Thai Foundation

February 5, 2023

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All meanings of ได้ (dâi)

By Kru Smuk | How to say this in Thai, Thai Foundation | No Comments

ได้ (dâi) is one of the most frequently used in daily Thai. Maybe it’s because this word has many meanings. In this post, I will teach you all meanings of ได้ (dâi) and ways to use it in your Thai sentences. Let’s enjoy!

ได้ dâi (Verbs)

ได้ (dâi) can be verbs in Thai.

1. ได้รับ (dâi) = to receive to get
Please note that, many times Thai people just say “ได้” (dâi) for example, คุณได้เงินหรือยัง (khun dâi nguen reǔ-yang) = Did you received the money?

2. ได้ยิน (dâi-yin) = to hear
คุณได้ยินฉันไหม (khun dâi-yin chǎn mǎi) = Do you hear me?

3. อยากได้ (yàak-dâi) = to want to have/to get/to buy
ฉันอยากได้รถคันใหม่ (chǎn yàak-dâi ròt kan mài) = I want to have a new car.

ได้ dâi as “Yes!”

The word ได้ (dâi) is used to confirm the possibility, ability, availability, and permission. So it can be a reply as “sure”, “of course!” or “absolutely”.

When someone asked you to go to the cinema, and you want to respond as “yes, sure!”, you can say “ได้ (dâi)”.

ได้ + ending words

You can add some particles (ending words) to use with ได้ (dâi) to give specific feelings or implications.

For examples
– ได้เลย (dâi loey) = Absolutely yes.
– ได้สิ (dâi sì) = Ys, of course!
– ได้มั้ง (dâi máng) = Probably yes.

Example dialogue

A: คืนนี้เราไปดูหนังกันไหม (keun née rao bpai doo năng gan măi) = Let’s go watch a movie tonight?
B: ได้เลย (dâi loey) = Yes, Absolutely!

ได้ dâi as “Can!”

The helping Verb “can” in Thai is ได้ (dâi). Please note that there are other words that can be used as “can” in English. For now, I will only explain the ได้ (dâi) as “can”.

If you put the word ได้ (dâi) at the end of the sentence, it works as Verb can.

ได้ (dâi) = “can” for availability

If you want to state that something/someone is available, you can use ได้ (dâi).

For examples
– ฉันไปทำงานพรุ่งนี้ได้ (chǎn bpai tam-ngaan prûng-níi dâi) = I can go to work tomorrow (because I am free.)
– คุณใช้คอมเครื่องนี้ได้ (kun chái kom krêuuang née dâai) =You can use this computer (because no one is using it now)

ได้ (dâi) “can” for ability

If you want to state that someone has the ability to do something, you can use ได้ (dâi).

For examples
– ฉันขับรถได้ (chǎn khàb-rót dâi) = I can drive. (because I do not have a visual disability)
– ฉันว่ายน้ำได้ (chǎn wâai-náam dâi) = I can swim (because I do not have skin infection)

ได้ (dâi) “can” for permission

If you want to state that someone has permission to do something, you can use ได้ (dâi).

For examples
– เข้ามาได้ (kâo maa dâi) = You can come in.
– ฉันไปเที่ยวกับเธอได้ (chǎn bpai tîiaw gàb ter dâi) = I can go out with you (because my mom allowed me to)

📍This topic is also taught in the Intensive Thai course. You can see the free preview lesson of the Verb “can/could” in Thai on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ULCxDpGqA

Tips for Verb can

As you learned above, there are many cases to use ได้ (dâi) as the “Verb can”. It depends on the context.

For example

ฉันนขับรถได้ (chǎn kàp-ròt dâi) means, I can drive.

It can be because I do not have a visual disability, because I am available to drive or because I am allowed to drive.

ได้ dâi for past tense

As you might know that there is no conjugation of verbs in Thai including for tenses, we use filling words (aka. particles) to indicate tense. ได้ (dâi) is one of the past tense indicators.

📍 Learn more about Past Tense on our blog post (5-min read)

“Subject + ได้ (dâi) + verb” is one of the syntaxes for past tense as “I got a chance to…”.

For examples

– ฉันได้กินเค้กแล้ว (chǎn dâi gin cake láew) = I already ate the cake. (got a chance to eat the cake)
– ฉันไม่ได้กินเค้ก (chǎn mâi-dâi gin cake) = I did not eat cake.

Tips to differentiate “past tense” and “verb can”

As you can use ได้ (dâi) for both cases, here is a tip from me. Look at the position of ได้ (dâi):

ได้ (dâi) at the end of the sentence = Verb can
ได้ (dâi) before a verb = Past tense

– ฉันกินเค้กได้ (chǎn gin cake dâi) = I can eat cake.
– ฉันได้กินเค้ก (chǎn dâi gin cake) = I got a chance to eat cake.

