Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

สวัสดีค่ะ ดิฉันกิตติยาค่ะ (sà-wàt-dii khâ. dì-chǎn Kittaya khâ)
Hi everybody! I’m Kittaya.
Welcome to ThaiPod101.com’s “Learn Thai in 3 minutes.” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Thai.
In our previous lessons, we learned how to use the verbs เป็น(bpen) and มี(mii). In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to turn these two verbs into their negative forms in order to say "I'm not" and "I don't have."
Imagine you are about to go to a party with a Thai friend. You ask him if he is ready, and he’s not, so he says ผมยังไม่พร้อม(phǒm yang mâi phráawm).
Then, you ask him if he has a car to use to go to the party, which he doesn’t, and he says ผมไม่มีรถ(phǒm mâi mii rót).
Do you see the similarities between these two responses?
Let’s look at these two negative sentences together:
ผมยังไม่พร้อม(phǒm yang mâi phráawm).
ผมไม่มีรถ(phǒm mâi mii rót).
Did you catch some similar words in these two sentences?
Right! In each sentence, you have one little word, ไม่(mâi) This is the special word used to make a verb negative in Thai.
So let's have a look at the way to switch from affirmative to negative.
First with the verb พร้อม(phráawm). If your friend *were* ready, he would say ผมพร้อมแล้ว(phǒm phráawm láaeo), “I am ready.” But he actually said ผมยังไม่พร้อม(phǒm yang mâi phráawm).
So basically, you just have to put the word ไม่(mâi) before the verb.
Now let's look at an example with the verb มี(mii), "to have":
"I have a car" is ฉันมีรถ(chǎn mii rót), and "I don't have a car" is ฉันไม่มีรถ(chǎn mâi mii rót)
So now, how would you say "I don't like football"? For reference, “I like football” is “ฉันชอบฟุตบอล(chǎn châawp fút-bawn)”. Put ไม่(mâi) in front of the verb “like” which is ชอบ(châawp).
Then you will get ฉันไม่ชอบฟุตบอล(chǎn mâi châawp fút-bawn)
[slowly] ฉันไม่ชอบฟุตบอล(chǎn mâi châawp fút-bawn)
Now, can you help me think of the opposite word by using ไม่(mâi) ?
(want) อยาก(yàak) - (don’t want) ไม่อยาก(mâi yàak)
(good) ดี(dii) - (not good) ไม่ดี(mâi dii)
(beautiful) สวย(sǔuai) - (not beautiful) ไม่สวย(mâi sǔuai)
Easy, don't you think? So now, you can turn many sentences into their negative form just by adding this one little word, ไม่(mâi), front of the verb or adjectives.
Now it’s time for Kittaya’s Insights.
Let’s imagine your colleague has invited you to watch a movie with him or her. If you want to answer in the negative but without being too direct, you can use “Sorry, I can’t go” which is ขอโทษค่ะ ดิฉันไปไม่ได้ค่ะ(khǎaw-thôot khà, dì-chǎn bpai mâi dâai khâ) instead of ไม่ไปค่ะ(mâi bpai khâ) “I don’t go”
Everyone, get ready for the next lesson because we are going to study a really important part of the Thai language: using adjectives.
I’ll be waiting for you in the next Learn Thai in 3 minutes. สวัสดีค่ะ(sà-wàt-dii khâ )

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