Who doesn’t love Thai food? – especially Thai fast food or อาหารตามสั่ง /aa-haan-taam-sàng/ (cooked to order food) that you can find on any corner of the street.
First of all, you need to learn the main word ใจ /jay/ (pronounced /jai/) which means heart in the abstract term, while หัวใจ /hua-jay/ means a heart as an organ in English.
As everyone knows, “Yes” in Thai language is “ใช่” /chây/. However, many people misuse this word for anything that means “yes” in English, while in Thai language, there four cases with four ways to say “yes”.
There are so many foreigners who set up their lives in Thailand, learned Thai, and finally started to speak Thai and be able to engage themselves to the Thai community.
Play is one of my most favorite English words as I love to play. However it can be use with different things, not only with sports and games in Thai language. Let’s learn with interesting examples.
How to say ‘play’ in Thai?
Play in Thai is เล่น /lên/ (up-down tone)
For examples:
เล่นฟุตบอล lên football = to play football
เล่นเทนนิส lên tennis = to play tennis
เล่นเกมส์ lên game = to play games
เล่นไพ่ lên pâi = to play cards
Other cases to use ‘lên’
In English, you can use the word “play” with sports, music, and games, while we can use the word เล่น /lên/ or play in much more cases in Thai language.
เล่น /lên/ can be used with anything that gives you some fun and joy. Now I will show you some interesting examples with the word /lên/
1. To Gamble
เล่นการพนัน /lên kaan–pha-nan/ As gambling gives you some excitement and fun, Thai people use the word /lên/ with gambling
พนัน /pha-nan/ (verb) = to gamble
การพนัน /kaan pha-nan/ (noun) = gambling
Ex. ฉันไม่ชอบเล่นการพนัน /chãn mây chôorb lên kaan-pa-nan/ = I don’t like to gamble.
2. Do Yoga
เล่นโยคะ /lên yoo-khá/ Even though, we say “do yoga” in English, we use the word เล่น “lên” or “play” with Yoga as yoga is fun.
แม่ของฉันเล่นโยคะทุกวัน /mâe-khõrng-chãn lên yoo-khá thúk-wan/ = My mom does yoga every day.
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