Summary

That’s it for the common ways to use ได้ (dâi) in Thai. One word can have many meanings and also use in different locations of a sentence. I hope you enjoy reading and learning from this blog post.

In case want to improve your Thai foundation and syntax, please feel free to check out the Intensive Thai course, a fundamental course to learn basic Thai foundation (A1-A2 levels). Or if you’d like to have lessons with our certified BananaThai teachers, please check out our private lessons.

January 20, 2023

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Thai Past Tense อดีตกาล – Tell a story in the past

By Kru Smuk | Situational Thai, Thai Foundation | No Comments

Who said Thai doesn’t have tenses? That’s not true. We do have tenses like in English but do not have conjugation to indicate the tense, instead, we use Tense particles (words put into a sentence to indicate tense). In this blog post, I will teach you how to make sentences in Past Tense effortlessly. Let’s dive into it.

Tense indicators

In English, we use the conjugation of verbs to indicate tenses.

For example
– I “go” to school. (present simple tense)
– I “went” to school (past simple tense)

However, in Thai, we do not conjugate the verb form. It never changes. Instead, we do have a few words to put in the sentence and it will be understood as this already happened in the past.

Adverbs of time (for the past)

You can indicate the past tense by putting an adverb of time-related to the past. Let’s see some examples:

เมื่อวานนี้	mêuua waan née	yesterday
เมื่อกี้	mêuua-gêe	just now
เมื่อก่อน	mêuua gòn	before
ในอดีต	nai à-dèet	in the past
อาทิตย์ที่แล้ว	aa-tít têe láew	last week
เดือนที่แล้ว	deuuan têe láew	last month
ปีที่แล้ว	bpee têe láew	last year

Once you put this word at the beginning or at the end of the sentence, this sentence turns out to be in the past form.

For examples
– ฉันกินผัดไทย chăn gin pàt tai) = I eat Pad Thai.
– เมื่อวานนี้ฉันกินผัดไทย (mêuua waan née chăn gin pàt tai) = I ate Pad Thai yesterday.

– ฉันทำงานที่ประเทศไทย (chăn tam ngaan têe bprà-têt tai) = I work in Thailand
– ปีที่แล้วฉันทำงานที่ประเทศไทย (bpee têe láew chăn tam ngaan têe bprà-têt tai) = I worked in Thailand last year.

มา maa (When something happened somewhere else)

This is one of the most common past tense forms we use in daily. Basically, we put the tense indicating particle มา (maa) at the end of the sentence.

This form of the past tense is to tell what happened somewhere in the past, while the speaker is now in a different location in the present.

– ฉันไปภูเก็ตมา (chăn bpai poo-gèt maa) = I went to Phuket.
– ฉันกินข้าวที่ร้านญี่ปุ่นมา (chăn gin kâao têe ráan yêe-bpùn maa) = I ate at a Japanese restaurant.
– ฉันขับรถไปซื้อของมา (chăn kàp rót bpai séu kŏng maa) = I drove to buy something.
– ฉันบินไปฝรั่งเศษอาทิตย์ที่แล้วมา (chăn bin bpai fà-ràng sèt aa-tít têe láew maa) = I flew to France last week.

If you observe these examples close, you will see that many times, the verbs include movement such as ไป (bpai) = to go, ขับรถ (kàb-rót) = to drive, etc. Of course, you can also use other verbs as well in this form.

ได้ dâi (When something is completed, finished, ended)

This form is commonly used when you want to highlight an action that has already been completed, finished, or done. There are two past words in this form. ได้ (dâi) implies “I got a chance to …” and the word แล้ว (láew) means “already”.

For examples

– ฉันได้เจอจอห์นแล้วเมื่อวานนี้ (chăn dâai jer jon láew mêuua waan née) = I already met John yesterday.
– คุณได้ไปซื้อของมาแล้วใช่ไหม (kun dâai bpai séu kŏng maa láew châi măi) = Did you go to shop already, right?
– ฉันทำงานเสร็จแล้ว (chăn tam ngaan sèt láew) = I finished work already.

Please note that either indicating word can be obsolete or skipped.

When the verb is not visually with motions or action

For verbs with non-action that one can visually see, we do not need to put an indicator. We usually understood it from the context.

คิด	kít	to think
รู้สึก	róo-sèuk	to feel
รัก	rák	to love
ชอบ	cháawp	to like
เห็น	hěn	to see
เป็น	bpen	to be
เข้าใจ	kâo-jai	to understand
อยู่	yùu	to be (located)

These words can be used in both presents tense and past tense without any other indicators needed.

