Krub or kahp?

[Majestros]

When Thai people say krub, to me it sounds like they are saying kahp.

 

Is there something wrong with my ears?

 

I'd appreciate it if someone could provide some insight on this.

[Loong]

There's probably nothing wrong with your ears.

The "R" sound is often not pronounced, often replaced with "L" because many non-central Thais, find it to difficult to pronounce the "R" sound. Mind you, I've never heard anyone say Klup

The vowel sound is very short and a cross between a and u

The final consonant is like an unaspirated P

 

ครับ

[polan]

from what i have been told, krub is the proper way of saying it, and kup is like the laid back way of saying it. kind of like "thank you" and "thanks"

[PattayaFanatic]

Isn't Rs pronounced rolling like in spanish?

Edited March 7, 2011 by PattayaFanatic

[Majestros]

Thanks for the feed back guys, I was thinking that I wasn't saying it right.

 

I actually used kahp a few times to try and sound like the other Thais that I have heard.

 

I'll be using krub from now on.

[Loong]

Isn't Rs pronounced rolling like in spanish?

 

Not normally, although Thais from the South east of Isaan, near the Cambodian border do seem to exaggerate the R sound and roll it as you say. Karrrrrrup!

It's also wohth noting that many people in The nohth of Thailand and the nohthehn part of Isaan pronounce "R" as "H". That could be anotheh heason why when R is the second part of a consonant cluster it is not phonounced

[Dr.Winston]

It's pretty common that certain words aren't always pronounced properly. The most common example is probably that Eesarn (North East Thailand) people often can't pronounce 'r' sounds as there is no equivalent sound in the Laotian alphabet (which is pretty similar to Thai). As they are brought up speaking a kind of Laos dialect they often pronounce 'r's as 'l's.

[forqalso]

Thanks for the feed back guys, I was thinking that I wasn't saying it right.

 

I actually used kahp a few times to try and sound like the other Thais that I have heard.

 

I'll be using krub from now on.

 

It's their language. Do you really think they're all mis-pronouncing it?

[Loong]

It's their language. Do you really think they're all mis-pronouncing it?

 

As most of the people that you meet in Pattaya are from Isaan, then Thai is not really their language. Isaan used to belong to Laos and so the root of the language they speak is Lao, not Thai. They are not mis-pronouncing, they just speak a differnt language/dialect

[Majestros]

It's their language. Do you really think they're all mis-pronouncing it?

 

Are you saying I should pronounce it as kahp?

 

What really made me get confused was that the word krub has the Thai consonant 'ror reua' in it, which makes an r sound and I wasn't hearing it being pronounced and wasn't aware of any language rules that made it silent.

 

I was thinking it was just lazy speakers or dialect. I have been staying in the Loei provence for the past month or so and that is part of Isaan, so I assume they use the Isaan dialect. We have lazy speakers in Australia, an example is the word water, which some Aussies pronounce as warta.

 

I have just watched some Thai learning videos on Youtube and they all pronounced it as krub, I'm assuming that krub is the proper way to pronounce it in the central dialect. correct me if I'm wrong.

[Mike Asia]

As most of the people that you meet in Pattaya are from Isaan, then Thai is not really their language. Isaan used to belong to Laos and so the root of the language they speak is Lao, not Thai. They are not mis-pronouncing, they just speak a differnt language/dialect

 

yes that is 100% correct. Also speakers of Northern Khmer/Surin Khmer can usually tell when someone is speaking Thai if their 'native' tongue is Northern Khmer/Surin Khmer

[FARANGALANG]

 

We have lazy speakers in Australia, an example is the word water, which some Aussies pronounce as warta.

 

And twenty as tweny and fourty as fordy and eighty as adey.Although to be fair we do say fuck as fffaaarrrrkkk.

[Majestros]

 

We have lazy speakers in Australia, an example is the word water, which some Aussies pronounce as warta.

 

And twenty as tweny and fourty as fordy and eighty as adey.Although to be fair we do say fuck as fffaaarrrrkkk.

 

 

HAHA! that is so true.

[Treebeard]

I found that they mostly say "cap" as in baseball "cap". The Pimsleur pronounciation sounds more like "krrrrap" the "r" sound slightly prolongued.

 

I think they will understand what ever you say though

[MTiber]

I try to pronounce it the way they say it and not the way I hear it on pimsleur.

 

I have only heard it pronounced "KhRap" once by a colleague who was explaining the meaning to me.

When he speaks normally, he also pronounces it "Khap".

