Using Thai Adjectives

Learn how to use Thai adjectives

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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 the last lesson, we learned how to use the word mâi, which is "not / don’t".

In this lesson, we will start to learn how to properly use Thai adjectives.

Adjectives in Thai are not as easy as in English.

The basic rule in English is to put the adjectives in front of the noun but in Thai it’s the other way around, we put it after noun, for example ;

beautiful flower - “ดอกไม้สวย(dàawk-máai sǔuai) (Flower (is) beautiful)”

[slowly] “ดอกไม้สวย(dàawk-máai sǔuai)

Let’s start with another example: รถสีขาว(rót sǐi-khǎao) - "a white car" รถ(rót) is car สีขาว(sǐi-khǎao) is white, so together is รถสีขาว(rót sǐi-khǎao)

[slowly] รถสีขาว(rót sǐi-khǎao)

ผู้หญิงสวย(phûu-yǐng sǔuai) - ผู้หญิง(phûu-yǐng) is Woman and สวย(sǔuai) is beautiful, so ผู้หญิงสวย(phûu-yǐng sǔuai) is the beautiful woman

[slowly] ผู้หญิงสวย(phûu-yǐng sǔuai)

Let’s try one more,

หนังสนุก(nǎng sà-nùk), หนัง(nǎng) is movie and สนุก(sà-nùk) is fun so together is หนังสนุก(nǎng sà-nùk) , the fun movie.

So, how do we use an adjective in a sentence?

Thais always use a “classifier word” in front of the adjec tive.

Let’s see a similar sentence:

หมวกใบนี้สวย(mùuak bai níi sǔuai) - "this hat is beautiful"

First we say หมวก(mùuak), which is just “hat.”

Then we add ใบนี้(bai níi), which is a special expression we use to count hats. It’s what we call the classifier.

Then we put สวย(sǔuai) which means “beautiful.”

Now, can you help me make an adjective sentence?

“This woman is beautiful” the classifier for humans is “คน(khon)” and adjective “beautiful” is “สวย(sǔuai)”

ผู้หญิงคนนี้สวย(phûu-yǐng khon níi sǔuai)

“This movie is fun” the classifier for movies is “เรื่อง(rûueang)” and the adjective fun is “สนุก(sà-nùk)”

หนังเรื่องนี้สนุก(nǎng rûueang níi sà-nùk)

To practice this, let’s see some examples:

If you want to say "My house is big" you will say บ้านของฉันหลังใหญ่(bâan khǎawng chǎn lǎng yài). ของฉัน(khǎawng chǎn) is “my” and หลัง(lǎng) is the classifier for houses.

Now it’s time for Kittaya’s Insights.

If you want to show emphasis on an adjective in Thai, you can use the word มาก(mâak) after adjectives. For example, in สวยมาก(sǔuai mâak) which is "really beautiful" or อร่อยมาก(à-ràuy mâak) to say "really delicious."

In this lesson, we learned how to properly use adjectives in Thai and how to arrange them correctly in the sentence.

Next time we’ll learn the basic use of verb bpai, which means "to go". Do you know how to use this in Thai? If not, I'll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Learn Thai in 3 minutes. สวัสดีค่ะ(sà-wàt-dii khâ)