Not *that* kind of meat!

I’m having a lot of fun working on these Grammar Wars posts. Not only am I learning a lot, but I’m also finding that the most reader interaction is taking place on these discussions as well.

I recently wrote another Grammar Wars post comparing verbs that mean “to see.” One of those verbs — เจอ /jəə/ — has a few other meanings, however, and can be a bit tricky when trying to use it with its other meanings.

Let’s “dig in” (that one will hit you on the way out) and talk about a few more verbs that can, and may, confuse us farang and make us just a tad bit loopy.

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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…

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Do Want!

Perhaps the best conversation we’ve had thus far on LTMS is the discussion of “want” verbs. I thought we had done a rather good job going through the meaning of each word, and overall we made some interesting discoveries. However, at my recent Thai language class at temple, my teacher and I got into a discussion of these verbs and their meanings. He articulated to me a few alternative ideas on the differences between each word, so I figured I would share them with you.

To reiterate, the verbs in question are:

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Yes, please.

Everybody has needs. Everybody has “would likes.”

In English, we typically would just say “I want…” or “I need…” and leave it at that.

When you look at Thai language books, dictionaries, or travel phrasebooks you will often see the word ต้องการ /dtɔ̂ng gaan/ to express “would like.” For example:

ผมต้องการซื้อรถ
/pǒm dtɔ̂ng-gaan sʉ́ʉ rót/
(I “would like” buy car)
I would like to buy a car.

This is pretty straightforward and easy to understand.

The problem is, this isn’t really correct…

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Just when you think you might be done with a word, it pops up on you again. In Part 2 (and don’t forget about Part 1) I thought I had covered all of the ground that ได้ /dâi/ has to offer; we learned about “can/be able to,” ”might be able to,” and a bunch of expressions.

But alas there is at least one more, and coverage of this very important utility word would be incomplete if not mentioned.

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Can you get this reference?

Grammar Wars is back! It took a while for me to come across another pair of words that would fit. Luckily, my Facebook status update in Thai prompted several of my Thai friends to wonder what the heck I was trying to say. There’s something to be said for screwing up your grammar and having good friends around to correct you.

In this installment I’m talking about the differences between the words เสร็จ and จบ. C’mon in and join me!

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I see you...

In this installment of Grammar Wars, I want to take a look at two Thai words that mean “to see.” These words are:

เจอ /jəə/

and

เห็น /hěn/

Shall we dig in?

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I’m introducing a new post type that I’ve dubbed “Grammar Wars.” The concept is to analyze two or more words in Thai that essentially mean the same thing, and discuss when you should use one over another.

I felt this was an important topic to cover, as I’m finding that the more I translate Thai into English, the more I’m finding instances where one word is used instead of another, but I cannot seem to get a definitive answer as to why a word is being used over another word.

A Word Of Caution: Most of the Thai language students that I have spoken to – and I’m including my wife as well – has cautioned me that in most cases you just need to observe how the “natives” use a word and eventually you will pick up when and how to use it. That’s a great way to learn for everything except when it concerns a blog, which obviously necessitates some further research and study so I can post about it.

So, with that in mind, I bring to you the first installment of Grammar Wars!
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Continuing with our analysis of the word ได้ that I wrote about last week, I wanted to finish up the discussion of this utility word by providing you with some useful phrases that use ได้. This isn’t an exhaustive list, and some further study of the word and its uses is certainly required. For now, however, these two posts should give you (and me) plenty of data to work with.

I suggest that you create some example sentences and see how you can incorporate ได้ into your vocabulary. There are a lot, as we’ve seen, but with practice and repetition you will get it.

Here are other uses to get you on your way:

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There are many “utility” words in Thai; words that mean several different things and serve multiple grammatical functions depending on how they are used.

I thought it would be a good idea to slowly go through some of these words to give you a better understanding of how they work, especially since they are very heavily used in both spoken and written Thai.

The first word I want to start with is one I touched upon in my last post – Sentence Structure Matters  (to a point). The word is ได้ (dâi – “can”), and as you will see has a few ways it’s used.

Shall we get started?
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