Learn how to ask, "Can you speak English?"
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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 |
|---|
| In today's lesson, we'll cover another extremely important phrase: "Can you speak English?" |
| Using this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you're speaking to doesn't understand English, at least he or she will be able to understand what you're asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect to show that you took the effort to learn even a little bit of the language, and for these reasons and many more, we're going to cover this phrase. |
| In Thai, "Do you speak English?" is phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi? |
| As usual, don't forget to add khá and khráp at the end of the phrase to make it more polite. |
| So for women, it's: phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá. |
| And for men, phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable, shall we? |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp. |
| The first word, phûut, means "speak" or "talk." The next word is paa-sǎa, which means "language." The third word is ang-grìt, which means "English." The next word is dâai, which means "can," and the last one is mǎi, which indicates that this phrase is a question. |
| And of course, it’s followed by khâ or khráp, which make the sentence sound more polite. |
| Therefore, phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá, and phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp is equivalent to "Can you speak English?" |
| Now, let's try a different language. How about French? |
| The word “French” in Thai is fà-ràng-sèet, fà-ràng-sèet. |
| Therefore, to say "Can you speak French?" in Thai is: phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khá, for women. |
| And for men, it’s: phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khráp. |
| Let's break it down and hear it one more time: |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khráp. |
| Here, just the word for the language changes, the rest is the same. |
| Cultural Insights |
| Nowadays in Thailand, English is studied at schools, so the number of speakers is increasing; however, there are still many people who don’t speak English, especially outside Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand. |
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! |
| "Can you speak English?" for women - phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khá. |
| "Can you speak English?" for men - phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-ang-grìt dâai mǎi khráp. |
| "Can you speak French?" for women - phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khá. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khá. |
| "Can you speak French?" for men - phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khráp. |
| phûut paa-sǎa-fà-ràng-sèet dâai mǎi khráp. |
| 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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