When ordering a bottle of Leo beer and pronouncing Leo in the English way as in Leo the lion, is the sound close enough to the Thai word for bad i.e. เลว to make it sound like you want a bad beer? i.e.

ขอเบียร์เลว

The Thai pronounciation of Leo sounds to me like เเลโอ

Just wondering.

๋ี

The Thais pronounce it ลีโอ - lii[M]-oo[M], or should anyway, that's how it's written in Thai script and how I hear the Thais around me pronounce it.

Also, the word เลว is normally not used for "bad" in the sense of "poor/substandard". You'd use แย่ yae[FL] for that. I have been told เลว is more commonly used when you mean 'wicked' or 'evil'... The distinction is pretty important, but I remember the books I learned Thai from never explained that, either, I had to find out on my own:

My first year in Thailand I remember telling a Thai friend that the service at a guest house I'd stayed at was terrible, and I used บริการเลวมาก which sent her into fits of laughter. She said I should use แย่ instead.

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Also, the word เลว is normally not used for "bad" in the sense of "poor/substandard". You'd use แย่ yae[FL] for that. I have been told เลว is more commonly used when you mean 'wicked' or 'evil'...

A 'wicked' or 'evil' beer sounds pretty good to me!!!

Thanks

While เลว would not be a common description for a "bad beer" in the sense of tasting bad, I think เลว can sometimes be used with inanimate things.

Like the phrase ไม่เลว, it's used quite generally to mean "of acceptable quality," used as mild understatement quite similarly to English "not bad."

เบียร์นี้ไม่เลวเลย "This beer isn't half bad."

But I don't have the native intuition to tell whether เบียร์นี้เลวจริงๆ is semantically acceptable.

I like Meadish's example about บริการเลว/บริการแย่.. that's an interesting distinction to consider.

You can say สิ่งเลว, as in, bad things that happen to a person, or สิ่งเลวร้าย... It makes me wonder what the difference between สิ่งเลว and สิ่งแย่ would be, or if there is one. Also, sealang among others give one sense of เลว as "poor (in quality)" which sounds like it can be applied more widely than people/morally culpable entities.

But, going back to the original question, nothing about ลีโอ Leo brand beer conjures up images of low quality to Thais. That wouldn't be a very bright business move, methinks.

Edited October 11, 200619 yr by Rikker

On a related note, there's a sweet soy milk sold in Thailand called Yeo, which is pronounced โย.

I've always wondered, though, if English speakers who order it see Yeo and pronounce it as if it rhymed with Leo, which is bound to sound like เยี่ยว... seems like a likely mixup to me!

If I ever hear some well-meaning farang ask for เยี่ยว, I may just die laughing...

If I ever hear some well-meaning farang ask for เยี่ยว, I may just die laughing...

Thank you, or as I have heard farangs say, ขอตด for that!

Not sure of the texts, but isn't "lev" in Thai a short for "saralev" = bastard?