Dialogue

Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Ohm: สวัสดีครับ
Ja: Hello, and welcome back to ThaiPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 3: Why Is the Thai Food So Pricey Here? I'm Ja.
Ohm: And I'm Ohm. What are we going to learn in this lesson?
Ja: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make comparisons.
Ohm: This conversation takes place at a beach restaurant.
Ja: It’s between two friends, Nok and Dao.
Ohm: The speakers are friends, so they'll be using casual Thai.
Ja: Alright, Let’s listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

นก: อาหารภาคใต้เผ็ดกว่าที่กรุงเทพฯ
ดาว: ใช่แล้ว แพงกว่าด้วย
นก: ทำไมอาหารบนเกาะต้องแพงทุกที่เลยนะ
ดาว: เพราะต้องเสียค่าเรือแพงล่ะมั้ง
Ja: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly.
นก: อาหารภาคใต้เผ็ดกว่าที่กรุงเทพฯ
ดาว: ใช่แล้ว แพงกว่าด้วย
นก: ทำไมอาหารบนเกาะต้องแพงทุกที่เลยนะ
ดาว: เพราะต้องเสียค่าเรือแพงล่ะมั้ง
Ja: Now let’s hear it with the English translation.
นก: อาหารภาคใต้เผ็ดกว่าที่กรุงเทพฯ
Southern food is spicier than the food in Bangkok.
ดาว: ใช่แล้ว แพงกว่าด้วย
Right, and it's more expensive too.
นก: ทำไมอาหารบนเกาะต้องแพงทุกที่เลยนะ
Why does the food on every island have to be expensive?
ดาว: เพราะต้องเสียค่าเรือแพงล่ะมั้ง
Probably because they have to spend a lot on the shipping costs.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Ja: Do you think southern food is really spicer than food in central Thailand?
Ohm: Usually it is. Southern Thai food is the spiciest of all the regional cuisines. Food in southern Thailand was influenced by the flavors and spices of India, so the curries taste a bit more like Indian curries. I think that’s why it’s spicier.
Ja: I see. And they eat curry with roti, or flat bread, like they do in parts of India. One popular curry dish you might have heard of is massaman curry. It's made with beef or chicken and potatoes, mixed with many spices. Massaman curry can be eaten with fried flat bread instead of rice. It’s quite delicious, too!
Ohm: And beef is also common in the south too. Actually beef and chicken are more common than pork in the south because of the large Muslim population. They traditionally don't eat pork.
Ja: Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
The first word we shall see is:
Ohm: อาหาร [natural native speed]
food
Ohm: อาหาร [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: อาหาร [natural native speed]
Next:
Ohm: ภาคใต้ [natural native speed]
Southern region
Ohm: ภาคใต้ [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: ภาคใต้ [natural native speed]
Next:
Ohm: เผ็ด [natural native speed]
spicy
Ohm: เผ็ด [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: เผ็ด [natural native speed]
Next:
Ohm: กรุงเทพฯ [natural native speed]
Bangkok
Ohm: กรุงเทพฯ [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: กรุงเทพฯ [natural native speed]
Next:
Ohm: แพง [natural native speed]
expensive
Ohm: แพง [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: แพง [natural native speed]
Next:
Ohm: ค่า [natural native speed]
value, price, fee
Ohm: ค่า [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: ค่า [natural native speed]
Next:
Ohm: เพราะ [natural native speed]
because
Ohm: เพราะ [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: เพราะ [natural native speed]
And Last:
Ohm: เสีย [natural native speed]
to lose, to pay (money), broken, rotten
Ohm: เสีย [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Ohm: เสีย [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Ja: Now let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from in this lesson. The first one is…
Ohm: ...ภาคใต้
Ja: And it means "southern region." This is a compound word of two parts. The first word is ภาค (phâak) which means "region," and the second is ใต้ (dtâi) which means "south." In other contexts, ใต้ (dtâi) can also mean "under" or "below." Ohm, besides the south, what are the other regions of Thailand?
Ohm: Thailand can be separated into six regions.
Ja: Let’s hear them one by one.
Ohm: ภาคใต้
Ja: "The South."
Ohm: ภาคเหนือ
Ja: "The North."
Ohm: ภาคกลาง
Ja: "The central region."
Ohm: ภาคอิสาน
Ja: "The Northeast."
Ohm: ภาคตะวันออก
Ja: "The East."
Ohm: And, ภาคตะวันตก
Ja: "The West." Okay, what's our next word?
Ohm: กรุงเทพฯ
