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How to Say Cute in Thai

March 11, 2019 by
how to say cute in Thai

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.”

how to say cute in Thai

น่ารักจัง

How to Say Someone/Something is Cute in Thai

Examples:

how to say cute in thai

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.

Filed Under: Beginner Tagged With: , , ,

How to Say Congratulations in Thai

March 24, 2019 by
Congrats

ดีใจด้วยนะมึง

If you ever want to say congratulations or praise a friend in Thai for a job well done, some meaningful event or success in their life, you may want to do it in Thai. These are all the phrases you are going to need.

In Thai, there are 2 main phrases you’ll usually congratulate people with, but as is often the case in this language, you may need to adjust or change the phrase you use depending on who you are speaking with, your relationship to them and what you are congratulating them for.

How to Congratulate your Friends in Thai (Informal)

There are a two main phrases you should use and there are a few variations that are worth noting.  While they all mean the same thing, the particles we add at the end can change the feeling behind the sentence. Please note that age does matter here. If someone you are close to is considerably older than you, in most cases, you should add on the polite gender particle at the end of the sentence ครับ/ ค่ะ (khrap/kha).

This can get a little tricky if you are unfamiliar with particles.  Particles are usually single words that don’t mean anything by themselves, but add some color or feeling to the sentence they are modifying much in the way intonation works in a non-tonal language.

Best Choice for Congrats

ดีใจด้วย (dee jai doo-ay) – Congrats!

Variations of Congrats:

Can't read Thai yet? Try a few free lessons from my basic Thai course.

Very Close Friends

If you are really close to someone, you may reach a point where you call each other มึง (mung).  Be very careful with this word as it will come across as very rude if you aren’t sufficiently close.  I’d recommend not using this at all until someone uses it with you.  But, keep your ears open as you’ll hear it when Thai friends speak to each other.

 

How to Congratulate Someone Older/Higher Status in Thai

In most cases, you can use the same 2 phrases, but you’ll want to be sure to always include the polite gender particle.  I feel like ยินดีด้วย (yin dee doo-ay) is slightly more appropriate than ดีใจด้วย (dee jai doo-ay) in this situation as the latter feels slightly more informal.

ยินดีด้วย (yin dee doo-ay) + ครับ/ ค่ะ/นะคะ (khrap/kha/na-kha)

How to Say Congrats for * in Thai?

While often times a discussion will play out with someone telling you about their news or accomplishment and then you congratulate them, there will inevitably be times when you hear thew news second hand and want to indicate what you are congratulating them for.  We’ll still use the same phrases above, but we’ll need to add ที่ (thii) + event.

Want to REALLY Learn to Speak Thai?

A really important part of learning this language is mastering the Thai script and sounds.  It’s very difficult to learn the correct pronunciation using any type of English transliteration and spending a lot of time learning to pronounce sentences incorrectly is just plain silly. If you are going to learn a language, is it worth 10 hours of your time to master the sounds if it makes the rest of the journey much easier?

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.

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How to Order Coffee in Thai

March 16, 2019 by
coffee in thai

เอากาแฟเย็นแก้วหนึ่ง

If you’re a coffee or tea drinker, learning a few simple Thai phrases for ordering food and drink is going to make your life a lot easier when in Thailand. Many Thai cafes will automatically add sugar and the staff may not speak English very well so if you want to avoid your drinks being sweet or make sure there’s no milk in it, learn these Thai ordering phrases.

How to Say Coffee in Thai

First off, let’s learn how to pronounce coffee in Thai correctly.

กาแฟ (gah-fae) consists of 2 syllables. กา (gaa) + แฟ (fae) – If you can read a little bit of the Thai script, it’s easy to identify the 2 very distinct vowel sounds happening in this word. However, when we try to write it in English using transliteration we are left with something like gaa-fae which can be very misleading so I highly recommend you click on both syllables a few times and try to remember the correct vowel sound.

If you can pronounce กาแฟ (gaa-fae), then you’re halfway to saying cafe or coffee shop. As with many types of shops in Thai, you just add the word ร้าน in front which means store or shop.

Ordering Coffee in Thai

เอา (ow) + FOOD/DRINK + (# + classifier)

If you don’t know much or any Thai yet, just start by learning the shortest easiest version. Once you’ve said this a few times and are comfortable with it, come back and learn how to add in additional informationใ

*Staff at cafes often shorten the names of the coffee drinks:

Can't read Thai yet? Try a few free lessons from my basic Thai course.

Thai sign that says "a little sweet, super sweet, just let us know!"

