Thai Expressions That Make Me Smile

[crazy88]

One I have heard many times used by Thai people when dealing with bad attitude customers is OK " I hear you the first time" with the hear dragged out a little. Always makes me chuckle as the recipient has no idea what has actually just been said to them and they have usually deserved it.

Crazy 88

[hhfarang]

I hear "Jing Jing" a lot. It means 'really?'

I thought that was "really!", not "really?"... or can it be used both as a question and an exclamation of truth?

[sateeb]

Can be used as a question or statement of fact...jing jing

[barrys]

Can be used as a question or statement of fact...jing jing

Simply depends on the intonation

[Roel]

Jing jing? with high pitch question intonation seems a typical example of farang Thai to me. Maybe understood by a Thai partner or others but in fact incorrect.

Thais do not use intonation like we do in our language(s) to indicate a question.
Actually one of the pitfalls for us whilst learning Thai because we all have a natural urge to hold on to our mother tongue's intonation system.

Jing (จริง) means true, correct, sure.
By repeating the word you make the expression stronger e.g. absolutely true, 100% correct, sure no doubt at all.

If used as a question as in: are you sure, is that correct, no kidding? a Thai would say
jing plao? (จริงเปล่า) or jing mai? (จริงไม่) or jing lueee (no idea of spelling there).

For those of you trying to learn some Thai and therefore consulting your partner every now and then a small anecdote. I used to ask her "Can I say [followed by a Thai expression]?" and she said yes, you can. It took a while for I began to understand that her answer actually meant: what you say is complete ungrammatical nonsense and you got all tones wrong BUT yes, you can say it, you just did.

[Korkenzieher]

jing lueee (no idea of spelling there)

I suspect you are referring to จริงเลย there Roel. เลย is used for emphasis, so จริงเลย would mean 'really true', or 'really correct'!

[Roel]

No that is not it. That would not make a question, but like you said emphasize the fact that something is true or correct.

Transcription problems here.
It sounds something like a long stretched lu (as the lu in luggage).
It is quite informal (in certain situations it might even be impolite).
You can use it as a single word expression too.

I am going home now.
Response: luuuuu
Meaning: really? are you?

[sateeb]

My Thai girlfriend at the time explained to me that is was quite "gayish" to use luuu in the extended form whereas most guys would say "jing lah" up in Issan.

[Roel]

Gayish eh. I think it could well be that it is an expression that is mostly used by females. Same as referring to yourself in the third person which is a typical female thing and quite amusing for the Thais if males do it. Regarding the gayish thing she might mean that the kateuys use it frequently to emphasize their femininity?

But the luuuu and the lah you mention could also simply be regional varieties of the same word.
Not sure. See what Korkenzieher says.

[Korkenzieher]

Hard to say - I suspect Jing-lah and Jing-leoi are the same, but I don't have anything to hand that I can check that with.

When it comes to luuu... Is there any chance it means "y'know" as a sort of ghetto-speak? A lot of Isan girls draw out the 'oooo' sound of rue - as in 'mai-rue' (ไม่รู้) = don't know - but because of the L=R problem, it becomes 'mai-loo'. Remove the negative just to leave the 'loo' sound, and that might be how you get there. So Jing-loo could be "right, y'know"

Not wholly convinced, Just a thought, but it might work.

[malcolminthemiddle]

knom pan ping = bread that goes ping = toast

[Lung Per]

slang choo bang = punctured tire

[PeteC]

If you want to politely tell off a driver who is driving too slow, pull up next to them and say "Dao kien yaung?" Basically meaning "Is there a turtle eating your tire?". Pete

[migrant]

If you want to politely tell off a driver who is driving too slow, pull up next to them and say "Dao kien yaung?" Basically meaning "Is there a turtle eating your tire?". Pete

Reminds me of what we used to say as kids to each other
"Hey Joe, there's a dog pissing on your rear wheel!!"

[dtaai-maai]

knom pan ping = bread that goes ping = toast

I LOVE THIS ONE!
I asked Mrs DM about this one and got a blank look until I tried a few variations on "ping" - "bping" with a highish tone did the trick...

My contribution is "LUM LEE LUM LAI/LYE" - haven't worked out its exact meaning as it's the sound I like, but it's usually said as a jokey complaint and means something like "again and again". I think it's pasa Isaan.

I also enjoy listening to Mrs DM's rants when she's driving. There's a lot of blokes out there driving like buffaloes!

Last one is a tonguetwister that I can't remember much of (unsurprisingly) - it starts something like:
"Yak yai yak lek, yak lek yak yai..." any advance on that?