Ja: This is the name that Thai speakers use for the city of Bangkok.
Ohm: กรุง (grung) means "city" and เทพ (thêep) means "god" or "angel."
Ja: So you could say the name translates as the "City of Angels."
Ohm: Yes, and this is actually a shortened version of the full name.
Ja: (laughs) that’s right. The full name is really, really long. It's almost like a full paragraph. But we have a medium-length version which is กรุงเทพมหานคร. มหานคร means "great city" or "metropolis."
Ohm: So that's like saying "Angel City Metropolis."
Ja: Okay. What's our last word?
Ohm: เสีย
Ja: This word can have many meanings depending on the context, but they all revolve around the same concept of "to ruin" or "to spoil."
Ohm: That's right. เสีย (sǐia) can refer to something being damaged, but it can also mean something like "to lose" or "to waste."
Ja: How did we use it in the conversation?
Ohm: It was used in the phrase เสียค่า (sǐia-khâa), which literally means “to lose the cost.” So it means "to spend."
Ja: Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Ja: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make comparative statements.
Ohm: In general, you can follow an adjective or adverb with กว่า (gwàa) to give the meaning of "more...than."
Ja: So this is also like when we add “-er” to an adjective in English.
Ohm: Yes, that's right.
Ja: And what's the pattern for using this in a sentence?
Ohm: A something กว่า B.
Ja: "A is more something than B," where the something would be an adjective or adverb.
Ohm: For example, in the conversation we had the following sentence: อาหารภาคใต้เผ็ดกว่าที่กรุงเทพฯ
Ja: "Southern food is spicier than the food in Bangkok." Let's break this sentence down into its different parts.
Ohm: Okay. The first part is อาหารภาคใต้ (aa-hǎan phâak-dtâi).
Ja: Meaning "Southern food" or "food of the Southern region."
Ohm: Then we have the adjective เผ็ด (phèt).
Ja: Meaning "spicy."
Ohm: This is followed by กว่า (gwàa).
Ja: And that modifies the adjective that came before it, so "spicy" is now "spicier."
Ohm: Then we have ที่กรุงเทพฯ (thîi grung-thêep).
Ja: Meaning "in Bangkok." In this sentence, we compared "southern food" and food "in Bangkok," but we don't always have to include both objects in the sentence. So if the speakers already have the two objects in mind, they can omit one or both of them from the sentence.
Ohm: Yes, that's right. For example, the second line from the conversation had this sentence:
ใช่แล้ว แพงกว่าด้วย
Ja: "Right, and it's more expensive too." Notice that there are no nouns in this sentence. In English, we still need to use the pronoun phrase "it's," but the Thai sentence doesn't even have any pronouns. Can we say it once more?
Ohm: Sure. ใช่แล้ว แพงกว่าด้วย The phrase at the beginning is the expression ใช่แล้ว (châi láaeo), meaning "that's right." And the final word, ด้วย (dûuai) means "also" or "too."
Ja: So that just leaves the part in the middle as the comparison.
Ohm: Yes, the key words are แพงกว่า, meaning "more expensive."
Ja: So in this case we were able to omit both the subject and the object because the speakers had just mentioned them in a previous line. But if we wanted to include them, how would the sentence look?
Ohm: ใช่แล้ว อาหารภาคใต้แพงกว่าที่กรุงเทพฯด้วย
Ja: "Right, Southern food is more expensive than the food in Bangkok too."
Ohm: Well, it looks like that's all the time we have for this lesson.
Ja: Be sure to check out the lesson notes for more examples and explanations.
MARKETING PIECE
Ja: Listeners, do you know the reason flashcards are so popular?
Ohm: It’s because they work!
Ja: We’ve taken this time-tested studying tool and modernized with My Wordbank Flashcards!
Ohm: Learn vocabulary using your eyes and ears!
Ja: It’s simple and powerful. Save difficult and interesting words to your personal vocab list called My Wordbank.
Ohm: Master words in your “My Wordbank” by practicing with Flashcards.
Ja: Words in My Wordbank come with audio, so you learn proper pronunciation.
Ohm: While you learn to recognize words by sight!
Ja: Go to ThaiPod101.com now, and try My Wordbank and Flashcards today!

Outro

Ja: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next lesson. Bye!
Ohm: แล้วเจอกันนะครับ สวัสดีครับ

Comments

Hide