gawguy Posted March 28, 2003 Report Share Posted March 28, 2003 Let us say hypothetically that someone I may know who is certainly less intelligent than I am ran into the following situation: He receives a telephone call from a lady. She gives her name, but my friend does not remember the name. Sometimes thai names are confusing. When she says, "You foget me, na!?" He doesn't want to admit it. He wants to say he is not sure who she is. He does not want to say it too directly, like "jam mai dai." He wants to say, "I'm not sure who you are. I want to remember." My friend will be very happy for some help. Oh thing I am pretty sure of: "mai che-wa" doesn't work here since it implies someone is lying. GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 28, 2003 Report Share Posted March 28, 2003 "I'm not sure who you are" - phom mai naee jai wah khun pen krai. ¼ÃäÃèá¹èã¨ÇèÒ¤Ø³à »ç¹ã¤Ã 'mai naee jai' = not sure... Cheers FF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted March 28, 2003 Report Share Posted March 28, 2003 agree with FF but you could also approach it another way. "pom mai leum, cae mai nae jai pen Khun" I didn't forget, I just wasn't sure it was you. another related word is 'man jai' for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckyfarang Posted March 29, 2003 Report Share Posted March 29, 2003 <<another related word is 'man jai' for sure.>> I would translate "MAN(h) JAI" as 'confident'. I agree with FF that 'sure' would be NAE(f) JAI in this case. Another word for sure is NAE(f)-NAWN, with a meaning closer to 'certain'. This would describe an event or thing, where NAE(f) JAI would describe a person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2003 Report Share Posted March 29, 2003 "Another word for sure is NAE(f)-NAWN, with a meaning closer to 'certain'. This would describe an event or thing, where NAE(f) JAI would describe a person. " Nae-norn, and Nae-jai are both used to express a feeling, not to describe a person or thing. Roughly translated as 'certain' and 'sure'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted March 29, 2003 Report Share Posted March 29, 2003 Says luckyfarang: I would translate "MAN(h) JAI" as 'confident'. Would you also say that a 'confident' person is 'sure' of themselves? Talk about splitting hairs. On the 'Nae' debate 'Nae norn' would describe an event, thing, action or person. 'Nae jai' would descibe the state of a person being 'nae' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 "'Nae norn' would describe an event, thing, action or person. 'Nae jai' would descibe the state of a person being 'nae' " Yes, you are correct here and I'm sure we'll agree on the usage etc. My other post was just trying to state that it,'nae-jai' in particular, does not actually describe a person as originally stated. I guess this is just pedantic now, but technically speaking it describes the feeling, or the 'state' of a person as you say. The same can be said with 'Nae-non'....the feeling of certainty one has about something.. but in my huff I overlooked the fact that it's also used to describe events, actions etc.. Had to stop and ponder for a moment whether 'sure' and 'certain' are adjectives..and I'm a teacher::. Well, I pretend to be at least... Cheers FF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gawguy Posted March 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 I notice that NAE(f)-NAWN contains NAWN spelled the same way as sleep. I'm fascinated by the way so many little words turn up in all kinds of places. Is "certainly" made from some kind of metaphor about sleeping? GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 Couldn't say.. don't know. Maybe could be some kind of metaphoric use such as ' as sure as you sleep' ??? maybe something akin to our 'as sure as the sun shines'... Maii roooo Cheers FF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llz Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 I once heard a thai friend who said "mai nee mai noon" äÃèá¹èäÃè¹Ã¹ Has this expression a special meaning ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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