Phrase Of The Day

[robitusson]

I was reading the Som Nam Naa thread. Meadish translated the phrase, which I'd never really thought about before, as meaning " suitable water face" or something similar. It kind of shows how far you can go when you just learn Thai words for things. Even if you knew every Thai word there was, you still wouldn't be able to translate "serves you right" into "som nam naa" unless you learnt it as a phrase. So I thought how about a Phrase or Expression-Of-The-Day like the Word-Of-The-Day thread? I think this would be really useful. Not idioms but expressions like this one that people use all the time but that don't translate directly. Like how do you say "You must be joking?", that kind of thing. Of course I wouldn't be able to contribute beyond anything really obvious. Whadyathink?

[Neeranam]

Great idea.

Ok here is my one for the day - "Mai Dai Dtung Jai" sorry too lazt to type in Thai. This means as I understand it - "It wasn't meant", or "I didn't mean it"

or "It wasn't supposed to happen" or maybe, "it's not my fault".

[bannork]

หน้าหม้อ na more, both are falling tone, meaning a guy who likes to try to impress the girls, thinks he's cool. pot-head, or pot-face if you translate direct!

[Ting Tong Man]

Anyone ever heard of this one?

คำบรรยายประกอบด้านหลัง

I have translated it word for word as:

คำบรรยาย

kam ban-yaai

lecture ; narration ; expository ; explanation ; relation ; speech

ประกอบ

bprà-gòp

be made of/from ; consist of ; include

run ; do ; carry on ; perform

ด้านหลัง

dâan lăng

backside ; rear ; behind

I am think'n that is some sort of Thai expression, but I'm not sure what it's equivalent english expression would be.

[meadish_sweetball]

หน้าหม้อ na more, both are falling tone, meaning a guy who likes to try to impress the girls, thinks he's cool. pot-head, or pot-face if you translate direct!

The same old pot (หม้อ) (maw rhyming with 'law' if you're from a country in the habit of pronouncing final 'r', there is no 'r' sound at the end) is also slang for the female genitals... tread carefully.

Anyone ever heard of this one?

คำบรรยายประกอบด้านหลัง

I have translated it word for word as:

คำบรรยาย

kam ban-yaai

lecture ; narration ; expository ; explanation ; relation ; speech

ประกอบ

bprà-gòp

be made of/from ; consist of ; include

run ; do ; carry on ; perform

ด้านหลัง

dâan lăng

backside ; rear ; behind

I am think'n that is some sort of Thai expression, but I'm not sure what it's equivalent english expression would be.

Do you have any more context (i.e. where and in what situation did you read/find it?)

[chippie]

Another one that comes in handy to throw back at your GF, 'leeo-dtee kun'

It means 'up to you' .

Honey where we go tonight? mai rue, leeo-dtee kun.

[patri]

Anyone ever heard of this one?

คำบรรยายประกอบด้านหลัง

I have translated it word for word as:

คำบรรยาย

kam ban-yaai

lecture ; narration ; expository ; explanation ; relation ; speech

ประกอบ

bprà-gòp

be made of/from ; consist of ; include

run ; do ; carry on ; perform

ด้านหลัง

dâan lăng

backside ; rear ; behind

I am think'n that is some sort of Thai expression, but I'm not sure what it's equivalent english expression would be.

The translation's quite literal.... It simply means... " (See) Instructions (or further explanation) in the back (of the bottles, packages, documents etc..) "

ประกอบ in this case, means, "additional or sth.. that's included"

Edited February 4, 2006 by patri

[Tywais]

Always liked the phrase "mai reu liang", something on the lines of "I haven't a clue"

[Neeranam]

]

Another one that comes in handy to throw back at your GF, 'leeo-dtee kun'

It means 'up to you' .

Honey where we go tonight? mai rue, leeo-dtee kun.

Alternatively "dtum jai koon"

Always liked the phrase "mai reu liang", something on the lines of "I haven't a clue" biggrin.gif

Actually "mai reu reuang" - not know what's going on, or not understanding the story/conversation.

[Tywais]

Always liked the phrase "mai reu liang", something on the lines of "I haven't a clue" biggrin.gif

Actually "mai reu reuang" - not know what's going on, or not understanding the story/conversation.

Sometimes I'm not sure about transliterating to 'r' or 'l' in this case due to the close proximity of the two 'r' sounds with the 2nd one often coming out as an 'l' sound (or very soft 'r'). At least for me it's difficult to get the 2nd ('r') one to roll off the tongue easily. And I was using a colloquialism "I haven't a clue" = "not know what's going on"

Edited February 4, 2006 by tywais

[meadish_sweetball]

]

Another one that comes in handy to throw back at your GF, 'leeo-dtee kun'

It means 'up to you' .

Honey where we go tonight? mai rue, leeo-dtee kun.

Alternatively "dtum jai koon"

Always liked the phrase "mai reu liang", something on the lines of "I haven't a clue" biggrin.gif

Actually "mai reu reuang" - not know what's going on, or not understanding the story/conversation.

To be consistent:

'mai ruu reuang'. /or 'mai roo reuang'.

