tonychang Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 aswell as "kha pom" mentioned earlier I notice on T.V. that na cup is used alot and have been told this is another more polite saying.Could anyone tell me in which context is this used? Ta T.C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 'na krup' tends to be more polite than simple 'krup' but the difference is negligble. 'krup pom' is more formal than simply polite. as for contexts 'na krup' tends to be used in explanations, suggestions, requests etc. while 'krup pom' is used for confirming, affirming etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonychang Posted June 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 so if I sometimes miss out "cup" and just say "naa" can that almost be used as a question mark same as "mai?"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexi Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 I would say that " na " is often tacked onto the end of a suggestion to make it more appealing,more polite,or more persuasive.....eg. " chun mai chorb ahahn farang,bpai gin ahahn Thai dee gwah,na....". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonychang Posted June 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 As I dont usually speak to thai people in Thai but when i do i find myself trying to use some of these colloquial expressions not really knowing the context but seems to work.I know "na" often seems to be used in "alai na" in conversation but "na cup" only on t.v.and radio.Also I was speaking to a Thai person the other day and she often finish an almost questioning statement with "law"(pronounced same as english word),specifically a thai lady from Korat who's first farang confident was me was suprised to find out i was leaving the country and kept saying "glap baan law" in what seemed to me to be a questioning tone as I couldnt see this as a rhetorical statement.Ive been informed this word dosnt really mean much at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamock Chokaprret Posted June 22, 2003 Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 'na krup' tends to be used in explanations, suggestions, requests etc. In addition it is frequently used in any statement that could be taken as a command. For example: lee-oh qua na krup - turn right to soften a hard tone. Or in any statement who's meaning can be taken as abrupt (like arai na). There was a discussion of laaw recently as a sentence suffix particle to indicate a question. For some unknown reason the poster and all responders transliterated the word as ler which seems to me to be far from the pronunciation (and confused me to no end). It consistently is used to form a question but I have yet to see it referred to in any Thai-English dictionaries or training guides. Note that I wrote the transliteration with a long aa vowel sound. That is what my ear hears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonychang Posted June 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2003 Thank you very big LC. I often ended up using it when trying to say no thanks to taxi drivers who knew my name(suprising how many knew as I never told them) to be more polite as i didnt know their "mi ow na cup",as I read "mi/mai ow" was not that polite and didnt want to say to anyone who made the effort to remember my name as opposed to Tailors as its pretty fucking obvious by just looking at me i dont need a suit. Yeah and I was also tempted to spell law,laaaaaaw as thats often how i hear it. Would it be safe to say "mai dtorng" instead of "mai ow"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2003 Report Share Posted June 27, 2003 I'm not sure about this, but I think dtorng (as in dtorng-gan) is more "need", where ow means "want". So you would be saying 'not need', instead of "not want". Don't think that is more polite. Just depends what is applicable depending on the situation. "Mai yaak" would also be "not want", but more formal. I think you add 'die" to the 'yaak' if you want a tangible object, but not if you are saying "I want to go .....". My experience is limited, but I've never heard "mai yaak die', or 'mai dtorng-gan'. I think 'mai ow khrap', with maybe a 'na' thrown in for good measure, is fine. If really persisted by a vendor, I leave the polite 'khrap' off, and they get the point that I'm starting to get agitated. "Mai ow", with a dirty look, goes a long way. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2003 Report Share Posted June 27, 2003 Hi, http://board.nanaplaza.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB8&Number=114397&page=8&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=365&fpart=1 Here's a thread from a long time ago I just found. Explains about wanting something, but I don't think you can just throw 'mai' in front of everything stated here, to make 'not want/need'. Someone more knowlegable should be along shortly. :: HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonychang Posted June 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2003 cheers HT Thanks for that link.Just getting a bit confused as have only the wonderful "fundamentals of the thai language" as reference but as this was written in the fifties it gets a bit unecessarily complicated after around lesson 8 (which is about as far as i got). T.C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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