Thread: A quick translation!!

Hey guys! I just need a quick translation! If you could help me it would be great!
I wanna say :" Live Free " as in live freely! Can anyone help me? I need the thai writting and how it would be pronounce as well! Thanks a lot

If you are looking for a Thai idiom that contains the same meaning a literal translation of the words would not necessarily do that.


เป็น =bpen = to live, live

อิสระ = it.sa.ra = free

I don't think using these words would work. Over to someone more familiar with Thai idioms.

naa hee

Just speak in English, slowly and loudly.

Getting a tattoo?

wecome, stefgb,

a badly translated tat is never a good idea, good for a laugh with the locals though,

Originally Posted by r1 pet

wecome, stefgb,

a badly translated tat is never a good idea, good for a laugh with the locals though,

I know that's why I'm gonna ask a lot of people before I get it done :P so no answers

Kurgen's correct.


หน้าหี

Welcome to the Buffalo Board. Lot's of advice but little help.

if its a thai tattoo he is after, then the idiot is beyond help.

^Excellent point!

Okay, let's drag this only slightly more back on topic (with an even longer post which may or may not be of only marginal value!);

The english phrase "live free" can carry the connotation that you are living your life free from (insert your word here)..

The very concept of the term "live free" is completely foreign to thaiz. They live in a rigidly regimented society, and are controlled almost 100% by the mythical beast known as 'thai culture' and that includes all the aberrations / oxymorons that go with it..

As I said in my oh-so long earlier post. Going from engrish to thai and carrying the same meaning especially with "conceptual, felt or emotive things" is often times fraught with peril.

Live in thai is NOT a single word (unless you count the word อยู่ which means to reside at, or as was pointed out เป็น which really translates as "is/am" and not live in living a way of life). For a conceptual thing like live in the sense you want to live life a certain way, I think you're going to have to go with ใช้ชีวิต which literally translates as "use life" or in a thai way of thinking "live life".

Now looking at the word free and discounting the english loan word "free" just written in thai ฟรี, we have a few choices. depending on the sense of free that you're shooting for.

It could be the word เสรี (freedom, liberty, independence), it could be อิสระ (free, at liberty, autonomous, independent). It could be under the concept of freedom/free will and then it'd be เสรีภาพ or อิสรภาพ. However while both the previous words carry the meaning of freedom, they are used in different senses regarding what type of freedom you're talking about. They are NOT mutually interchangeable wordz in thai

It could also be "with freedom or in a free manner" and that'd be either โดยอิสรภาพ or โดยเสรีภาพ.

The phrases you're left with (which might work) are:
ใช้ชีวิตโดยอิสรภาพ
ใช้ชีวิตโดยเสรีภาพ

Plugging both of the above phrases into Google and then looking at the images shows they're close to the mark (conceptually), but I wouldn't run out and ink it on just yet!!

Personally I think you'd be better off with saying something more along "live (life) without restrictions" or "live (life) without limits". Almost any thai would immediately get those terms (however it's said correctly in thai) as thaiz live their lives in a totally restricted manner just because they're thai.

What ever you come up with, you'll need to run it past as many born-bred-rice fed thaiz as you can. Show them what ever phrase you have and ask them what they think it means. DON'T show them the phrase and ask, "Does it mean xxxxx?" To a person, every thai you show it to will immediately agree that it means what ever you say it does.

Not a single thai is gonna man up and say you're a half-wit fcuk-tard and it doesn't mean that at all. That's not how thaiz are "wired". You need to poll them "cold" without giving them any idea of what you think it says already. That way you'll at least get their take on it, versus you spoon-feeding them the answer and them mindless agreeing with you.

One last thing, there's a super famous phrase (that every thai in the country knows); ไม่มีลิมิทชีวิตเกินร้อย roughly "no limit (live) life more than 100". Sadly, it's the catch phrase for energy drink M-150 (hence the "more than 100" reference)..

It's used by the nearly has-been thai rock star "Sek Loso" in his song เท่อย่างไทย (Cool Like Thai People).. The thing is, north-south-east-west, I've never ran across a thai that didn't know the words to the song AND the tag line!
Not that you particularly care but here's a live video of it;


Really man, good luck.. I didn't mean to be such an asshole towards you in my earlier post..I'm that way to everyone..

Originally Posted by toddaniels

Live in thai is NOT a single word (unless you count the word อยู่ which means to reside at, ..

here you go Todd, give him the Thai for "Rent free".

I think stefgb comes from the UK and wants to "live free" - better not to get too clever Stef and just get - "I am a low life pikey" as your tat.

Originally Posted by toddaniels

Sorry this is long;

As a rule, I stay away from these "I want a cool thai script tattoo" because I love the country, the people, I have a thai g/f, thai wife blah-blah-blah and want to impress my friends when I get back home who can't read thai.. Still with that being said;

There is often no way to take a catchy engrish phrase and have an equally succinct thai one come out the other side. Thai is such a contextual language that if the person reading the phrase doesn't know your mindset about the statement they often times have no idea what the random phrase meanz.

