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 the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb ไป(bpai) which means "to go" in Thai.
In this lesson, we will continue talking about very common Thai verbs.
The second verb in our series is tham, which means "to do." But as in English, you’ll see that the meaning of this verb is quite broad and it can be found in many different situations.
So imagine someone asks you ทำอะไรอยู่(tham à-rai yùu)? That means "What are you doing?" in an informal way.
So if you are doing your homework, for example, you will say in Thai
[slowly] ทำอะไรอยู่(tham gaan-bâan yùu).
Did you notice the word อยู่(yùu) at the end of the sentence? We use this to talk about an activity we are in the middle of doing. When you want to say “I am doing,” as in “I am doing homework”, just add อยู่(yùu) at the end of the sentence.
As I said: ทำการบ้านอยู่(tham gaan-bâan yùu).
means “doing homework.” What if someone asks you when you are cooking,
ทำอะไรอยู่(tham à-rai yùu)? How would you answer?
ทำอาหารอยู่(tham aa-hǎan yùu)
[slowly] ทำอาหารอยู่(tham aa-hǎan yùu)
Literally, this means “doing meal”
As I mentioned at the beginning,
ทำอะไรอยู่(tham à-rai yùu)? means "What are you doing?" in an informal way. So, what is the formal way to say this? It’s actually not very different from the informal one, you just need to add a noun, which is ดิฉัน(dì-chǎn), ผม(phǒm) or the name of the person plus (กำลัง)gam-lang and then follow the same informal sentence tham ….อยู่(….. yùu)
คุณมานิตกำลังทำอาหารอยู่(khun maa-nít gam-lang tham aa-hǎan yùu)
“Mr.Manit is cooking.”
Let’s look at one more example: if someone asks you “Where is your mother?” and you want to answer, “she is working,” what would you say? By the way, “working” is ทำงาน(tham ngaan).
คุณแม่กำลังทำงานอยู่(khun mâae gam-lang tham ngaan yùu).
[slowly] คุณแม่กำลังทำงานอยู่(khun mâae gam-lang tham ngaan yùu).
Now it’s time for Kittaya’s Insights.
When asking someone in Thai, คุณจะทำอะไร(khun jà tham à-rai)? “What are you going to do?” we sometimes add the specific time in front or at the end of the sentence. For example คุณจะทำอะไรพรุ่งนี้(khun jà tham à-rai phrûng-níi)? means “What are you going to do tomorrow?” or you can say “Tomorrow, what are you going to do?” by saying พรุ่งนี้คุณจะทำอะไร(phrûng-níi, khun jà tham à-rai)?
In this lesson, we learned how to use the verb ทำ(tham) in many different contexts and I’m sure it will help you a lot!
Next time we’ll learn another very useful and romantic verb, ชอบ(châawp).
Do you know what this Thai French verb means? I’m sure you have an idea!
I’ll be waiting for you in the next Learn Thai in 3 minutes. สวัสดีค่ะ(sà-wàt-dii khâ)

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