For examples:

– ฉันคิดว่าเขาสวย (chǎn kít-wâa kǎo sǔay) = I think/thought she is/was beautiful.
– ฉันอยู่ที่ลอนดอน (chǎn yùu tîi London) = I am/was in London.
– เขาเป็นคนดี (kǎo bpen kon-dii) = He is/was a good person.

Negative form

To build a negative sentence in the past form, you always need to add a negative particle “ไม่ได้” (mâi-dâi) before the verb.

For examples

– ฉันไม่ได้ไปภูเก็ต (chǎn mâi-dâi bpai Phuket) = I did not go to Phuket.
– ฉันไม่ได้ไปทำงาน = I did not go to work.
– เขาไม่ได้คิดว่าเขาสวย = I did not think that she is beautiful.

Telling a story

To tell a story that happened in the past, you only need to start with the first sentence in the past with the indicators mentioned above, the following sentences can be without a tense indicator as long as it’s still related to the first sentence.

Example story

เมื่อวานนี้ฉันไปกินข้าวที่ร้านอาหารญี่ปุ่นมา อาหารที่นั่นอร่อยมาก ฉันเลยโทรหาเพื่อนให้มากินด้วยกัน

(mêuua waan née chăn bpai gin kâao têe ráan aa-hăan yêe-bpùn maa · aa-hăan têe nân à-ròi mâak · chăn loiie toh hăa pêuuan hâi maa gin dûuay gan)

Yesterday I went to eat at a Japanese restaurant. The food there was very delicious, so I called my friends to join me.

Learn More

If you’d like to continue learning this topic of past tense in Thai, I made an episode on my Thai Podcast Channel on Spotify and YouTube. Please feel free to listen and enjoy learning with me.

https://anchor.fm/bananathai/episodes/EP-30-Build-a-Thai-sentence-in-past-tense-e11k45m

Summary

Unlike English, Thai does not have conjugation of verbs even for tense. We do have tense indicators in the forms of adverbs as well as particles (fill words).

If you want to learn more about Thai tenses or any fundamental topics of conversational Thai and foundation. Check out the Intensive Thai course. It’s the best online Thai course to get started.

December 2, 2022

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Quick Guide to Thai Classifiers (units of noun)

By Kru Smuk | Thai Foundation | No Comments

One of the most important concept to master Thai is classifier or units of nouns (ลักษณะนาม: lák-sà-nà-naam). This classifier concept is used in daily life especially when you want to tell an amount of things. You need to include the classifier of the noun. This guide will help you go through the important keys of this concept and finally be able to use it in your Thai conversation.

What are classifiers?

Basically, they are words that are used with specific nouns. Each noun has a classifier word. This concept is also applicable in English for uncountable nouns. We usually add a unit of noun when telling an amount of uncountable noun in English.

For example

– A “glass” of water in stead of a water.
– Two “baskets” of vegetables, instead of 2 vegetables.
– A “loaf” of bread instead of a bread.

However in Thai, this concept is applied for both countable and uncountable nouns. So we can conclude that, we always use a classifier when telling an amount of noun. (Hence we also call it a unit of noun)

How to use classifiers?

To talk about a amount of noun

Whenever you want to ask for an amount of noun or to tell an amount of noun, we need to include a classifier.

How would you say this sentence?

“I have 2 dogs.”

If you want to say this according to English syntax, you probably say “ฉันมีสองหมา (chǎn mii sǒorng mǎa)”.

ฉัน chǎn = I

มี mii = to have/has

สอง sǒorng = 2

หมา mǎa = dogs

But this is wrong. In Thai, we say “ฉันมีหมาสองตัว (chǎn mii mǎa sǒorng dtua)”. The word ตัว (dtua) in the sentence is the classifier of the noun หมา (mǎa) or a dog.

So the Thai syntax to tell an amount of noun is

For examples

1.) หมาสองตัว (mǎa sǒorng dtua) = 2 dogs:

หมา (mǎa) is a noun. สอง (sǒorng) is an amount “2” and ตัว (dtua) is a classifier of dog and animals.

2.) นักเรียนหนึ่งคน (nák-riian nèung kon) = A student:

นักเรียน (nák-riian) is a noun. หนึ่ง (nèung) is an amount “1” and คน (kon) is a classifier of human or person.

3.) ฉันเอาเบียร์สองขวด (chǎn ao beer sǎam kùuad) = I want 3 bottles of beer.

เบียร์ (beer) is a noun, สาม (sǎam) is an amount “3” and ขวด (kùuad) is a classifier as a container of food/drink.

