Any Thai Language Experts Out There.

[AJinThailand]

Hi There,

Can anyone Translate the below exchange?

A: ไม่สวยหรอกน้องใครว่า

B: น้องเธอไง

A: จ้า

Thanks

[Tahnil]

A. Who said pretty?

B. Your little brother [or sister] (2).

A. Sure...

Note: 1. "Who said pretty?" implies "not pretty."

2. In Thai the sex is often not indicated, น้อง here means the younger sibling, male or female.

In summary, it's a playful conversation or flirtation. I translated the above the way you would say it succinctly in English with the tone of delivery indicating playfulness.

Here's a longer, more literal translation:

A: Not pretty, girl (or boy, addressing the person), who said so?

B: Your little brother (or sister).

A: Yeah...

I tutor Thai and English in the Pattaya area so that the learners would really "get it."

Edited January 17, 2016 by Tahnil

[loonytune]

he said he had sex with your girlfriend.

next guy said how was it.

original guy says not good

[Jeddah Jo]

Actually I would translate it as...

A. She isn't pretty at all, whose younger sister is she?

B. She is your younger sister that's who.

A. Yeah, yeah I know.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Jeddah Jo

[Tahnil]

[A. She isn't pretty at all, whose younger sister is she?]

There is absolutely no query to the effect of "whose younger sister is she?"

A: ไม่สวยหรอกน้องใครว่า

You can ONLY separate the above two ways:

1. ไม่สวยหรอก น้องใครว่า

Not pretty, whose younger brother or sister said so?

2. ไม่สวยหรอกน้อง ใครว่า

Not pretty, girl (or boy, addressing the other speaker), who said so?

You've just discovered the ambiguity of written Thai with no punctuation devices.

It then depends on the context surrounding these couple lines to determine which.

Mind you, your translation above would be a possibility if in stead it was:

A: ไม่สวยหรอกน้องใครหว่า

If separated as:

A: ไม่สวยหรอก น้องใครหว่า

น้องใครหว่า would be "whose sister?"

It is a sister because สวย or pretty would be a clue to the sex.

Thus your translation, "not pretty, whose sister is she?"

But this makes distinctly less sense than another way.

As in the above, it could also be separated as:

A: ไม่สวยหรอกน้อง ใครหว่า

In which case it would translate as, "not pretty, girl (or boy, addressing the speaker), who is she?

A more logical choice, as speaker A does not appear to know the person as he/she presumably would own sibling.

But, in the end, the original text is ใครว่า not ใครหว่า so the possibility of your translation simply does not exist.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Tahnil

[MaeJoMTB]

Jeddah is correct.

Tahnil is incorrect.

Sorry Tahnil .........

PS

"Whose f&^%ing sister (or gf)?"

(Would be more correct)

PPS

'Rok' and 'wa' would indicate anger and insulting ...... IMHO.

Edited January 18, 2016 by MaeJoMTB

[Tahnil]

Jeddah is correct.

Tahnil is incorrect.

Sorry Tahnil .........

PS

"Whose f&^%ing sister?"

(Would be more correct)

Please explain why Jeddah is correct and I am incorrect.

I await your erudite instruction.

[MaeJoMTB]

A: She isn't pretty! whose f*&%king gf is she?

B: I think she's your gf

A: Right!

Up to you, just passing the opinion of my wife, who happens to be Thai.

[Tahnil]

A: She isn't pretty! whose f*&%king gf is she?

B: I think she's your gf

A: Right!

Up to you, just passing the opinion of my wife, who happens to be Thai.

This isn't an opinion, it's a translation of the simple words used that are not ambiguous.

Still it would be interesting to hear how she arrives at her opinion based on the text.

Thanks.

[Briggsy]

Mae Jo

Have you confused ว่า with วะ perhaps?

I tend to agree with Tahnil.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Briggsy

[MaeJoMTB]

Mae Jo

Have you confused ว่า with วะ perhaps?

No,

Third hand report, Thais don't spell so well, especially in 'chat', assuming OP copied it exactly.

Argument over girl will always be the rude ending, no matter how it's typed.

But as I previously said ...... up to you.

Edited January 18, 2016 by MaeJoMTB

[Briggsy]

Mae Jo

Have you confused ว่า with วะ perhaps?

No,

Third hand report, Thais don't spell so well, especially in 'chat', assuming OP copied it exactly.

Argument over girl will always be the rude ending, no matter how it's typed.

But as I previously said ...... up to you.

What do you mean by "rude ending"? I don't follow.

[CaptHaddock]

Why is it that those who know the least seem always to be the most sure of themselves?

[Mole]

It's a chat, so spellings aren't gonna be quite 100% correct, but it is obvious what's written here:


A: ไม่สวยหรอกน้องใครว่า [ไม่สวยหรอก น้องใคร(ห)ว่า]

means something like

She's ugly! (said ironic as a joke, it is of course understood that she's actually quite pretty) I wonder who's younger sister's she is?

The way the sentence is written, it wouldn't even actually quite make sense if it was the word "ว่า" to mean "speak or say". The word "บอก" would have been used instead.


B: น้องเธอไง

She's your sister, of course!



A: จ้า

Of course!


So, the meaning of this entire conversation can be understood as somebody showing the picture of a younger sister of "A" and "A" just says "Who's younger sister is this pretty girl?", "Yours of course"

"Exactly!"

So in other words, "A" is like complimenting that her sister is as pretty as she is.