ไม่ รู้ เรื่อง as อู 'sara uu' and เอือ'sara 'eua' are different sounds. อู in 'to know' is like oo in 'soon' whereas 'eua' in 'reuang' is an unrounded back vowel (like 'oo' but with your lips spread to a smile - NOT rounded - try to say 'oo' while biting a pencil or making the broadest smile you can achieve. Then apply the same sound.).

It's better to write these words using 'r' than 'l', as they are spelt with ร and not ล.

[HarryHerb]

To get back to topic

I have always wondered what the phrase เป็นต้นไป bpen tawn bpai (please don't start a discussion about transliteration again) meant.

You hear it on the TV a lot, usually when they're announcing an upcoming event / show, and after the time of the event has been given, e.g. 20 นาฬิกาเป็นต้นไป !. But I can't figure out what it actually means from the composite words and the context. It's possible I'm hearing it wrong also.

It's unlikely to be a very useful everyday phrase, but it's just one of those niggly things I want to know. Can anyone help?

To contribute something more useful, how about this phrase:

ชั่งมัน chang man

Sort of similar to mai pen rai, but more like 'let it be', 'forget about it' (when there's been an argument with someone). Not sure if it's impolite, though...

Edited February 8, 2006 by HarryHerb

[Tywais]

To get back to topic

I have always wondered what the phrase เป็นต้นไป bpen tawn bpai (please don't start a discussion about transliteration again) meant.

It means "from now on". Sorry about the transliteration hijack.

Edited February 8, 2006 by tywais

[meadish_sweetball]

Agree with tywais - in the context you quoted:

From 20:00 hours and onwards.

เป็นต้น is used in other constructions too, notably lists starting with เช่น , อาทิเช่น , อย่างเช่น and can be translated as 'amongst others' (or be left untranslated).

The word order in those constructions is

[any of the above three phrases meaning 'for example'] + [space] +

+ เป็นต้น

There is also the phrase เป็นต้นว่า which can replace the three others at the beginning of a list starting with 'for example'.

[HarryHerb]

Brilliant! Now it all makes sense, thank you. I will now be able to sleep easy tonight - จาก 23 นาฬิกาเป็นต้นไป

By the way, Tywais, my comment was not particularly pointed at you. Seems like almost every topic here eventually turns into a debate about the 'correct' way to transliterate. While I fully understand the need to write things down clearly so people who can't read Thai script can pronounce things properly, irrespective of their regional accent, to me it seems like a losing battle - ชั่งมัน (chang man)

In my case, I don't think I was even able to pronounce words properly until I started teaching myself to read and write and could see the relation between the letters and the sounds. You never know, maybe bad quality transliteration will inspire some people to take up learning the script...

[bannork]

I've noticed เเห้ว hey oh(falling tone, English pronunciation) being used a lot to mean fail, not get what you want,

ie- เเห้วง้อเมีย- failed to make up or reconcile with his wife,(so he killed her), เกือบเเห้ว -almost not get it, in this case the 80 year old lottery winner was almost robbed of his winnings by the tricky agent.

[Rikker]

I've noticed เเห้ว hey oh(falling tone, English pronunciation) being used a lot to mean fail, not get what you want,

ie- เเห้วง้อเมีย- failed to make up or reconcile with his wife,(so he killed her), เกือบเเห้ว -almost not get it, in this case the 80 year old lottery winner was almost robbed of his winnings by the tricky agent.

Yeah, แห้ว's a good one. I've especially heard it used in reference to someone wooing a woman unsuccessfully. If someone plans to จีบ a สาว, they either จีบติด or แห้ว. A fun word to tease your Thai friends with.

[bannork]

Actually I wrote the English script wrong for เเห้ว it should be a fast 'hair oh' not 'hey oh'

Moving on to กินปูนร้อนท้อง I love this phrase meaning defensive, looking or acting guilty, shifty. At first I couldn't understand why they referred to ปูน then someone explained to me the ปูน here is the organic substance,pink in colour, mixed in with หมาก betel nut to make it more palatable when chewed. This ปูน, from a plant?, is also used to detect geckoes; when a house owner wants to trace

a gecko in his house he or she puts some ปูน around the house, this is then eaten by the gecko but due to the hot sensation this creates in the stomach the gecko can't help but cry out, emitting its familiar sound, thus giving away his position to the owner.

I was going to write this phrase in English but then I remembered the recent poster who lambasted

Thais for using 'k' to describe 'g' sounds in English, so for กินปูนร้อนท้อง we should write' gin pboon rawn tong' but of course the 'g' is wrong here for in English gin is pronounced jin, so it's changed to 'kin','k' alone being the hard 'k' ก in Thai whilst 'kh' is for the soft ข and ค

[Rikker]

Actually I wrote the English script wrong for เเห้ว it should be a fast 'hair oh' not 'hey oh'

Moving on to กินปูนร้อนท้อง I love this phrase meaning defensive, looking or acting guilty, shifty. At first I couldn't understand why they referred to ปูน then someone explained to me the ปูน here is the organic substance,pink in colour, mixed in with หมาก betel nut to make it more palatable when chewed. This ปูน, from a plant?

In English this paste is called lime/lyme paste, betel lyme/lime or often just lime or lyme. I don't know about its origin, though.