น่ารักอ่ะ
Want to know how to say “cute” in Thai? Just like in English, the Thai word for cute can be used both with people you find attractive as things, animals and children.
The Thai Word for Cute
The word for “cute” in Thai is น่ารัก (naa rak) and it consists of two parts.
| น่ารัก | naa rak | cute |
The 2nd part: รัก (rak) means “to love.” If, you want to go deep on Thai love phrases, read “How to Say I Love You in Thai.”
The 1st part: น่า – is placed in front of certain words to express that the target is worthy of or looks good to (eat, drink, watch, etc). Have a quick look at the examples below to get an idea how it works:
- น่าไป (naa ppai)- looks like it’d be worth going to (if someone shows you a picture from a trip they took you might say this)
- น่ากิน (naa gin) – looks good (for food)
- น่าดู (naa duu) – looks like it would be worth watching or fun to watch
If you follow the above pattern, then น่ารัก (naa rak) ends up meaning something like “worthy of loving/love.”
น่ารักจัง
How to Say Someone/Something is Cute in Thai
Examples:
- น่ารักอะ (naa rak ah) – so cute (the อ่ะ at the end is a particle which adds a slightly stronger feeling)
- น่ารักมาก (naa rak maak) – very cute
- น่าฮักขนาด (naa rak kha-naad) – very cute (Northern dialect)
-
น่ารักจังเลย (naa rak jang loei) – super cute (more likely to be spoken by women)
- น่ารักจุงเบย (naa rak jung boei) – slangy version of น่ารักจังเลย
- น่ารักจะตาย (naa rak ja taai) – sooo cute
สวยหรือน่ารัก
Cute vs Beautiful in Thai – น่ารัก vs สวย (naa rak vs soo+ay)
This is tough to answer in any language as everyone has a different idea of how these two concepts differ. “Cute,” tends to be used with young or seemingly young people and big-eyed, round-faced, puffy-cheeked and/or fluffy people, animals or things.
People will use น่ารัก to describe attractive men or boys, but not สวย.
น่ารัก can also be used to describe someone’s actions. For example, if a man buys a woman flowers for Valentine’s Day, or surprises a girl with a birthday gift, girls might respond with ขอบคุณนะ น่ารักจัง “thanks, that’s so cute.” Here they are referring to the act rather than the person.
Cute Items and Objects in Thai
Objects can both be called น่ารัก or สวย. Clothing, shoes, bags and the like can all be described using these words.
If you are talking about views, nature and most large naturally occurring things, you need to use สวย. A mountain, a view or an ocean can be สวย, but not น่ารัก. There are exceptions, of course. If someone drew a face on a small rock, for example, that could be น่ารัก.
Should You Learn to Read the Thai Script?
Learning to read the Thai script is the fastest and easiest way to understand the fairly complex sound system that the Thai language uses. It is the single most important part of learning to speak Thai well. It requires a 10-20 hour time investment to grasp everything you need to know and a fair bit of practice afterwards to master it, but until you learn those core skills, your Thai will forever be severely handicapped. We strongly recommend learning the Thai alphabet. It’s easier than it looks and it is definitely worth the small time investment if you want to be able to speak Thai well.
