Learn some common noun prefixes in Thai
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some noun prefixes in Thai? |
| Nantanee: And why are they useful to know? |
| Michael: At ThaiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee studies for her language exam together with her classmate, Kaewjai Kornkan. She sees an unknown word and asks, |
| "What does "nák-khít" mean?" |
| นักคิด หมายความว่าอะไร (nák-khít măai khwaam wâa à-rai) |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: นักคิด หมายความว่าอะไร (nák-khít măai khwaam wâa à-rai) |
| Kaewjai Kornkan: หมายความว่า นักคิด (măai khwaam wâa nák-khít) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: นักคิด หมายความว่าอะไร (nák-khít măai khwaam wâa à-rai) |
| Michael: "What does "nák-khít" mean?" |
| Kaewjai Kornkan: หมายความว่า นักคิด (măai khwaam wâa nák-khít) |
| Michael: "It means "thinker."" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: A noun prefix is an affix that we place at the beginning of a word, creating a different meaning for that word. The prefix can be either a letter, an affix word, or a normal word. In this lesson, we will focus on noun prefixes in Thai. One example would be: |
| Nantanee: ผู้ (phûu). |
| Michael: This prefix, which could mean "person," is used to convert verbs, adjectives, or nouns into a new noun. You will see this in the word, |
| Nantanee: ผู้ป่วย (phûu-bpùuai) |
| Michael: which means "patient." The word is derived from |
| Nantanee: ป่วย (bpùuai) |
| Michael: which means "sick." |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: To better understand how Thai noun prefixes work, let's have a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "What does "nák-khít" mean?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nantanee as Sasha Lee: นักคิด หมายความว่าอะไร (nák-khít măai khwaam wâa à-rai) |
| Michael: And do you remember Kaewjai's answer? "Thinker." The word is derived from the verb |
| Nantanee: คิด (kít) |
| Michael: which means "to think." Attached to it is the prefix |
| Nantanee: นัก (nák) |
| Michael: This particular prefix is used to describe the profession associated with the noun or verb it's connected to. You will see this in many common Thai words, such as |
| Nantanee: นักเรียน (nák-riian) |
| Michael: which means "student." This time, the prefix is attached to the verb, |
| Nantanee: เรียน (riian) |
| Michael: which means "to study." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that many Thai words get their meaning from the syllable attached in front of their stem. Looking at the prefix will give you an idea about what the root word means. Let's have a look at some other prefixes. The first is |
| Nantanee: การ (gaan) |
| Michael: This prefix is used to convert nouns, verbs, and adjectives into nouns. A common word that carries this prefix is |
| Nantanee: การตกปลา (gaan dtòk bplaa) |
| Michael: which refers to the act of fishing, from the root verb, |
| Nantanee: ตกปลา (dtòk bplaa) |
| Michael: or "fishing." Another common Thai noun prefix is |
| Nantanee: ความ (khwaam) |
| Michael: This prefix is used to convert verbs and adjectives into an abstract noun. For instance, if we attach it to the adjective, |
| Nantanee: เร็ว (reo) |
| Michael: which means "fast," we get the noun, |
| Nantanee: ความเร็ว (khwaam-reo) |
| Michael: which means "speed." Next, we have the prefix, |
| Nantanee: คน (khon) |
| Michael: This is a classifier used for counting people, but, when used as a prefix, it creates nouns that describe a person who does an action or who is like what the word describes. For instance, we have the word, |
| Nantanee: อเมริกัน (à-mee-rí-gan) |
| Michael: which means "American." Attaching the prefix in question, we get the word |
| Nantanee: คนอเมริกัน (khon à-mee-rí-gan) |
| Michael: which means "American person." |
| Michael: A similar prefix would be |
| Nantanee: ชาว (chaao) |
| Michael: which is a word that could mean "people." As a prefix, it converts adjectives and nouns into nouns that describe a type of person. It is often used to describe a person based on their faith. For instance, we have the word |
| Nantanee: ชาวพุทธ (chaao-phút) |
| Michael: which means "Buddhist person." A more interesting noun prefix would be |
| Nantanee: น้ำ (náam). |
| Michael: This is the Thai word for "water," but, as a noun prefix, it's used to describe fruit juices. For instance, you can attach it to the word, |
| Nantanee: ส้ม (sôm) |
| Michael: or orange, to get the word |
| Nantanee: น้ำส้ม (náam sôm) |
| Michael: or "orange juice." |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: While the Thai language may not have directly derived from Sanskrit, it's interesting to note that there are over 20 Thai prefixes that are based on the world's oldest language. One such prefix is |
| Nantanee: อธิ (à-thí) |
| Michael: which could mean "grand," "over," or "on top of." It's the prefix used in the word, |
| Nantanee: อธิปัญญา (à-thí bpan-yaa) |
| Michael: which means "wisdom." |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Nantanee: แล้วพบกันใหม่เร็วๆ นี้ค่ะ (láaeo phóp gan mài reo-reo níi khâ) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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