Thread: Thai Idioms, Metaphors & Similes etc..

somtamslap I'd say อะไรจะเกิดก็ให้มันเกิด -àrai jà gə̀ət gɔ̂ɔ hâi man gə̀ət - is "What ever's gonna happen, well, let it happen". (It's also the name of a thai song).

There are a few I listed that are "fightin' words" especially; "face like your wife" or a "skirt hem clinger", but the rest are just observations which can be said about people walking by when you're sitting with a group of thaiz.

Here's one i just came across; ไม่ควรขายหนังหมีก่อนที่จะฆ่าหมีได้ -mâi kuan kǎai nǎng mǐi gɔ̀ɔn tîi jà kâa mǐi dâi - "you shouldn't sell the bear skin until you've killed the bear", sort of like don't count your chickens before they hatch..

Another good one is อมพระมาพูดก็ไม่เชื่อ - om prá maa pûut gɔ̂ɔ mâi chʉ̂a - "if you were sucking on a buddhist medalion I wouldn't believe what you said". You can change it up some to make it harder core with อมวัดมาพูดก็ไม่เชื่อ - om wát maa pûut gɔ̂ɔ mâi chʉ̂a - even if you were sucking on an entire temple I wouldn't believe you!

(BTW: that's a famous thai song too, and has the idiom หน้าเนื้อใจเสือ - nâa nʉ́a jai sʉ̌a "face like a timid deer heart/mind like a tiger").

One of my best thai friends is from Yasothon province. He's dark as coal and when I met his wife, she was white as the driven snow. After we'd left and were drinkin' Soi side I asked "Why did an angel like that marry a temple dog like you?" นางฟ้ากับหมาวัด - naang fáa gàp mǎa wát. I thought he was going to choke to death on his beer laughing.

The reverse of that is if a poor girl marries someone with money she's a "mouse that fell into a tank of milled rice" หนูตกถังข้าวสาร -nǔu dtòk tǎng kâao-sǎan

Personally, I stay away from cursing outright directly at people or calling them out. My motto here especially when speaking thai to thaiz is NEVER dig a hole for myself so deep I can't climb back outta it with my language skills.

That's why I always weigh in so heavily and so negatively on those "let's learn to swear in thai" threads. Most people can't string 5 thai words together coherently let alone dig themselves back out of a situation which might occur if they cursed at the wrong thai.

It's my experience, that these people can be pushed pretty darned far, especially so by foreigners as we have far more lee-way than other thaiz. However most of the time we don't know where "the line in the sand is". Once you push a thai across that line they're as likely to go "spider monkey on your ass" tryin' to maim or kill you as they are to laugh it off, lighten up and keep drinking their beer.

I can't even remember the times I've asked a thai if they were "pretending to be stupid or really stupid" when they gave me a half assed answer to some question แกล้งโง่รึโง่จริง ๆ? - glɛ̂ɛng ngôo rʉ́ ngôo jing jing. Every time I've said that they've always laughed because they knew I'd caught them giving a b/s answer.

It's a delicate balancing act, being sarcastic enough with thaiz so that they know not to try to take the piss but not being too hard core that they wanna kill me.

Okay, here's one more, when someone asks how are you, you can answer them with ดินยังไม่กลบหน้า - din yang mâi glòp nâa - dirt ain't covering my face yet!

As for the ไม่เป็นสับปะรด for not make sense nowadays thaiz say ไม่เมคเซ้นส์ - "mâi make sense"