FYI, I'm a native Thai speaker and the meaning of this conversation is quite obvious to us. Try asking your wife/girlfriends of it and you'll see they agree with me.

Also, when I read through Tahnil's attempts, it's obvious he needs more training in his Thai. The mere fact that the word สวย is used, shows that we are talking about a girl, and not a boy, in which case the word หล่อ would have been used.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Mole

[Tahnil]

[Also, when I read through Tahnil's attempts, it's obvious he needs more training in his Thai. The mere fact that the word สวย is used, shows that we are talking about a girl, and not a boy, in which case the word หล่อ would have been used.]

I think you need to reread my treatise above where the สวย was in fact addressed.

[It's a chat, so spellings aren't gonna be quite 100% correct, but it is obvious what's written here: A: ไม่สวยหรอกน้องใครว่า [ไม่สวยหรอก น้องใคร(ห)ว่า]]

That's very presumptuous.

The conversation also makes complete sense as it's spelled:

"Who said pretty? Your brother or sister [did]. Yeah..."

The first cardinal rule of translation is to go with what's written.

Only when that does not make sense does one begin to suspect otherwise.

[i can assure you that the last ว่า is like a วะ but said with long wovel, kindal like "waaaa?", and not the word "ว่า" as in "to speak or to say" The way the sentence is written, it wouldn't even actually quite make sense if it was the word "ว่า" to mean "speak or say". The word "บอก" would have been used instead.]

If it was meant to be "waaa" it would have been spelled ว้า not ว่า

This is not a spelling mistake commonly made.

Moreover, ใครว่า and ใครบอก here are completely interchangeable. To suggest that บอก is correct and ว่า is incorrect or even that บอก is preferable would be utterly false. ว่า in fact goes better with the brevity.

And why would ไม่สวยหรอกน้อง ใครว่า or ไม่สวยหรอก น้องใครว่า not make sense?

Interesting to note that, rather, น้องใครบอก would sound very corny, only น้องใครว่า would work.

[Mole]

It is actually quite common way to write like this. For example people also write just "วะ" when they actually mean "หวะ".

It's not the word "ว้า" she is trying to write, but "หว่า". Different tone!! You've totally misunderstood everything and still subbornly instist that you are correct.. what the???

By context, the meaning of the entire conversation is exactly what I told it was. It's just you who haven't understood it.

The way you are trying to analyze it by either splitting it up as ไม่สวยหรอกน้อง ใครว่า or ไม่สวยหรอก น้องใครว่า shows you have totally missed the full context.

The fact that you initially wasn't even sure if it's a "she" or "he" when the word สวย was used shows your Thai isn't as good as you really think it is...

[Tahnil]

[It is actually quite common way to write like this. For example people also write just "วะ" when they actually mean "หวะ".]

วะ with the high tone is a question, a low tone หวะ would be a normal statement:

ของใครวะ Whose is it?

ของข้าหวะ It is mine.

The two are not the same and not interchangeable.

[It's not the word "ว้า" she is trying to write, but "หว่า". Different tone!! You've totally misunderstood everything and still subbornly instist that you are correct.. what the???]

Please make up your mind what it is you think was meant to be written หว่า or ว้า?

Earlier you yourself said:

วะ with a long vowel, waa, is in fact spelled ว้า and has the tone of ว้า.

Or try to spell your long vowel วะ yourself in Thai and see what you get.

What is even more comical with your round about argument is วะ ว้า หว่า would be all the same here so what's the problem?

One problem that we all can see is it's not ว่า, what was in fact written.

This is what happens when you try to translate things by imagining what is being said rather than what's there.

Coming up with justification is going to be stretching it.

[By context, the meaning of the entire conversation is exactly what I told it was. It's just you who haven't understood it.]

What context might you be referring to?

The ENTIRE conversation is the A, B, A above.

The context is entirely your imagination.

[The fact that you initially wasn't even sure if it's a "she" or "he" when the word สวย was used shows your Thai isn't as good as you really think it is...]

The problem may be in stead you don't read carefully and have the tendency to jump to conclusions as we can see.

An excerpt from my post earlier, where the สวย was in fact addressed:

Mind you, your translation above would be a possibility if in stead it was:

A: ไม่สวยหรอกน้องใครหว่า

If separated as:

A: ไม่สวยหรอก น้องใครหว่า

น้องใครหว่า would be "whose sister?"

It is a sister because สวย or pretty would be a clue to the sex.

Thus your translation, "not pretty, whose sister is she?"

[Mole]

Like the other thread where you failed spectacularly, this is also same.
Please just ask any Thai native about the meaning of it, and you'll see that they'll say the same as me.

There is really no ambiguity at all. It's exactly what I told it was.
It's an ironic statement.

You are still just trying to nitpick on insignificant details in a pathetic attempt to justify that you were right. Just stop it please and silently leave with your tail between your legs as usual again.

[FrisoP]

A. Not pretty at all! Who's sister is she?

B. Your sister, duh!

A. Yep ^^

After reading all the other comments, I'm almost scared to put it here. Anyway, this is typical slang talk of teens that are speaking in a teasing way. Lady A is saying her own sister is ugly, forcing person B to answer that the the person who is mentioned is her own sister. When person B does that, person A end with a confirmation that in this context most likely is playfull/funny or perhaps proud (of her beautiful younger sister)

Edited February 2, 2016 by FrisoP