Though
it's not really necessary to get by, you will undoubtedly have an easier and
more enjoyable experience in Thailand from any time you spend learning Thai.
Most Thais don't expect a foreigner to be able to speak any of their language,
and...
The Thai language has its own set of numerals, although the standard
Arabic/Western numerals are much more commonly encountered. You may
come across the Thai numerals in government and official documents,
legal documents, religious texts, page numbers of...
When first learning Thai, it can seem as if the Thais don't care for much
politeness. The words a Thai dictionary would translate as 'please' (such as
ga-ru-nah and bproht) are rarely heard in normal speech, while the
'softer' phrasing sometimes...
The particle นะná is extremely common in spoken and informal Thai, at least as
much so as any of the
polite particles. It's used to make a sentence sound gentler,...
On the surface, Thai grammar is much simpler than European languages - there's no verb
inflection and tenses can often be shown just using the words "will" or
"already", single and plural nouns are by-and-large the same, no noun...
As the majority of visitors to Thailand can speak little or no Thai, most
communication between them and the Thais takes place in English. Although
many Thais can speak some English, getting yourself understood, or understanding
them, can...
In Thai, the name of the each country is also an adjective to describe things from that
country. The word อังกฤษang-grìt,
for instance, can mean either "England" or "English". To unambiguously refer to...
Although the names of the days of the week in Thai are very different from in English,
they are derived from the names of planets in the same way.
In a similar fashion, the names of the months in Thai are named after signs of the
Zodiac.
...
Below is a list of pronouns meaning 'I/Me' in Thai, in approximate order of how common
they are in everyday speech. Although there is a great range of pronouns, they're
actually used quite sparingly and often omitted unless it's absolutely necessary to...
These are written in the Thai script, with the approximate English pronounciation
written to the right of it. The literal translation and the English equivalent
(if there is one) or meaning (if not) are also written below. Many of the
...
Asking questions in Thai is straightforward, though there's a few different ways of
doing it depending on what time of question you want to ask. An important thing to
remember is not to automatically change the tone of your voice to indicate a question
on...
Even if you can speak no other words of Thai, most European and American
visitors to Thailand will quickly become familiar with the Thai word farang
(often mispronounced (even by Thais) as falang - farang with a slightly
trilled 'r' is...
These are given in English, Thai script and an
approximate pronunciation in English letters of the
Thai. To speak politely, remember to add kráp or
ká at the end of your sentence.