I don’t even qualify as a novice when it comes to speaking the Thai language, but thought it might be helpful to share some of the words I found most useful during my time in the land of smiles.

I think most people are told one of the first things they need to learn is Thai for “How much?” The premise being you will get a better price if you can ask for it in Thai. I don’t agree. If you ask how much something is in Thai, chances are you will get the answer in Thai, and won’t understand. Thus, you’ll quickly given away you’re really a clueless tourist that thinks he’s being clever. These people are not stupid. Unless you can engage a local shop keeper in fluent Thai, it’s highly unlikely they will give you a break in price. You can dicker, but the starting price will be much higher than that given to a Thai. So, if you want to know how it is said in Thai, ask someone else, because I don’t know.

One of the most difficult things to master happens to be one of the most important words to learn first. You will hear it use more than any other word spoken in Thailand. There is a proper and lazy way to say it, and there are many variations of its pronunciation, based on regional dialect. To complicate things even more, it means many different things. In English letters its even spelled different ways. Best I can tell, the most common spelling is krub, followed by krap. Krap is closer to how an American would pronounce it phonetically, provided you roll the “r”. A lazier and more common way of pronouncing it is to drop the rolling “r” and say kap. It sounds very similar to cop, but the “o” sounds more like an “a”. If you think about how Bostonians pronounce car, the “r” being silent, and add a “p” at the end, you will have it mastered. And that’s the easy part.

To make things more interesting, kap is only spoken by men. Women, lady boys, and some gay queens say ka - pronounced the same, but drop the “p”.

Understanding how it is used gets a bit more complicated. Aside from the fact I don’t know all the variations; I’m only going to cover the two that are used most. It’s all you really need to know.

Kap is one of the most common ways to say YES, or yes I understand, or yes that is correct, or yes that is true, or yes I am here. If some one asks a question, you can answer kap (yes). If someone calls out your name in a room, you can answer kap (yes). If someone is explaining something step-by-step, you can acknowledge understanding of each step presented by interrupting with kap.

The more complicated use of kap has to do with speaking politely or with respect. One individual related it to using a smilie in Email or chat on the Internet. From what I understand, there are a lot of words in Thai that are used this way. A Thai, with limited English skills would say it is how you speak nice. The best example of this is the one you will use most when first arriving in Thailand.

Thank you = kop koon [cop] [coon drop the “rac” from raccoon]

Said politely “kop koon kap” and no one ever says it any other way.

Another very common use is in conjunction with the Thai greeting, or hello, between strangers or casual acquaintances…another important Thai word to know when first arriving.

Sawasdee [sawatdee] or drop the “t” for the more lazy pronunciation [sawadee]

Said politely, and when would you ever not, “sawasdee krap”.

Now that you have learned the Thai word for YES, it’s probably a good idea to learn how NO is spoken. Like “kap”, MAI [my] means a lot of things, but is most often used to say NO or NOT. I’ve actually found “not want” or “not interested” to be a more useful phrase. If you think about it, not want or not interested comes in real handy for the tourist. If you are a farang, Thais will first assume you are just visiting until you convince them otherwise.

Not Want or Not Interested - mai ao [my] [like out but drop the “t” or ouch but drop the “ch”] 99% of the time you will want to add kap to the end. The exception is when you have to say it for the third or fourth time, because the person you are talking to won’t take no for an answer.

Taxi Directions

Giving simple directions to a taxi driver will come in real handy. The three most important are turn left, turn right, and stop here. It is very difficult to explain, in text, the pronunciation of the Thai word for “turn”. Spelled “lieow” it sounds similar to leo, but notice it is spelled “lie”. It’s hard to explain, but the “w” is short, so you would not stretch it out by saying “ou”, as in ouch. As long as you get close, and it is used in conjunction with left (saai) or right (kwaa) most drivers will understand you.

Notice that left is spelled with “aa” (saai), making the pronunciation of the “a” drawn out a bit, and the “i” at the end almost sounds like a short “e”. Even though it’s not correct, if you pronounce it like “sigh” most drivers will understand.

Right is a lot easier to master - kwaa [qua - like quadrant, but drop the “drant”].

Turn Left - lieow saai
Turn Right - lieow kwaa

Another important phrase to learn is “stop car here” (jort tee nee). I included car in the phrase, not as a literal translation, but to make an important point. It has been explained to me, the Thai word “jort” means stop, only when talking about a moving vehicle. While there are several other words for stop, the most common general word for stop is “yoot”, and should not be used when instructing a taxi driver to stop.

Jort is pronounced like “port”, but replace the “p” with a “j”.
Yoot is pronounced like “put, but replace the “p” with a “y”.

The word “tee nee” means here, or this place, and is pronounced the same as teeny in the phrases “teeny tiny”, or “teeny weeny”.

Stop “Car” Here - jort tee nee
Stop - yoot

Go - pbai [by] see BP NOTE

Pbai Silom Soi See kap - means you want to go to Silom street number 4 spoken nicely. If you don’t want to remember to say GO, it won’t make a difference, but I thought I’d share it with you anyway, because it’s an easy one to learn.

Keep Going – There are better ways to say it, but the one I found easiest to remember is By E. It means go again.

NOTE: all of the above instructions should end with kap - “jort tee nee kap”.

BP NOTE - English does not have the “bp” sound. Exhale as you roll your upper lip off your bottom lip while saying something that sounds like a cross between “b” and “p”, but more like a “p”.

Food - Eating - Restaurant

The Thai word for eat is “gin” [sounds like the “guin” in Guinness].