 

Maybe it's something like "proper queens english" and normal English

Edited March 7, 2011 by MTiber

[herds]

from what i have been told, krub is the proper way of saying it, and kup is like the laid back way of saying it. kind of like "thank you" and "thanks"

 

what he said^

 

I think it's quite an important differentation actually, sometimes the whole "speaking proper" that you'll learn from tapes and often thai people themselves should be taken with a bit of caution, i mean, using the krap/kap thing, if you were sat with some colleagues to tomorrow and someone asked you to pass the salt, you pass the salt and they said "thankyou very much".. what would you think?

Edited March 7, 2011 by herds

[Lcc]

I found that they mostly say "cap" as in baseball "cap". The Pimsleur pronounciation sounds more like "krrrrap" the "r" sound slightly prolongued.

 

I think they will understand what ever you say though

 

Yeah, I agree with this, I say kap as in baseball cap.

 

eg. Sawadee kap

 

Although Sawasdee seems to be written most of the time to have the second 's' in it which I don't hear pronounced so now I'm really confused.

 

[Dr.Winston]

Yeah, I agree with this, I say kap as in baseball cap.

 

eg. Sawadee kap

 

Although Sawasdee seems to be written most of the time to have the second 's' in it which I don't hear pronounced so now I'm really confused.

 

That's because the letter that represents the 'T' sound in สวัสดี Sawatdii, ส= Soo Suea is normally pronounced similar to an 'S' but when it is at the end of a syllable it is pronounced like a 'T'. In some translations they leave it as an 's' instead of converting it according to it's place in the syllable.

[Lcc]

That's because the letter that represents the 'T' sound in สวัสดี Sawatdii, ส= Soo Suea is normally pronounced similar to an 'S' but when it is at the end of a syllable it is pronounced like a 'T'. In some translations they leave it as an 's' instead of converting it according to it's place in the syllable.

 

Ahhh, OK. Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[Sole]

Just remember (if you read a little Thai) that it's ครับ, not กรับ or something. So it's not a hard K (kaw kai) but a 'softer' k (kh sound) (khaw khwaai).

And the last letter is not a B nor a P but something in between, try using the pp of 'supple' for example.

[libbz15]

It's also a factor of how Thai's speak a lot faster than you'll normally hear from Thai learning courses, so they will often "skip" the r/l completely. For the longest time I thought glap baan (return home) was pronounced gap baan (with home) until a Thai explained it slowly to me.

[Sparko]

It's also a factor of how Thai's speak a lot faster than you'll normally hear from Thai learning courses, so they will often "skip" the r/l completely. For the longest time I thought glap baan (return home) was pronounced gap baan (with home) until a Thai explained it slowly to me.

 

 

Agree but the r/l also seems interchangeable. I asked my TGF is it "mai pen rai" or "mai pen lai", I hear it both ways. Her answer "mai pen lai" you can say either. Well, that cleared it up for me She also said Khup (how i spell it) should not be used as "thanks", but more as "yes/agree" in response to what someone is saying. I used to use it as a lazy "thank you" until I was admonished for it.

[OleKingCole]

My visit this May was my first after starting to learn Thai. I was therefore listening harder to words and rhythms of speech.

 

This whole thing of r/l really did confuse me for a while. My girl, who is very supportive and motivating in my attempts at speaking Thai, laughed at my pronounciation of a-roi (delicious) OK I may not have put a bit of roll on the r. When she stopped laughing she told me a-loi. (She is from Surin) I tried to explain that I though it was ror ruan not lor ling. Yes a-loi. OK forget it for a while. Next day talking to another lady, just chatting in a bar - friend of my girl. I noticed she was distinguishing r and l in her english, so I decided to try to ask her about this. She was from Isaan and she explained that it was just a dialect thing, but that my r was rather weak.

 

The matter came up again in my Thai lesson this week discussing food and some of the dishes I had enjoyed in Thailand (must remember next time to only eat things that are easy to pronounce) the word in question was (transliterated) gap®ow - a type of herb - I have put the r in brackets as my teacher emphasised that though we were writing it with the ror ruan that is only hinted at in speech. She went on to say that in her opinion, in more modern speech, ror is disappearing from many words.

 

The other confusing thing, for a while, was bpa for let's go.

 

When we learn we are learning to speak Central Thai slowly and as correctly as possible. When there we are speaking with people who are not only speaking colloquially, but with different dialects and accents.Bit like a visitor to UK having learnt Oxford English, trying to have a conversation with a Glaswegian

[Crem73]

krap = formal, Kap = informal