Thread: Thai Idioms, Metaphors & Similes etc..

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

How would you say .. I'm trapped in a shit marriage and am miserable to the point of getting a real chubby from petty acts of revenge?

It's all in the tone.

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

How would you say .. I'm trapped in a shit marriage and am miserable to the point of getting a real chubby from petty acts of revenge?

It sounds a lot like you have a ตรวนใส่ขา - dtruan sài kǎa - fetters on your leg; or like we say in english when referring to a wife or significant other "the old ball and chain". . .

"robuzo" actually the way any word is written in thai automatically means it has to follow thai tone rules.

Factor in NO word spelled in thai can end in an 'r' or an 'l' because those turn into an 'n' sound. Nor can a word can end in an 's' because those turn into a 't' sound.

Thaiz try to get around this by using the 'silencing super script character' called a ไม้ทัณฑฆาต over the last letter like this แคร์ - care.. BUT all that does is tell thaiz NOT to pronounce that letter according to the tone rules, so it really doesn't dial them into any better enunciation of foreign words, because they just leave it out.

That's also why you see that silencing character used over r's when they in the english spelling of the word like ฮาร์ดคอร์ - hardcore, ปาร์ตี้ party, เคลียร์- clear, เวิร์ก - work, etc.

What you're hearing is not the tone, but the stress thaiz put on syllables in words. They usually stress the last syllable which makes it sound funny.

For example thaiz pronounce words like this
vocabulary italy, seven, television, interesting caculator, development, funiture, transportation, water, power with the stressed syllable being at the end. Thai also can't have an 's' be combined with another character to make a consonant cluster like we can with the words stop, stupid, slowly special. The 's' character in thai always has the vowel ะ pronounced with it; that's why thaiz pronounce those words like sa-top, sa-tupid, sa-lowly, sa-pecial..

This is what makes them sound sorta squirrelly when they speak english versus a native english speaker.

Todd, usually you make a lot of sense, but here it looks like you had a couple of drinks too many before posting :

Originally Posted by toddaniels

"robuzo" actually the way any word is written in thai automatically means it has to follow thai tone rules.

Factor in NO word spelled in thai can end in an 'r' or an 'l' because those turn into an 'n' sound. Nor can a word can end in an 's' because those turn into a 't' sound.

From your description you probably mean Thai ortography.
The tone rules are a set of rules that determine what the tone of a syllable will be, and if there is one category that really doesn't follow those rules it's English loanwords.

Originally Posted by toddaniels

What you're hearing is not the tone, but the stress thaiz put on syllables in words. They usually stress the last syllable which makes it sound funny.

Actually, what you're hearing IS the tone.
You're right that Thais put stress on the last syllable, but they don't do that by changing the tone to a falling tone, because that would change the meaning.
Instead they "unstress" the syllable before it and often draw out the vowel of the final syllable.
That's why a word like น้ำ is pronounced short as /nám/ in น้ำเปล่า and long as /náam/ in แม่น้ำ

Originally Posted by toddaniels

For example thaiz pronounce words like this
vocabulary italy, seven, television, interesting caculator, development, funiture, transportation, water, power with the stressed syllable being at the end.

These are just some examples of loanwords with a falling tone at the end. It has nothing to do with it being a stressed syllable.

You can find just as many examples that have a high, low or mid-tone at the end:
Ameri-gaa (mid) - America
Hon-laen (mid) - Holland
Ho-ten (mid) - hotel
Tee-wee (mid) - TV
Eu-rop (low) - Europe
Ten-nit (high) - tennis

And all these last syllables are stressed as well.

Just sayin...

Por Yai, you are half way right.

I am far from a cunning linguist, and my choice of terminology is sketchy at best, but I haven't had a drink in a fair while now.

I meant that the tone rules govern how syllables are pronounced, period. There's NO deviation in those rules as thai words are written.

Now, there is deviation in how words are spoken versus how they're really supposed to be pronounced. That's got nothing to do with the rules and everything to do with people just taking a lotta creative license in their pronunciation. What I call the "verbal question mark" or ไหม at the end of sentences is now almost universally spelled as มั้ย (even in the newspapers) to better reflect how it's spoken in daily life, just like ฉัน has become ชั้น.

The second part of what I said is confusing even to me, and I frickin' wrote it!!