ไม่หวานเลย

How to Say “No Sugar” or “Not Sweet” in Thai

It’s Thailand and Thai people like their drinks SWEET so if you go to one of the many cafes that automatically adds sugar or syrup, you need to let them know if you don’t want any. You generally don’t need to use these on things like an americano at places that make real barista-type coffee, but watch out at the big Thai franchises as well as small shops which tend to automatically add sugar unless you tell them not to.

How to Say “Don’t put in milk or sugar” in Thai

If your pronunciation isn’t good yet (because you haven’t learned the script) it’s a really good idea to have a backup sentence just in case you are having trouble getting understood.
These sentences say to not add in any sugar/syrup.

Non-Dairy Alternatives for Your Coffee/Tea

Apart from hipster cafes and Starbucks, it’s still not very common in Thailand for cafes to have non-dairy milk alternatives. It doesn’t hurt to ask, but you may get clueless stares back.

How to Say “I’ll have the usual” in Thai

One of the more useful phrases in Thai is เหมือนเดิม which depending on the context means something like “the usual,” or “the same as last time,” or “the same as before.” You can use this phrase once you are known to the staff a particular place. If you go to the same place a lot, they’ll likely start asking you at some point: เอาเหมือนเดิมมั้ย or เหมือนเดิมมั้ย.

เอาเหมือนเดิม (ow muan doem) – I’ll have the usual / I’ll have the same as last time

Thai Phrases for Ordering Food/Drink:

Here are a few common Thai phrases you might need while ordering food or drink at a cafe or restaurant.

Thai Vocabulary for Ordering Food/Drink

Sizes in Thai

You can use these

Starbucks Sizes in Thai

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How to Say Sorry in Thai

March 10, 2019 by

When saying sorry in Thai, the words you should use will depend on the person you are speaking with and your relationship, age and status relative to them.  Until you’ve learned to navigate that, just stick to this expression:

ขอโทษ ครับ/ ค่ะ (khaw thot + khrap/kha)

  • ขอ (khaw) – is used in Thai as please in the sense of asking for something from someone
  • โทษ (thoht) – means to punish

Even though Thai people don’t think of it this way, it’s a fun mnemonic to think of saying sorry as “Please punish me.”

Saying Sorry in Thai – Polite

When speaking to people with higher status

Higher status means bosses, elders, people in respected positions.  It will also include people like your partner’s or friend’s parents.

When apologizing in Thai to people of higher status, you should say the standard phrase introduced above, but in many cases, it’s also a good idea to include a wai.  If you really messed up, this is a good way to defuse a tense situation.

ไหว้ [wai] – the wai is when you put your hands together in prayer-like position and it may or may not include a slight bow. The position of the hands in relation to the face/head as well as the deepness of the bow convey differing levels of respect.

What to say:

Saying Sorry in Informal Thai

to friends and partners

ขอโทษ

If you’re fairly close to someone (and this can happen fast), you don’t need to use the polite gender particles ครับ/ ค่ะ .  The need for politeness drops off considerably at this level of intimacy.  If you aren’t sure, use it for the first few sentences and then you can tone it down or phase it out over a longer conversation.

When you need to apologize for small stuff:

If you did something really bad or offensive and/or feel really awful about it, you want to express your apology a bit stronger.

How to say Sorry in Formal Thai

This expression is very formal and not normally used in conversation, but you’ll hear it in public announcements, when you call someone on the phone and it doesn’t connect, on the BTS or other public transportation,  and you’ll find it written in signs.

Saying Excuse Me in Thai

Luckily, we can use the same expression, ขอโทษ, for both “sorry” and “excuse me” in Thai.

Examples:

Saying Sorry in Thai on Social Media / Chat / Texting

There tends to be a big drop in formality/politeness in Thai when chatting online.  However, when talking on message boards seen by a lot of people, many people will still be fairly polite and often use the polite gender particles.  When chatting with your friends on Facebook or Line, it’s not usually necessary.

Saying Why you are Sorry in Thai

Often times, just saying sorry isn’t enough.  You may want to specify what you are apologizing for.  Here are some examples of different situations.

The pattern is simple enough:

ขอโทษ + ที่​​​ ​+ whatever I did wrong

sorry + for + whatever I did wrong / or whatever happened

*You can switch out ขอโทษที่ … for โทษนะ ที่ … to get a more intimate/informal version of this pattern to use with friends.

How to Say “I didn’t mean to.” in Thai

ไม่ได้ตั้งใจ – I didn’t mean to. / I didn’t intend to.

 

How to Say Sorry in Thai for Things you Didn’t Cause

When you feel bad about something that happened to someone else, such as a death in the family, you’ll use a different phrase.

 

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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: , , ,
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