It is also my experience, seeing foreigners showing off their cool thai script tattoo to the thaiz, that a tattoo where you need to spend 10 minutes miming out with charades, hand puppets, etc so they know what it means can make a tattoo lose a lot of its imagined "coolness factor"...

I wish I had a baht for every b/s thai script gibberish, nonsense tattoo I've seen inked on foreigners wandering around this place, as I'd certainly have enough money to buy a couple bottles of beer.

Personally I ALWAYS recommend foreigners get this;
ไอ-แอม-เอ-รีทาร์ด <- pretty cool looking huh?
It's just thai writing which when read by a thai is pronounced pretty darned close to the english sentence; "I am a retard"

If I were the O/P (which I'm NOT), I'd google around and see what the series of Bruce Willis movies of that name are translated as in thai because at least most rank-n-file thaiz know that series of movies, and MAY make the leap to the meaning that you want. OR they might think you're a big Bruce Willis fan, dunno..

I did find a thai translation of some b/s song called Live Free Or Die by Hayes Carll. It has the phrase in it "Live Free or Die". The thai is ฟรีอยู่หรือตาย frii-yùu-rʉ̌ʉ-dtaai <-that's the karaoke..

Interestingly enough thais routinely use the english word FREE ฟรี but in the context of the O/P's request I believe it's the wrong word.

The suggestions offered out come with no implied guarantee of accuracy!

Good Luck,

Lively commentary, Todly!

Cheers.

Originally Posted by charleyboy

Kurgen's correct.


หน้าหี

The proper and more common vulgarity would be: หมาหน้าหี

Originally Posted by Kurgen

naa hee

Originally Posted by charleyboy

Kurgen's correct.
หน้าหี

Indeed - spot on.

Be really cool and go for:



A poster on here actually has a large one of that on his forearm.

Originally Posted by Luigi

Be really cool and go for:



A poster on here actually has a large one of that on his forearm.

Be less permanent and more poignant to have one of these.......

That anyone would either ink the word ฝรั่ง on themselves OR wear a t-shirt with the term written on it wobbles the mind..

There's a shirt I saw an old fat foreigner wearing whilst walking down the Sukhumvit with his gold-encrusted "thai-in-tow"; known in thai as ตู้ทองเคลื่อนที่ (gold storage cabinet that moves). He had a 2 sizes too small shirt barely covering his beer belly saying close to the same thing although a little more clearly;
ตัวเป็นฝรั่ง
แต่ว่า
หัวใจเป็นไทย
That is as close to a sock puppet, wanna-b-thai foreigner pulling a b/s sell out as I've ever seen here!

In only slightly related news;
A while back I was sitting in a thai language school geared towards foreigners which I call "สอนภาษาไทยให้ควายฟัง" (teaching thai for buffaloes to listen), observing a thai class.

The topic was "Have you ever seen snow?" Now snow in thai is หิมะ (hì má), with both words being short vowels and low/high tones respectively; while a dog's pussy is หีหมา (hǐi mǎa), with both words being long vowels and both rising tones.

The thai teacher asked one student if he'd ever seen snow, and the student proceeded to regal the class with a story that in his country not only is there a LOT of dog's pussy, but as a child he loved playing in them every day and even as an adult he still plays in them! NOT a single person in the class understood just what he said except the teacher (and me obviously, or I wouldn't be relating the story). On the break the teacher took him aside and went over short versus long vowels in thai and high versus rising tones!

Oh well, as I said, it was off topic..

Here's one last one for you thai cunning linguists...

What if you see a ไก่หลง (lost chicken; the thai phrase for a street walker) passing up and down the Soi? She's do-able and you want to go with her, but you're afraid you'll "see the bear" กลัวเห็นหมี.. What are you really afraid of?

In thai of course. . .

First one right gets a free jug of Leo beer on tap (value 120 baht) on my Soi...

"Some restrictions apply, No cash value, Void where prohibited by law, May be too intense for some viewers, For internal use only, if condition worsens, discontinue use and consult a physician, Subject to change without notice, No substitutions, One size fits all, Substantial penalty for early withdrawal, You must be present to win, Close cover before striking, No other warranty expressed or implied.."

Tip; it's a spoonerism.. The answer must be written in thai too, not that b/s karaoke thai/engrish..

Good Luck..

Originally Posted by toddaniels

wanna-b-thai foreigner

How fucking dare he. How fucking dare a foreigner feel at one with Thais.

เหม็นหี

i claim my prize !!

Originally Posted by toddaniels

Here's one last one for you thai cunning linguists...

What if you see a ไก่หลง (lost chicken; the thai phrase for a street walker) passing up and down the Soi? She's do-able and you want to go with her, but you're afraid you'll "see the bear" กลัวเห็นหมี.. What are you really afraid of?

In thai of course. . .

First one right gets a free jug of Leo beer on tap (value 120 baht) on my Soi...

That's easy. A smelly pussy.


[I don't want your prize.]

Originally Posted by Luigi

Originally Posted by toddaniels

wanna-b-thai foreigner

How fucking dare he. How fucking dare a foreigner feel at one with Thais.

Dontcha just hate 'em.....