I always feel like, somebody's watching me...
เห็น already got some treatment when we put it up against เจอ /jəə/ in a Thai language death match. Though there is never a clear winner, it’s interesting to see how subtleties we take for granted in English are quite often overlooked as we’re trying to learn Thai. Is it a failing of our language-learning? Perhaps. But I think it’s more of a lack of effective resources than anything else. That’s one of the reasons why I have these Grammar Wars posts and encourage discussion on the finer points of Thai. But I digress…
A recent conversation with my Thai teacher, and a comment on the aforementioned post, brought up some more interesting points and made me realize that it’s probably time to revisit this and introduce two more; yes, we get a triple threat match today…
ดู /duu/ is a verb that means “to watch.” This verb is used when we are actively watching something, such as TV:
ผมดูทีวี
/pǒm duu tii-wii/
(I [male speaker] “to watch” TV)
I am watching TV.
เห็น /hěn/ on the other hand, infers a more observational concept, such as:
ผมเห็นนกการกินไส้เดือน
/pǒm hěn nók gaan-gin sâi-dʉan/
(I [male speaker] “to see” bird eat earthworm)
I saw a bird eat a worm.
(Don’t get too caught up with การกิน if you aren’t familiar with the use of การ. For now, just realize that it means “eat” as a noun and not a verb.)
So, whereas in English we more or less use “watch” and “see” interchangeably, Thai doesn’t. I’m sure there are probably some exceptions that I’m not aware of yet – there always are – but if you keep the idea of watching vs. observing in mind you should be okay for the majority of situations.
There is also the word มอง /mɔɔng/ which, by all accounts, basically means to stare or look at something very closely.
เจอ /jəə/ also still has a place in the conversation, but since we discussed it in more detail previously I’m leaving it out for now. I felt the distinction between ดู and เห็น, however, was important enough to revisit its use.
I realized that it is really impossible or unfeasible to have a fully dedicated JavaScript grammar checker because of the enormous amount of data to download. But of course, I am still hoping someone will come up with the ultimate solution.
Gracie´s last [type] ..Is It All Just An African Mango Scam?
Looking forward for the ultimate solution of
“Grammar War”..
Great post!..
Looking forward for the solution of Grammar War.
A way to solve this problem is to write, “Who bought your old car?” Or even “Who bought your old car from you?” We still have “car” at the end of the sentence which means there’s no preposition in that position. Good stuff. But the sentence becomes less formal and awkward by changing the verb to “bought” (past tense) instead of “sell” – which also changes the indirect object, “To whom” to just plain “Who”, the subject of the newly phrased sentence.
ดู means to look at เห็น means to see มอง means to stare at or watch