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How to Say I Love You in Thai

March 8, 2019 by

 

how-to-say-i-love-you-in-thai

รักต้นไม้บ้างมั้ย = RAK thon-mai baang mai? (Do you LOVE trees?)

How to Say I Love You in Thai?

The quick answer is: chan rak ter or ฉันรักเธอ, but I’d recommend reading further because in context-light language like Thai, choosing the right words and sentences depends on who is talking as well as who you are talking to.

You can click on the blue words and phrases to hear the audio of the Thai word or sentence.

Whether you are studying Thai or just have a significant other that you are trying to impress,  you may be interested in learning how to say I love you in Thai.  Even if you don’t go very deep into Thai language, learning short phrases like this can really win you some bonus points with your partner.

Aside from just knowing how to use and pronounce these Thai phrases correctly, you’ll also hear many of them in Thai songs, Thai soaps and Thai movies.  

In addition to learning the different Thai phrases for “I love you,” we’ll also introduce some of the more common expressions and useful sentences that use the word “love” which is “rak” or รัก in Thai language.

Words for ‘I Love You’ in Thai

how-to-say-i-love-you-in-thai2

หมีมีความรักด้วย

 

The most common expression you’ll probably encounter for “I love you” in Thai across all forms of media is ฉันรักเธอ (chan rak ter).  ฉัน (chan) is generally used as the primary female pronoun, but guys use it in love songs and sometimes on Thai tv and movies. I don’t recommend using this in real life, however if you are male as it can sound a little silly.  You can either drop the pronoun entirely, or use one of the other choices below.  

One thing you will notice pretty quickly in Thai is that the pronouns (like ‘I’ and ‘you’) is often dropped.

When in doubt, just pay attention to how Thai people talk to each other (in real life as opposed to on tv) and copy what they do.  It may take a while sometimes before you can find the answer, but it’s worth the effort.

ฉันรักเธอ (chan rak ter) – I love you.  

ฉัน chan I (primarily used by females)
รัก rak love
เธอ ter you (intimate); she

 

Basic Phrases for “I Love You” in Thai

Choosing the best phrase isn’t always easy.  You’ll probably come across these phrases in textbooks, phrasebooks and other web sites.  I don’t really recommend using them, but they won’t do you any harm.

ผมรักคุณ phom rak khun I love you.  (male speaker)
ฉันรักคุณ chan rak khun I love you.  (female speaker)

 

Thai Sentence Pattern: A รัก B

Here’s the basic sentence pattern saying ‘I love you’ in Thai.

“A loves B,” is what you want to start with, but choosing the correct pronouns to use in Thai can be a little complicated.  Gender, status, age and relationship all have an affect on the words that you should use to refer to both yourself and to whom you are speaking to.

As a learner of the language, you are expected to make mistakes so don’t worry about it too much.  It’s a pretty soft minefield so you won’t lose any limbs. Just keep in mind that the more familiar/intimate/close you are with a person, the more freedom you’ll have to use the informal expressions.

In Thai, it’s very common to drop pronouns when it’s obvious who the target is.  We’ll look at this more in the next section.

Informal ‘I Love You’ in Thai

Since declaring your love for someone tends to be a pretty informal situation to begin with, I’d really recommend becoming familiar with the more informal Thai love phrases you can use with your partner.  You can almost always drop one or both pronouns if it’s clear who is saying what to who.  You can also do this if you just aren’t sure which pronoun to use.

Which Thai pronoun to use?

How to Refer to Your Partner in Thai

Informal;
ผัว poo-ah husband (often used even if not married)
เมีย mia wife (often used even if not married)
Formal:
สามี saa-mee husband
ภรรยา pha-ra-yaa wife

 

General:
แฟน fan boyfriend/girlfriend/partner
ที่รัก thee-rak dear/lover/babe/sweetie

Bonus Thai Love Phrases

 

รักผมรึยัง rak phom rue yang Do you love me yet? (male speaker)
รักฉันรึยัง rak chan rue yang Do you love me yet? (female speaker)
รักไม่เป็น rak mai ppen I don’t know how to love.
ตกหลุมรัก tok lum rak Fall in love (fall-hole-love)
แสดงความรัก sa-dang kwaam rak to show or express love

 

 

Noun vs Verbs in Thai

The word รัก (rak) that we looked at above is going to act as a verb in most cases.  In order to form the noun version of “love” in Thai, you just add the word ความ (kwaam) in front of รัก (rak).  You’ll use the noun form in sentences where you are talking about the concept or idea of love.

Final Thoughts

There are plenty of ways to say “I love you” in Thai and this list is not exhaustive, but hopefully we’ve given you enough to get started with.  Remember, that part of learning a language (or any skill!) involves making mistakes and embracing this early on will make the journey go much smoother.

