Learn how to ask "Why?"
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| สวัสดีค่ะ ดิฉันกิตติยาค่ะ (sà-wàt-dii khâ. dì-chǎn Kittaya khâ) |
| Hi everybody! I’m Kittaya. |
| Welcome to ThaiPod101.com’s “Learn Thai in 3 minutes.” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Thai. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask "Who" questions in Thai. |
| This time, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word "Why?" |
| Imagine your boss is giving you a call because you are not at work today... He will certainly ask you ทำไมวันนี้คุณไม่มาทำงาน(tham-mai wan-níi khun mâi maa tham-ngaan)? “Why didn’t you come to work today?” |
| [slowly] ทำไมวันนี้คุณไม่มาทำงาน(tham-mai wan-níi khun mâi maa tham-ngaan)? |
| So let’s break down this question: |
| First we had: |
| ทำไม(tham-mai) which is the basic translation of "Why" in Thai. |
| วันนี้(wan-níi) is “today” , คุณ(khun) is “you” |
| ไม่(mâi) is "don’t” or “doesn’t" |
| มา(maa) means “come” |
| and finally we have ทำงาน(tham-ngaan) which is “to work” |
| All together, it is ทำไมวันนี้คุณไม่มาทำงาน(tham-mai wan-níi khun mâi maa tham-ngaan)? |
| So in Thai, ทำไม(tham-mai) is the exact translation of "Why", used to ask the reason for something. |
| So for example, if your boss is asking you "Why are you late today?" he will say ทำไมวันนี้คุณมาสาย(tham-mai wan-níi khun maa sǎai)? |
| Here, he uses "Why" in order to get explanations and reasons. |
| How can we you answer “ทำไม(tham-mai)” question?, we can answer by using “เพราะว่า(phráw wâa)” which can translate into “Because” |
| Another way to ask for reasons or an explanation is เพราะอะไร(phráw à-rai)? which literally means “Because of what?” |
| Now it’s time for Kittaya’s Insights. |
| A common expression in Thai is ทำไม(คุณ)ไม่(tham-mai (khun) mâi…)? which means “Why don’t (you) ….”as a suggestion. |
| For example, if a friend seems to be bored, you might suggest to her "Why don’t you go shopping with me?" “ทำไมไม่ไปซื้อของกับฉันล่ะ(tham-mai mâi bpai súue khǎawng gáp chǎn lâ)? |
| Before ending this lesson, Let’s review all the ways to translate "Why" in Thai: |
| - ทำไม(tham-mai) is the basic translation of "Why," as in ทำไมคุณมาสาย(tham-mai khun maa sǎai)? "Why are you late?" |
| - เพราะอะไร(phráw à-rai)? which is “Because of what?” |
| Finally, ทำไม(คุณ)ไม่(tham-mai (khun) mâi...)? is “Why don’t (you) ….” |
| This is the last lesson of this Absolute Beginner video series. |
| But it’s hopefully not the last you learn about the Thai language! To take your language ability to the next level, check out ThaiPod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Thai. Thanks for joining me, everyone! |
| สวัสดีค่ะ(sà-wàt-dii khâ) |
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