On the subject of eating, one of the first things you will want to learn is “not too spicy.” This is how it sounds, when written in English - pet nit noy. Say “noy” the same way you would say “annoy”, but drop the “an”. The literal translation is “spicy little bit”.

If you want to get the wait person’s attention it is totally acceptable to call from across the room “YOU”. In Thai you would say koon kap [as in thank “you” above] [said nicely]. While the use of kap is often optional, this is one that might seem rude if not used.

To ask for the check, just say “check bin kap”. Bin is pronounced the same as in “storage bin”. Kap is at the end to speak nicely.

If you want to compliment someone on the food, by saying it is delicious, the Thai word is aroi [aroy with a rolling “r” that sounds more like an “l”].

In restaurants, a lot of menu items allow a choice of meat, such as chicken, pork, or shrimp. Knowing how to say enough to make these selections is important. I’ll supply those words, but do not assume they can be used alone in other situations. For example, there are at least a half dozen ways to say pork, each specific to the way it has been prepared. And the Thai word for pork is not interchangeable with pig, an animal that is still living.

Pork - moo [YES…just like moo cow…go figure]
Chicken - gai [guy]
Egg - kai [just like gai, but with a “k”]
Beef - neua [the closest I can get is new-ah, but that’s not exactly correct]
Fish - bplaa [see BP NOTE below - plaa same pronunciation of “a” as in ah ha]
Shrimp - goong [combine the goo in gooie with the ng in gong]
Crab - bpoo [very similar to the poo in Winnie The Poo]
Rice - kaao [cow]
Fried rice - kaao pat [cow] [sounds like pot, but change “o” to “ah”]
Tea – chaa [like cha cha dance]

BP NOTE - English does not have the “bp” sound. Exhale as you roll your upper lip off your bottom lip while saying something that sounds like a cross between “b” and “p”, but more like a “p”.

Where is the bathroom?

As I mentioned in another document, most Thais, in metropolitan areas, refer to the restroom, or bath room, as the toilet, but for best results its good to know how to say it in Thai. Hong Nam, literally translated, means room (hong) water (naam). The pronunciation is easy - hong [like hong kong] naam [like nom in nominate or the nam in one of two distinctly different pronunciations of Vietnam].

How do you say this in Thai?

It took me a long time to nail this one down, but it was worth it. If you want to ask a Thai how to say something in Thai, ask this - Put young nie Thai [insert variable]? - Put yong nie Thai [rice]? Yong sounds very similar to young, but the “o” in young is a little stronger than we would say in English. Nie is pronounced like the “nigh” in night. I don’t know what the literal translation is, but I think it is something like “how speak Thai”.

What?

You will hear this word a lot, so I’ll give it a mention. It’s also a useful word to know. Unfortunately it means I have to try and explain what always gets tacked on the end, and that’s not easy, because I don’t fully understand its use.

What? - aria [sounds very similar to “a lie”, but the “l” is really more like a rolling “r” - think of the old joke about Asians saying “flied lice” (fried rice) Asians can not pronounce the letter “r”]

Na - is another one of those smilie words I talked about, the most common being kap. When you use “na” you do not use kap. Don’t worry about understanding its use. Just know that it is always tacked on when asking “what”.

Alie Na? [na sounds very much like our lazy way of saying NO, but the “n” is very strong and the “a” is VERY short]

Some more good words to know

No problem or not a problem - mai pen rye [my] [pen] [like rye bred but with a rolling “r”] This is commonly used as a response to someone saying sorry or excuse me, and of course should have kap at the end.

This - nee [knee]
Want This - ou nee [ou defined above - not want (mai ou)]
You - koon [defined above - thank you (kop koon) kap]
I - pom [sounds like the lazy way of pronouncing poem]
Really - jing [like the jing in jingle bells] usually spoken twice - jing jing

Thai Numbers

It’s a good idea to try and master Thai numbers, at least 1-10, but even better 1-20. If for no other reason, you need to be able to tell the taxi driver what street you are going to. Telling the driver Phaholyothin Soi Four will not work. You need to say Phaholyothin Soi See. I started learning the numbers out of specific needs, such as telling the taxi to take me to Silom Soi 4 (see), the street Balcony Pub is on.

To this day I still have problems remembering how to say the numbers 6 and 9. Yes I know…any gay man that can’t remember 6 and 9, in any language, needs to have his card pulled.

I’ll take a stab at trying to help you understand how each number sounds. The most difficult is the number 8, because it has the pesky PB at the beginning, combined with an ending that is equally difficult to explain. This is one of those Thai words that even when you ask a Thai to pronounce it for you it still isn’t easy to master.

1 - Neung [sounds sort of like newng]
2 - Sorng [sounds like song]
3 - Sahm [notice the “ah” - the ah ha sound - draw the ah out slightly - saaam]
4 - See [no help needed - just like see in English]
5 - Hah [like the ha in ah ha]
6 - Hok [like hoke as in hokey]
7 - Jet [no help needed - just like jet in English]
8 - Bpairt [sounds like bat or bad - closer to bad with a very short “d”]
9 - Gao [gown but drop the “n”]
10 - Sip [like sip a drink]
11 - Sip Et [et sounds like the et in pocket]
20 - Yee [as in yee ha]

BP NOTE - English does not have the “bp” sound. Exhale as you roll your upper lip off your bottom lip while saying something that sounds like a cross between “b” and “p”.

Good Sites To Visit

Thai numbers from 1 to 90

English to Thai Translator