verb: to mean

[MONOCHROMEMAN]

I really must buy a good english-thai and thai-english dictionary. Can you recommend one. A proper comprehensive one that has all the general utility words in it.

 

Meanwhile, I need to know the verb to mean ie a means b; eg i mean now

 

thanks

[herds]

http://www.thai-language.com/

 

and

 

http://www.thai2english.com/online/

 

 

Not sure about 'mean' as a verb in thai. "I mean now", i'd probably just say 'nai dton nee | ในตอนนี้' close enough but not 100% to the intended meaning.

Edited December 17, 2009 by herds

[Dr.Winston]

Once again, your approach is totally different to mine. You seem to have a great knowledge of universal language grammar but I get the impression that it might be hindering your Thai. It's almost like you look for words that will fill identical functions to an equivelent in English, trying to fit Thai neatly into the framework you have already learned about languages in general. The thing is that often the meaning of a Thai word is broader or narrower than an English word it can be translated to, or it simply isn't used in the same way. Have you tried looking for examples of how Thai's use words in sentences and then revising your ideas on grammar instead? It does seem to me that you are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

 

To answer your question, if I understand it correctly (never been one for verbs and pronouns etc.I prefer a more natural approach). One word I have seen used for this purpose is 'sadaang', which can also meant 'to perform' i.e. nee sadaang waa นี้แสดงว่า which translates as 'this means that'. You could also use 'plaa' แปล if you mean 'means' in the sense of a translation i.e. nee plaa waa นี้แปลว่า 'this means that'

 

Anyway, there is no one neat little Thai word you can use for the purpose you ask, rather many that are used in slightly differing circumstances.

[Big Casino]

Once again, your approach is totally different to mine. You seem to have a great knowledge of universal language grammar but I get the impression that it might be hindering your Thai. It's almost like you look for words that will fill identical functions to an equivelent in English, trying to fit Thai neatly into the framework you have already learned about languages in general. The thing is that often the meaning of a Thai word is broader or narrower than a Thai word it can be translated to, or it simply isn't used in the same way. Have you tried looking for examples of how Thai's use words in sentences and then revising your ideas on grammar instead? It does seem to me that you are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

 

To answer your question, if I understand it correctly (never been one for verbs and pronouns etc.I prefer a more natural approach). One word I have seen used for this purpose is 'sadaang', which can also meant 'to perform' i.e. nee sadaang waa นี้แสดงว่า which translates as 'this means that'. You could also use 'plaa' แปล if you mean 'means' in the sense of a translation i.e. nee plaa waa นี้แปลว่า 'this means that'

 

Anyway, there is no one neat little Thai word you can use for the purpose you ask, rather many that are used in slightly differing circumstances.

 

Winston my good man. I am trying to learn Thai through teach yourself Thai by David Smith and after the basics of how much, how far, where is etc it suddenly goes to a new dimension and no matter how many times I read or listen to the cd it will not register in the old shell like. I have read a few threads where you have pointed out aspects of the thai language to people or even mentioned the fact you speak reasonable thai.

So heads up how did you achieve this knowledge, was this by language courses one to one or by book (if so which book) and how long to acheive.

Big C

[Dr.Winston]

Winston my good man. I am trying to learn Thai through teach yourself Thai by David Smith and after the basics of how much, how far, where is etc it suddenly goes to a new dimension and no matter how many times I read or listen to the cd it will not register in the old shell like. I have read a few threads where you have pointed out aspects of the thai language to people or even mentioned the fact you speak reasonable thai.

So heads up how did you achieve this knowledge, was this by language courses one to one or by book (if so which book) and how long to acheive.

Big C

After my second trip to Thailand in 1988 I kinew that I would be spending a lot of time there. There was one incident in a guest house where I was trying to ask for some orange juice but could not make myself understood. A guy who spoke some Thai ordered it for me in Thai but did it in a way that made me look small (Oh I guess I'll have to bail out the newbie!) I decided that he would never get a second chance to do that.

 

When i returned home I bought a tape cassette based course made by Linguaphone. I loved the course and would do a few lesson a week on my own and then pay a Thai girl to come around once a week and go through my work with me. later I bought an American Foreign Service Institute Course whic h was very detailed, but very repetitive.

 

Later, in 1990, while I was living in Bangkok I bought one of the AUA courses. In all honesty I haven't studied Thai for nearly 20 years but I've used my Thai a lot and have picked up plenty more along the way.

