Thai Word of the Day?
- Randy Cornhole
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Had a few drinks at Tommys last month with Lekky and co Randy.Randy Cornhole wrote:I used to know a really nice Thai taxi/resturant owner named Tommy (he owns the boat resturant)
He used to call me 'oo-an cow' and I called him 'oo-an dam' Oh what fun we had...
Seriously nice guy though...
Good place to start the night, top bloke.
- Randy Cornhole
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- dtaai-maai
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This is my main problem with Thai - not so much the meaning in the above sense, but the variety of meanings of what is effectively one word with slightly different pronunciation/tone/vowel length.BaaBaa. wrote:
Uaan means overweight.
wan/waan = day, fat and sweet (any more?)
kao/cow = rice, white, mountain, nine
mai/mye = silk, not, wood
etc, etc
I tend to pronounce them all pretty much the same way - I certainly can't remember which tone applies to which meaning. I've picked up what Thai I know from listening and speaking. What about you guys who've had formal lessons? Is there a trick to learning the tones?
This is the way
- Randy Cornhole
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- dtaai-maai
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That reminds me of the day Mrs D-M and I were walking in the middle of nowhere. She suddenly started yelling "Ngoh!" and pointing in my general direction. I thought she was just calling me stupid again, but it turned out there was a snake behind me.Randy Cornhole wrote:I get it wrong everytime. I pointed to some snails in a mangrove swamp once and exclaimed...'hoy' which is also the word for a womans area...
Luckily everybody laughed...
This is the way
- Randy Cornhole
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There is a certain brand of snake that is called 'gnu how'
Mrs C decided her task for the day was to teach me how to pronounce this devilish tounge twister.
'No No No' was all she kept saying.
'Stop saying bloody no' I retorted 'im saying it right'
This went back and forth for several hours and ended up with me huched double on the sofa with one finger up my nose in a vein attempt to get it right.
All of a sudden she said 'yes thats it youv'e got it'
Ha I exclaimed I knew my linguistic skills would prevail. I then pronounced it again to further ram it home.
'No thats not it' she said.
'But I just said the same thing' I stammered.
'No you didn't'
To this day there is a coffee stain on the living room wall...
Mrs C decided her task for the day was to teach me how to pronounce this devilish tounge twister.
'No No No' was all she kept saying.
'Stop saying bloody no' I retorted 'im saying it right'
This went back and forth for several hours and ended up with me huched double on the sofa with one finger up my nose in a vein attempt to get it right.
All of a sudden she said 'yes thats it youv'e got it'
Ha I exclaimed I knew my linguistic skills would prevail. I then pronounced it again to further ram it home.
'No thats not it' she said.
'But I just said the same thing' I stammered.
'No you didn't'
To this day there is a coffee stain on the living room wall...
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After a million years here, I'm no closer to being able to speak Thai than I ever was. However, what I have been told is that the language has classifiers. If you use the classifier correctly the word will usually make sense to the Thai listener despite the tone.dtaai-maai wrote:This is my main problem with Thai - not so much the meaning in the above sense, but the variety of meanings of what is effectively one word with slightly different pronunciation/tone/vowel length.BaaBaa. wrote:
Uaan means overweight.
wan/waan = day, fat and sweet (any more?)
kao/cow = rice, white, mountain, nine
mai/mye = silk, not, wood
etc, etc
I tend to pronounce them all pretty much the same way - I certainly can't remember which tone applies to which meaning. I've picked up what Thai I know from listening and speaking. What about you guys who've had formal lessons? Is there a trick to learning the tones?
So with kao/cow, if you want to say the colour, preceed the word with see/si. A Thai person will understand what you're getting at if you want a packet of Marlboro "see cow".
Mind you, you just might end up with Marlboro flavoured white rice!!!
Maybe our cunning linguists, Roel and Buksida, could confirm/clarify?
Okay then. First of all "see" (สี) is not a classifier, it is a word but it is often omitted in spoken language by Thais. It is a good idea especially for beginners not to try to speak at native level but always use the full words. Talk written Thai so to say. A red car = rot see daeng (รถสีแดง). Following a linguistic universal rule "by nature all language users are lazy" most Thais will say "rot daeng". You can start omitting things in a second language as soon as you are fully aware of what you are doing.
Remains the fact that (unfortunately) in the end getting the tones correct is absolutely necessary. No way to work around that I am afraid.
Remains the fact that (unfortunately) in the end getting the tones correct is absolutely necessary. No way to work around that I am afraid.
We are all living in 'the good old days' of the future.
- dtaai-maai
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Ah, the famous classifier! Tell us more please Roel/Lev.Roel wrote:Okay then. First of all "see" (สี) is not a classifier...
If I wanted to say '4 girls', I'd use 'Poo-ying see khon' - i.e. 'Girl, 4 people'.
At least, that's what I've heard people say - does that mean either poo-ying or khon is a classifier in this case?
Can you give a couple of examples?
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