Mild Expletives

[sturdyd]

I'm looking for a Thai word that expresses moderate disappointment. An equivalent to the American English usage of "darn!" or "shoot!" or "drat!"  Something that could be used with children, but still conveys dismay. Thanks in advance.

[1FinickyOne]

Don't really know of one word, though I can imagine a low guttural grunt or an "ahh" ... moderate disappointment I would do with my eyes or a shrug or facial expression.. but if you want Thai words, "Bpit kwahm wang" might work, though I think putting it into words immediately makes it a stronger rebuke than you are asking for... 

[sturdyd]

Yeah, I said word, but phrase is more likely. I've come up with ฉิบหายล่ะ but I'm not sure it's what I'm looking for.  Also, I'd appreciate Thai script so I can run it through some translation apps (though of course if those apps were any good I wouldn't have to ask the question in the first place! )

[1FinickyOne]

I think the reason those apps aren't any good is that these 2 languages just do not translate that closely....  and that is a good part of the fun of it - at least for me. 

 

I would guess there would be many idiomatic ways to express the same thing in English... 'aw - c'mon' 'cut it out' 'give me a break' - - all of which might or might not work [in English] depending upon the circumstance... and none will translate word for word... 

 

I am curious what others come up with, but maybe there is a culture lesson here too - that where we have many ways to show displeasure, that is not encouraged by the language/culture here as it is unpleasant and confrontational... 

 

Maybe? 

[sturdyd]

I think you're right Kenk. But actually, I wouldn't limit it to words or phrases that show displeasure. I just don't think Thai is a very rich language (and I'm not bashing it here). I could rattle off maybe a couple dozen words in English that mean "beautiful', but in Thai I can't think of more than, oh, six or so. But I'm hardly fluent and again those translation apps are pretty limited. I dunno, maybe there's a whole subset of Thai that I'm unaware of. In any case, still looking for a substitute for "Shucks!"

[katana]

PAEW แป่ว! is Thai slang sometimes used as an exclamation for mild disappointment.

It comes from the Thai word แป้ว to be deflated like eg a balloon.

[sturdyd]

Katana, pretty much exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

 

For anybody else interested, here's a definition I found: "แป่ว is a slang word that's used by someone who's just suffered an embarrassment, or who's had their hopes punctured and feels disappointed. There's no real catch-all translation for it in English, depending on the context something like "oh no", "ahh", "what a shame", "how annoying" could be appropriate."

 

 

[Pdaz]

เย็ดผม - Yedd Pom is pretty good for that.. The sort of thing you hear said when the "plumber" bashes his finger or his pipe leaks.  Aaiiiiiyoh (sounds like a long drawn out expression of breath in exasperation)  is another one ofter heard from Thais ( and other Asians )

 

My Mrs usually just says " 8 u g g e r " nowadays.. 

[tgeezer]

The one acceptable word to show dissapointment which I have heard from the senior member of my golfing group is โถ or โธ่ when missing putts. It is or was a word expressing sympathy but I have never heard it used in that way. I have had difficulty using โถ when missing a putt because the rising tone doesn't fit my English, however I can see โถ being used to show sympathy for someone else.


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[Chou Anou]

To show general annoyance with something/someone, especially if any sort of surprise on your part is involved, อ้าว is extremely common.  Just be careful if directing it to someone's face; you shouldn't use it with someone older than you/whom you owe respect to.

 

There's also the pan-Asian ไอยา or ไอย่ะ...its origins are in Cantonese but it's spoken all over Southeast Asia (and beyond), kind of like the pan-Asian "oy vey!"

[futsukayoi]

เย็ดผม - Yedd Pom

 

Isn't that much stronger than the poster is looking for.  I thought it translates as "<deleted> me"

Edited April 29, 2017 by futsukayoi

[Chou Anou]

40 minutes ago, futsukayoi said:

เย็ดผม - Yedd Pom

 

Isn't that much stronger than the poster is looking for.  I thought it translates as "<deleted> me"

Yes, I think that's quite strong, and would be considered very crude in some company.

[sturdyd]

เย็ดผม - Yedd Pom. Yes, I picked up on that immediately. Katana hit the nail as far as "something that could be used with children", but any submissions are welcome. Thanks to Chou for "ไอย่ะ". Not precisely what I was originally looking for, but I like it! I'm getting that it's more of a dismissive word than an expression of disappointment. More "bah!" than "rats!" Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Chou Anou]

On 4/28/2017 at 6:21 PM, sturdyd said:

เย็ดผม - Yedd Pom. Yes, I picked up on that immediately. Katana hit the nail as far as "something that could be used with children", but any submissions are welcome. Thanks to Chou for "ไอย่ะ". Not precisely what I was originally looking for, but I like it! I'm getting that it's more of a dismissive word than an expression of disappointment. More "bah!" than "rats!" Please correct me if I'm wrong.

ไอย่ะ is very broad...though if pressed, I would have to say more shock/annoyance than disappointment.  For shock/disappointment, the other one I suggested (อ้าว) is better.  There's also โอ้โห, which I would say ranges from exasperation to something like, "oh, look at you, you rascal you!"   A lot of how we would characterize the "meaning" of a given Thai expletive really depends on context...an even better example is โว้ย, which depending on the situation/usage could be translated as everything from "sh*t!" to "damn!" to "sonofab*tch" to even the "f word"...if you see a Thai movie with lots of swearing in it which has very good English subtitles, you'll see a wide range of English swear words used to translate โว้ย depending on context.

[tgeezer]

Fascinating!


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[sturdyd]

Geezer, I agree. You may be interested in this site:

http://ressources.learn2speakthai.net/thai-language/thai-slang/

which I stumbled on in my research. It reinforces everything Chou said and more.

[tgeezer]

Thanks but I was being sarcastic. The circumstance where "Fxxk me" is appropriate must be known to all of us.


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