Want to Learn to Read Thai?

Perhaps, the most important part of learning Thai is mastering the script, sounds and tone rules.   It’s very difficult to learn the correct pronunciation using any type of English transliteration and the sooner you get away from it, the faster your Thai will improve.

Try a couple free lessons from my Thai foundation course which teaches everything you need to know about the script, sound system and tone rules of Thai.

Filed Under: Beginner, How to speak Thai, Learn Thai, Learn Thai Online Tagged With: , , ,

Winter is Coming

December 24, 2018 by

A large Christmas tree

 

In this short Thai reading exercise the writer talks about the atmosphere of winter in Thailand each year.  You can listen to the audio and check out the vocabulary list below.  There’s also a link the a version Google doc that you can copy and use for your own studies.

 

 

หน้าหนาวของทุกปีก็จะลุ้นให้อากาศเย็นขึ้นจะได้เอาเสื้อกันหนาวออกมาใส่ เมื่อสองอาทิตย์ก่อนมีข่าวว่าอากาศที่กรุงเทพจะเย็นขึ้นแต่จนถึงวันนี้ก็ยังร้อนอยู่เหมือนเดิม ผิดหวังนิดหน่อยแต่ก็ชินแล้วเพราะเป็นอย่างนี้เกือบทุกปี

บรรยากาศตามห้างก็จะสนุกกว่าปกติ ชอบตรงที่มีต้นคริสต์มาสและโซนให้ถ่ายรูปเยอะมาก ตอนกลางคืนก็ไปดื่มเบียร์กับเพื่อนๆที่ลานเบียร์ได้ ถ้าวงดนตรีที่ลานเบียร์เล่นเพลงถูกใจก็จะยิ่งสนุก บางที่คนอาจจะเยอะมากควรไปเร็วหน่อยหรือจองโต๊ะไว้ล่วงหน้า

 

  • หน้าหนาว – the “cold” season
  • อากาศ – weather; climate
  • เสื้อกันหนาว – sweater; long-sleeved shirt (shirt + protect-against + cold)
  • เหมือนเดิม – same as usual; same as previously
  • ผิดหวัง – disappointed
  • ชิน – to get used to; to become accustomed to
  • เกือบ – almost
  • บรรยากาศ – atmosphere (both for SPACE and a place like a restaurant or a mall)
  • ห้าง – shopping mall
  • ปกติ – usual; normal
  • ต้นคริสต์มาส – Christmas tree
  • วงดนตรี band; music group (circle + music)
  • กลางคืน – night (time)
  • จอง – to reserve
  • ล่วงหน้า – in advance

 

Examples:

  • ช่วงนี้อากาศกำลังจะร้อน – It’s getting pretty hot these days.
  • ตอนที่ไปกรุงเทพ ไปกินข้าวที่ห้างเกือบทุกวัน – When I’m in Bkk, I eat at the mall almost every day.  
  • ถ้าจะไปเที่ยวคืนนี้ควรจะโทรไปจองโต๊ะก่อน – If you are going to go out tonight, you should probably call and reserve a table.

 

Filed Under: Beginner, By Difficulty, Intermediate, Learn Thai, Learn Thai Online, LTfaWG: Diaries, Reading

How to Say YES in Thai

October 16, 2018 by Leave a Comment

CHAI doesn’t mean yes.

The YES word that you want doesn’t really exist in Thai. The first word you’ll come across is ใช่ (chai), but that’s usually not what you should be using. If you are being asked a question, you generally say YES, by repeating the key word back to the person asking, or you negate that word to say NO, you are not doing that verb.

As is often the case in language learning, asking questions like “How to say YES in Thai?” isn’t the right question. You often can’t just translate a word into another language and expect it to function the same way.

In Thai, you say the equivalent of YES or NO based on the question. Note that we don’t need to use any pronouns at all here. If ใช่ (chai) isn’t in the question, then it’s probably best to not use it in the answer.

How to Say Yes in Thai – The Quick Answer

ใช่ (chai) – yes (*actually means “It is” or “that’s right”)

In Thai, you say the equivalent of YES or NO based on the question. Note that we don’t need to use any pronouns at all here. If ใช่ (chai) isn’t in the question, then it’s probably best to not use it in the answer.

How to Answer Yes / No Questions in Thai

Not unlike English, the answer to most simple Thai questions is already inside the question.  In Thai, we usually drop the pronouns (you/I/he/she/etc) if it’s clear from context who is being referred to.

