pom or chun

[Guest]

i know that pom (¼Ã) is the male way of saying I and chun (©Ñ¹) is the female. however are there any instances when a male can refer to himself as chun? only asking as on all the movies when men are talking the thai subtitles us chun instead of pom. also a lot of the music is also like this. can men use chun in daily conversation?

[Goodthaigirl]

>i know that pom (¼Ã) is the male way of saying I and chun (©Ñ¹) is the female.

 

 

 

Not exactly true. Chan ©Ñ¹ is used as the first person for both males and females. But males don't used that often, just like ´Ô©Ñ¹ Di-chan for females

 

 

 

Males use Chan with a very close female friends - like a friend from primary school or university. Pom is more polite way used to a person you are not familar with yet. Whne you are close you can change the pronoun.

 

 

 

Hope my explanation helps a bit.

 

 

 

GTG

[Guest]

GTG, thats what i thought, how comes the translations from movies then always have men refering to each other as 'chun' ? (are they asuming they all went to school together? ;-))

[Flashermac]

The translators mayjust be lazty. Theoretically, both genders (or all three in Thailand) may use CHAN. But in practice, men do not use it. In fact my Thai wife (university educated) says it bothers her to hear men use CHAN. Even among close male friends, CHAN will almost never be heard. You are more likely to hear them say GOO than CHAN.

[daeng bireley]

Chun and ter are used in songs and in some other literary or poetic forms by both male and female as the pronouns for "I" and "you", quite different to what may be used in normal speech. A male may use chun when talking to a girlfriend etc to soften his speech and create a feeling of greater intimacy. Effeminate gay men also use chun. I believe in the past say 40-50 yrs ago chun was popularly used by males but now is rarely used. If a farang uses anything other than pom it usually sounds strange.

 

There are numerous pronouns in thai and there use has changed over time, a lot of language books are out of date on thai pronoun use.

[tonychang]

whats the matter buksi having trouble understanding your porn films?

[Guest]

I agree that kuu is used more often than shan between males (close friends). I use shan only when talking to my gf (and only if we're alone, otherwise I would refer to myself using my name). I use kuu only when I'm angry or want to be rude. I don't think it is likely a farang male will ever be close enough a friend with a Thai male to be able to use kuu as a normal friendly pronoun.

 

 

 

Just my two satang,

 

JS2

 

 

 

Phii Yo in Thai :-)

[Goodthaigirl]

buksida

 

 

 

>GTG, thats what i thought, how comes the translations from movies then always have men refering to each other as 'chun' ? (are they asuming they all went to school together? ;-))

 

 

 

In movie about the rural life the male charactors usually use 'chan' as well. May be the movie you saw is about rural life?

 

 

 

GTG

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crash999]

A Thai friend of mine always refers to himself as 'chan' when talking to girls he knows. He explained it as making himself sound 'soft' and nice to girls as Pom is rather formal.

 

 

 

Was driving back with my lawyer from the immigration department when he received a phone call. Suddenly his vocabulary and way of speaking COMPLETELY changed. 'Chan ja pbai haa, na! jaaa jaaaa...'

 

 

 

What a smoothie. =)

[Guest]

crash: yeah thats what i figured 'chun' is used by smoothies and Loso.

 

 

 

GTG: all western movies with subtitles have males frequently using chun instead of pom (although not in formal situations)

 

 

 

Chang: the porn is in japanese .... i can understand that!