How Do You Say

[Focus]

How do you say "I want to go to (such and such place)" in Thai?

Thanks,

focus

[BambinA]

Phom dtong garn ja pai ...(place)....

ผมต้องการจะไป

or

Phom yark ja pai...(place)...

ผมอยากจะไป

Women use "Chun" or "Di chun" instead Phome (ฉัน/ ดิฉัน)

[Focus]

Thanks

[ourmanflint]

Hmm.. I think shows why Thai can be such an awkward language to learn. I mean it would be almost impossible to construe that dtong garn, means want when neither of it's constituent words mean anything like that.

ต้อง

dtông * must ; shall ; ought to * touch ; contact

การ

gaan * task ; work ; job

how on earth does it all make sense?? It seems knowing vocabulary isn't enough you need to some magic!

[Tywais]

Phom dtong garn ja pai ...(place)....

ผมต้องการจะไป

or

Phom yark ja pai...(place)...

ผมอยากจะไป

Women use "Chun" or "Di chun" instead Phome (ฉัน/ ดิฉัน)

Is it necessary to use 'ja'? If you imply immediatcy (at this moment) 'I want to go' then seems dropping the 'ja' would be correct. If one is implying future 'I would like to go' then using 'ja' seems correct? It's the subtle differences that often cause difficulties.

[Rikker]

In this case จะ probably isn't intended as future tense, but rather to express an unrealized event (that happens to be in the future).

This is another use of จะ that I'm not sure if they formally teach in Thai schools, but it's a subtly different related concept.

For example, the phrase

อยากจะช่วย "I'd like to help" doesn't correspond with our future tense. You might say it corresponds to the infinitive form "to + verb", but it's more about expressing the idea of unrealized action. As opposed to ฉันจะช่วย "I will help."

Or, if you ask a Thai a question and they don't know, you might hear something like ฉันจะรู้ได้ยังไง "how would I know?", in this case with จะ corresponding to 'would' for a hypothetical situation.

Etc. etc.

I think the similar things are going on with อยากจะไป or ต้องการจะไป. Not exactly future, even if it's about to happen immediately, as long as it remains unrealized then I think จะ is okay. That's me, anyway.

Edited November 26, 2006 by Rikker

[baennaenae]

Hmm.. I think shows why Thai can be such an awkward language to learn. I mean it would be almost impossible to construe that dtong garn, means want when neither of it's constituent words mean anything like that.

????

dtông * must ; shall ; ought to * touch ; contact

???

gaan * task ; work ; job

how on earth does it all make sense?? It seems knowing vocabulary isn't enough you need to some magic!

gaan/ngaan also used as a noun, and always places at the beginning of the word for example, gaanrean (a single two-syllables word = studying ), gaan-taam-arhaan (how to cook) but taam-ra gaan taam arhaan (recipe) , ngaan pra-jaam pee (an annual fair, festival), ngaan loy-gra-tong (Loy-gra-tong festival), Ngaan Song-graan etc.

tarmngarn (verb) and garnngarn / garntarmngarn (noun), tarm (verb = do, put it in action)

Gaan or garn and Ngaan or ngarn has the same meaning

' Gaan' and ngaan though cannot stand alone. The funny thing is...we don't often ask what is your job? because it sounds very formal when you speak in Thai

What is your job ? = Khun me aa-cheep arai ? ... aa-cheep = job, career

but We use these more..

Khun Taam-ngaan arai? ( what do you do? )

Khun Taam-ngaan Ti (prepsosition) Nai? ( where do you work? )

I wouldn't ask my close friends ' khun me aa-cheep arai? '

I would just say ... hey, what do you do for living now, mate ! ?

I wouldn't use ' khun' with them either because it sounds too formal to use. We use Khun with people in higher positions in career for example , teacher = khun kru, nurses and doctors = Khun mor, policeman = khun taam-ruad (j) , father and mother = khun phor and khun mae, and new faces. Once you have become acquainted you don't have to keep using ' khun ' unless if they want to but most Thai people don't regardless of the bangkok residents because I belive they do use " khun".

Edited November 26, 2006 by baennaenae