 

Personally I've never learned well by breaking things down into verb and adverbs etc. I always prefered a more intuitive approach. I do believe that you need to study Thai properly in the beginning though to give you a foundation on which to learn more.

[MONOCHROMEMAN]

Once again, your approach is totally different to mine. You seem to have a great knowledge of universal language grammar but I get the impression that it might be hindering your Thai. It's almost like you look for words that will fill identical functions to an equivelent in English, trying to fit Thai neatly into the framework you have already learned about languages in general. The thing is that often the meaning of a Thai word is broader or narrower than an English word it can be translated to, or it simply isn't used in the same way. Have you tried looking for examples of how Thai's use words in sentences and then revising your ideas on grammar instead? It does seem to me that you are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

 

To answer your question, if I understand it correctly (never been one for verbs and pronouns etc.I prefer a more natural approach). One word I have seen used for this purpose is 'sadaang', which can also meant 'to perform' i.e. nee sadaang waa นี้แสดงว่า which translates as 'this means that'. You could also use 'plaa' แปล if you mean 'means' in the sense of a translation i.e. nee plaa waa นี้แปลว่า 'this means that'

 

Anyway, there is no one neat little Thai word you can use for the purpose you ask, rather many that are used in slightly differing circumstances.

 

Winston, I agree with you on the one for one fit not always working. In some languages seemingly rarely working. Actually I wasn't asking the meaning of to mean for learning purposes as such - and it did occur to me the same word meaning may not exist in Thai. I was asking because I had a TG ask ME "What mean..." (in English) and she inserted various words in the "...". This jogged my memory that I've heard other TG's use this. So, I figured maybe it was a direct translation from Thai. But I had my doubts.

 

I'll try nee plaa wah.

[herds]

Sounds just like she's just got her word order muddled

[bolly]

After my second trip to Thailand in 1988 I kinew that I would be spending a lot of time there. There was one incident in a guest house where I was trying to ask for some orange juice but could not make myself understood. A guy who spoke some Thai ordered it for me in Thai but did it in a way that made me look small (Oh I guess I'll have to bail out the newbie!) I decided that he would never get a second chance to do that.

 

When i returned home I bought a tape cassette based course made by Linguaphone. I loved the course and would do a few lesson a week on my own and then pay a Thai girl to come around once a week and go through my work with me. later I bought an American Foreign Service Institute Course whic h was very detailed, but very repetitive.

 

Later, in 1990, while I was living in Bangkok I bought one of the AUA courses. In all honesty I haven't studied Thai for nearly 20 years but I've used my Thai a lot and have picked up plenty more along the way.

 

Personally I've never learned well by breaking things down into verb and adverbs etc. I always prefered a more intuitive approach. I do believe that you need to study Thai properly in the beginning though to give you a foundation on which to learn more.

 

 

Similar to my experience with Japanese. For many people, inability to speak a language is equated with intelligence. You cant speak so you must be and idiot. After a few situations like that you either give up and go home, or buckle down and learn so no one can be condescending to you. Nothing quite like that first situation when you can fire back in relative fluency and dispel any idea that they are dealing with an inferior.

by the same token, now I never equate lack of language ability with intelligence. I know from first hand experience that it is neither true nor welcome.

[Ajay75]

I always use "bplaa_ waa^" when saying "mean that"

 

eg: "kam nii/ bplaa_ waa^ aray nay paasaa Tay?" = What does this word mean in Thai?

 

I agree with Dr about the use of Thai words as its difficult to get an understanding of their context in everyday life.

 

A good example is the use of "the time that". You can use "weelaa" or "dtoo_n\ tii^" but the former is a more formal use of the word whereas "dtoo_n" or "dtoo_n tii^" is used by Thais more in everyday conversation.

 

dtoo_n + time

dtoo_n tii^ + sentence, verb, adv, adj

 

I used to use weelaa alot when I first learnt with my teacher but now as I am gradually getting more fluent its quite rare that I will use it. Also sometimes "weelaa" gives a longer period of time than "dtoo_n"

 

e.g weelaa bpay suu_/ koo_ngV, dtoo_n jaay\ nge_n kaw/ choo_b^ chaay/ bad\ credit\ = when go buy things, when she/he pays she likes to use a credit card

Edited December 18, 2009 by Ajay75