Learn how to say, "I don't understand"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Hello and welcome to Thai Survival Phrases brought to you by ThaiPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Thailand. You will be surprised at how far a little Thai will go. |
| Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by ThaiPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
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| When you travel to Thailand, the phrase "I don't understand" is going to be avery very useful phrase because most of the time, maybe even almost one hundred percent of the time, you won’t understand. |
| Before we learn how to say "I don't understand," let's look at the Thai grammar a little bit to make you understand the lesson easier. |
| Unlike English where everybody uses "I" to represent themself, Thai has many forms of "I" depending on gender and social status. |
| The first one is the formal form of "I." For women, we use dì-chǎn, dì-chǎn. And for men, we use phǒm, phǒm. |
| Let's hear one more time: dì-chǎn and phǒm. |
| The next one is chǎn, chǎn. This word sounds very similar to dì-chǎn but this one is higher. |
| Let's hear it one more time: chǎn |
| chǎn |
| This word is casual and can be used by both women and men; although, we hear women say it more often. |
| Now, I believe you're ready to hear how to say “I don't understand” in Thai. |
| We're going to start from a formal form. For women, we say: dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| And for men, we say phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: |
| dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| Let's hear it once again: |
| dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| As I mentioned earlier, dì-chǎn and phǒm mean "I," followed by mâi, which means "no" or "not." The next word is khâo-jai, which means "understand." And as usual, khâ and khráp is added to make it sound more polite. As this is a formal form, you may say this when you speak to someone you don't know very well, someone who has higher social status, or someone you respect. |
| Now, to casually say "I don't understand" is simply to replace dì-chǎn or phǒm with chǎn, which means "I" but is informal form. Therefore, we say chǎn mâi khâo-jai. |
| chǎn mâi khâo-jai. |
| As this is a casual form, we don't really need to add khâ or khráp to make it sound polite. You may use this phrase when you speak to your friends or when you are at party. Remember, both women and men can use this phrase, although women tend to use it more often while men stick with phǒm mâi khâo-jai. |
| phǒm mâi khâo-jai. |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out today's lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You'll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so chôok-dii khâ, that means "good luck" in Thai. |
| Remember, khâ is for women and khráp is for men. |
| Ok, here we go! |
| "I don't understand." for women - dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| dì-chǎn mâi khâo-jai khâ. |
| "I don't understand." for men - phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp. |
| "I don't understand.” (informal) - chǎn mâi khâo-jai. |
| chǎn mâi khâo-jai. |
| chǎn mâi khâo-jai. |
| All right. That’s is going to do it for today. Remember to stop by ThaiPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
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