So, if you ask a question like “Where are you going?” we only need to say “GO + Question-Particle.”  The particle word MAI ( ไหม)  with a rising tone acts as a YES/NO question marker.

Q: ไปไหม (ppai mai) – Are you going? [Go + QUESTION_PARTICLE]

  • A1: ไป – (ppai) (I’m) going.

The falling tone MAI ( ไม่) means “no” or “not” and to answer the previous question you just say “not go” which works exactly like “I’m not going” does in English.

Q: ชอบพิซซ่าไหม (chawp phit-sa mai) – Do you like pizza?

When to Use CHAI

The only time you really want to use CHAI ( ใช่) is when someone asks you a question ending in …CHAI MAI? ( ใช่ไหม).    CHAI (ใช่) really means “It is,” or sometimes “That is right.”  It is not used like “YES” in English so as soon as you become aware of this, stop using it like that.

For example, if someone wants to confirm that you like pizza, rather than just ask you, you may hear this:

Q: ชอบกินพิซซ่าใช่มั้ย – (chawp kin pissa chai mai) – (You) like eating pizza right?

Other Common Thai Sentence Patterns:

Another super common pattern that you’ll hear is …. ru yang? (รึยัง) which literally means “or not yet?” but is used ALL THE TIME.   It sounds weird in English if we translate it word for word, but this is the pattern you in use if you want to ask questions like these:

Q: กินข้าวรึยัง (kin khaao ru yang?) – have you eaten yet? (lit. eat rice or not yet)

Q: มีแฟนรึยัง (mee fan ru yang?) – Do you have a gf/bf/husband/wife yet?

Now, there are many different question patterns in Thai.  Here’s another example where you would never use ใช่ (chai).

Q: พรุ่งนี้อยากไปดูหนังกันมั้ย – (phrung nee yaak ppai duu nang gan mai?) – Do you want to go see a movie tomorrow?

Want to Learn to Read Thai?

A really important part of learning Thai is mastering the script and sounds.   It’s very difficult to learn the correct pronunciation using any type of English transliteration.

Try a couple free lessons from my Thai foundation course which teaches everything you need to know about the script, sound system and tone rules of Thai.

Filed Under: Beginner Tagged With: , , ,

Cashless Society

September 17, 2018 by

This is a short Thai reading exercise to help you practice reading Thai.  First try to go through the text then check the linked Google doc for vocabulary help.

It’s getting a lot easier to go cash-free in Bangkok these days. In this short reader, we get a quick summary of what it’s like paying via an app.

I strongly recommend trying to read through the text below a couple of times before accessing the breakdown in the Google doc. It doesn’t matter if you only know 5 words in the text and have no clue what’s happening. Part of the learning process is looking at real text and figuring out as much (or as little) as you can. You will gradually acquire words as you encounter them more and more. If the text is too small hold down ctrl/cmd and tap the + key until you can read it.

Cashless Society Breakdown

ทุกวันนี้เราใช้เงินสดน้อยลงกว่าเมื่อก่อนมาก
นอกจากจะจ่ายเงินด้วยบัตรเครดิตแล้ว ก็ยังจ่ายผ่านแอพในมือถือได้ง่ายๆ
ร้านขายของตามตลาดนัดหลายร้านก็มี QR Code แปะไว้ ตกลงราคากันเรียบร้อยก็แค่สแกนแล้วกดจ่ายเงิน พอได้ข้อความยืนยันมาแล้วก็โชว์หน้าจอมือถือให้คนขายดูได้เลย
ทุกเช้าเวลาซื้อกาแฟไม่ต้องหยิบกระเป๋าสตางค์ขึ้นมาแล้ว ไม่ต้องพกเงินสดไว้มากด้วย
มีหลายร้านที่มีโปรโมชันให้ส่วนลดหรือได้เงินบางส่วนคืนมาถ้าจ่ายผ่านแอพ ทำให้รู้สึกว่ายิ่งใช้ก็ยิ่งคุ้ม
ในอนาคตอาจจะไม่มีใครใช้เงินสดอีกเลยเพราะแบบนี้สะดวกกว่า

Filed Under: Beginner, By Difficulty, LTfaWG: Diaries, Reading

How to Practice Tones

December 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I’ve been making lots of new videos lately.  If you haven’t subscribed to my youtube channel or liked my facebook page then consider doing so.  It’ll take me a while to post everything I’ve filmed in the past few weeks, but much of it is already up there.  I won’t ever post anything spam-y so when I put something up, I assume it will be useful to you, or particularly funny (in a Thai way).

Here’s an easy way for beginners to practice tones in a tonal language like Thai:

Filed Under: Beginner, De-Farang-ify, Intermediate, learn to read thai, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Where to start? Tagged With:
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