text, and remaining faithful to his own language, so it 'sounds' as if a Thai might be saying it.

More than that, the sentence fragment which appears at the end of a paragraph might make sense in a superficial sense...but to get the full flavour, really needs to be read in the context of what comes before.

Speaking generally, the more formal a sentence, the more elusive the meaning. Formal language is almost inevitably complex or abstract, and so hard to pin down.

The sentence you give is not enough by itself to convey the intended meaning, because (I suspect) it has been taken from the context in which it originally appeared. If we knew the intended meaning, we could add other words to this stand-alone sentence to get it across more accurately.

I'd say that the best translation for ก็ช่าง "goh chang" in this Thai sentence is "accordingly"!

I've now found the part where snowleopard asserts that ก็ช่าง can be used as 'accordingly'. I'm afraid that's plain wrong...it can't.

As meadish said above, it should be used in conjunction with the previous words, to mean 'whatever, it doesn't matter'.

You don't have to agree with anything;and,frankly,I don't care whether you do or not

Is this kind of hostility really necessary? Your own 'work' is far from flawed, as you can see from the exchange above. Learning is supposed to be a collaborative venture, not a clash of egos.

When you reach the point where you feel you have nothing left to learn, please let me know - I'll be the first to congratulate you. For most people, however, acquiring a language requires thousands of hours of dedicated study.

It's an exercise in humility, if anything. Every day we are confronted with humbling evidence of how little we know, not how much - and to pretend otherwise is just silly. In my experience, the noisiest 'learners' are those who appreciate this the least.

[snowleopard]

ผลการเจรจาในครั้งนี้จะเป็นอย่างไรก็ช่าง พวกเขาไม่สนใจเลย เพราะไม่ได้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียในเรื่องนี้

I can think of half a dozen different ways we could recast this in Thai, to yield a similar meaning, or perhaps change the register a little: make it less formal, add words to give a sassy or spiky emphasis (if that's what we want).

I think you're bluffing,Craftwork!

Why are you suddenly using the pronoun "WE" when calling for a sixfold recasting of my sentence in Thai?

Why haven't you already done it yourself on a Thai language keyboard?.

I'm suspicious of your self-proclaimed proficiency in reading and writing Thai and I'd like to see you put your money where your mouth is.

This is the Thai language forum after all.

I expect to see those six sentences in Thai from you in your next post.OK?

You don't have to agree with anything;and,frankly,I don't care whether you do or not

Is this kind of hostility really necessary?

I wasn't addressing you!

The hostility you perceive is in your own mind.You just see the world the way you are,don't you C.W.?

Has the world been hostile and subjected you to a lot of "gay bashing" and;thus,made you this paranoid?

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[craftwork]

I think you should address the substance of the post, which concerned a whole bunch of stuff apart from your fragile ego.

The fact is, you misunderstood that Thai sentence, but you are too vain to admit it. Meadish told you, and now I have told you as well.

I bet it really hurts, doesn't it, to find someone better than you? In my experience life is full of people like that, and they don't all have to be gay (joke). You just have to get used to it!

I have better things to do than get into a webboard fight with someone who (judging by his posts) is but a prickly newbie to the study of Thai.

That said, I am just itching to show you what a real translator is capable of doing (not me, I hasten to add)...but I fear it's too late for that.

You have already moved this thread away from the substance of the issue and into the personal stuff, which is where these debates inevitably end up.

No westerner can bear to have his knowledge of Thai questioned...it's like you've questioned his honour and dignity, his very right to exist. He feels immediately under threat, no matter how rudimentary his skills. Pathetic!

Thai is not your language to own...you're borrowing it, and by the sounds of it you have a helluva lot more work to do yet.

Good luck...oh, and ''Cheers!''

[snowleopard]

Now you have lost me guys!

Don't worry about it Neeranam!

Craftwork thought it was the gay forum!

He's the one who got lost!

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[bannork]

Gentlemen,please!

Let's not degenerate to the level of many sites where senseless invective hurtles back and forth; to stick to the point, Snowleopard, at the risk of repeating myself, would you not agree a concise translation of your sentence would be-' Whatever the outcome of the talks they are not interested\ concerned as they have no vested interests at stake'?

Or to rephrase it- The outcome of the talks maybe whatever, they have no interest as they have nothing to gain or lose'.

Yours,

bannork.