What I meant was that following what thaiz call the "eight word ending protocols"; word with ending consonants have to follow a set of rules; r's and l's turn into n's, etc. You rightly pointed out those are most definitely not tone rules. I stand humbly erected, err corrected..
Consonant Endings


As far as engrish loan words, I bet dollars to durian that they hafta follow the rules based on how they're written. No matter how people pronounce them in real life, when they're written in thai, they gotta follow the rules.

Of the examples I listed (which you said had falling tones);
Italy อิตาลี, Water วอเทอร์, Power เพาเวอร์, furniture เฟอร์นิเจอร์, calculator แคลคูเลเตอร์ & interesting อินเทอเรสทิง certainly DON"T have falling tones, because they're not written that way!! Every one of those words has a last syllable pronounced as a mid tone. What you're hearing is the last syllable carrying the stress when it's pronounced.

Now seven เซเว่น, television เทเลวิชั่น & transportation ทรานสปอร์ตเทชั่น do have falling tones for the last syllable. Just like development ดีเวลลอปเม้นท์ has a high tone.

Was that any better? Or did I just muddy the water further?

I suppose your half way right

Originally Posted by toddaniels

As far as engrish loan words, I bet dollars to durian that they hafta follow the rules based on how they're written. No matter how people pronounce them in real life, when they're written in thai, they gotta follow the rules.

That's what you would think.
Unfortunately the reality is different, like I said before: if there's one category that doesn't follow these rules it's English loanwords.

Originally Posted by toddaniels

Of the examples I listed (which you said had falling tones);
Italy อิตาลี, Water วอเทอร์, Power เพาเวอร์, furniture เฟอร์นิเจอร์, calculator แคลคูเลเตอร์ & interesting อินเทอเรสทิง certainly DON"T have falling tones, because they're not written that way!! Every one of those words has a last syllable pronounced as a mid tone. What you're hearing is the last syllable carrying the stress when it's pronounced.

I probably said they had falling tones, because most of them are pronounced with falling tones, despite not being written that way.

อิตาลี is pronounced อิ-ตา-ลี่
เฟอร์นิเจอร์ is pronounced เฟอ-นิ-เจ้อ
and don't quote me on that, but I would say that pretty much all the loanwords ending with an เออ sound have a falling tone.
Not sure about อินเทอเรสทิง, and you're right about ดีเวลลอปเม้นท์, so you got me on that one

Most of the online dictionaries use an automated algorithm for transcription and they keep a manual list for all the exceptions.
For Thai words that don't follow the rules (yes, they exist as well) it usually works pretty well, but for loanwords their batting average is pretty abysmal.

I checked a couple of loanwords on both thai-language.com and thai2english.com and they both had exactly 1 word correct!
thai-language correctly identified "Europe" as not following the rules:
ยุโรป pronounced as ยุ-โหรป
thai2english had the falling tone on "computer" correct:
คอมพิวเตอร์ pronounced as คอม-พิว-เต้อ

The only "big" dictionary with transcription that probably has them all correct is Benjawan Beckers Talking Thai app, but that's probably because she has soundfiles for all the words, so she had to check each word individually and weeded out all the exceptions like that.

Can I get my durian now?

While I think all we're doin' is goin' around in circles between how a word is spelled in thai and how thaiz say it. I'll bow to your superior intellect and give it a rest.

I will agree that Benjawan Becker in partnership with Chris Pirazzi do have the best ทอล์คกิงดิค แอพ out there with that three-way dictionary dealy.

They really came up with a winner for the ability to search in real thai, real english or their phonetic system; I especially like that the keypad shows the phonetics. I don't use their dictionary and while my p/c can type in their phonetics, it doesn't have a keyboard layout, so I hafta hunt and peck...

BTW: Can I just get you a cheap durian that they sell outta the back of pickup trucks? Or do I hafta buy the big-baht one that comes wrapped in protective plastic netting sold in it's own wicker presentation basket?

Those things are hella expensive!!

Originally Posted by toddaniels

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).

- whatever will be will be , or whatever happens is meant to happen(so don't worry)
It's not an idiom btw

What does joob-joob actually mean, if anything, in Thai?

Tiny Thai Tak lady called me on the phone (just as I was about to start eating my Friday Pizza - women are psychic - how do they always call just exactly as you sit down to dinner) and at the end of our call joob-joob was what she signed off with.

I have never heard anybody say that in Thailand. The only place I have seen it used was as some kind of joke here on Teh DOOR so I assume it is a Thai idiom of some sort.

Baby/flirty kiss kiss