And then you want to ask for an amount of noun, you can use this syntax:

For beginners, you probably learned the word เท่าไหร่ (tâo-rài) as “how much/how many?”, but if you want to speak natural Thai, you better use the word “กี่ gìi”

For example

1.) หมากี่ตัว (mǎa gìi dtua) = How many dogs?

หมา (mǎa) is a noun “dog”, กี่ (gìi) is a question word and ตัว (dtua) is a classifier of dogs or animals.

2.) นักเรียนกี่คน (nák-riian gìi kon) = How many students?:

นักเรียน (nák-riian) is a noun “student”, กี่ (gìi) is a question word and คน (kon) is a classifier of human or person.

3.) คุณเอาเบียร์กี่ขวด (kun ao beer. gìi kùuad) = How many bottle of beer do you want?

เบียร์ (beer) is a noun, กี่ (gìid) is a question word and ขวด (kùuad) is a classifier as a container of food/drink.

To specify a noun

Whenever you want to ask someone to specify a noun, or when you want to specify a noun, you need to use a classifier.

A few examples of sentences that include specification of nouns are:

Which dog is yours?
Which dish did you like the most?
Which house is more expensive?

This dog is mine.
I like the last dish the most.
The big house is more expensive.

To ask a specific question with the question word “which”, we ALWAYS use a classifier with a noun.

For examples

1.) หมาตัวไหน (mǎa dtua nǎi) = Which dog?
2.) นักเรียนคนไหน (nák-riian kon nǎi) = Which student?
3.) เบียร์ขวดไหนอร่อยที่สุด (beer kùuad nǎi, aròi tîi-sùd) = Which bottle of beer is the most delicious.

To specify a noun with “the/this/that”, in Thai we use this following syntax with a classifier:

For examples

1.) หมาตัวนี้ (mǎa dtua níi) = This dog
2.) นักเรียนคนไทย (nák-riian kon Thai) = The Thai student
3.) เบียร์ขวดเล็กอร่อยที่สุด (beer kùuad lék à-ròi tîi-sùd) = The small beer is most delicious.

To use with adjectives of quantity

For example,

1.) หมาบางตัว (mǎa baang dtua) = Some dogs
2.) นักเรียนคนไทยบ้างคน (nák-riian kon-Thai baang kon) = Some Thai students.
3. อาหารบางอย่าง (aa-hǎan baang yàang) = Some food

For example,

1.) ร้านอาหารทุกร้าน (ráan aa-hǎan túk ráan) = Every restaurant
2.) แมวทุกตัว (maew túk dtua) = Every cat
3.) เสื้อทุกตัว (sêua túk dtua) = Every shirt

For example,

1.) ครูหลายคน (kruu lǎai kon) = Many teachers
2.) อาหารหลายจาน (aa-haǎn lǎai jaan) = My dishes of food
3.) โทรศัพท์หลายเครื่อง (too-ra2-sàb lǎai krêuang) = Many phones

A list of Thai Classifiers

Here I gathered all classifiers that are commonly used in daily life and grouped them in an easy way to remember.

Common Classifiers

Human / Person	คน kon	ex. นักเรียนหนึ่งคน (nák-riian nèung kon) = A student
Animals / Clothes / Furniture	ตัว dtua	ex. โต๊ะหนึ่งตัว (dtó nèung dtua) = A table
Fruits / spherical shape	ลูก lûuk	ex. กล้วยหนึ่งลูก (glûuay nèung lûuk) = A banana
Devices	เครื่อง krêuang	ex. โทรศัพท์หนึ่งเครื่อง (thoo-rá-sàb nèung krêuang) = A phone
Piece of	ชิ้น chín	ex. เค้กหนึ่งชิ้น (cake nèung chín) = A piece of cake
Cars / bicycles / scooters / spoon / fork	คัน can	ex. รถหนึ่งคัน (ród nèung kan) = A car
Houses	หลัง lǎng	ex. บ้านหนึ่งหลัง (bâan nèung lǎng) = A house
Service units (restaurant, cinema, etc)	ที่ tîi	ex. ข้าวเปล่าหนึ่งที่ (kâo-bplào nùeng tîi) = A unit of rice served
Pen, knife, axe	ด้าม	ex. ปากกาหนึ่งด้าม (bpàa-gaa nèung dâam) = A pen
Kinds	ชนิด	ex. สัตว์หนึ่งชนิด (sàt nèung chà-níd) = A kind of animals

Cheat word

If you do not really know the classifier of a noun, you can say อัน (an) for small objects.

For example,
If you want to say “two glasses”, you can say “แก้วสองอัน gáew sǒorng an”. Thai people will surely understand you even though the correct classifier for most of containers is ใบ (bai).

Classifier for food and drinks

The classifiers for food and drinks in Thai are similar to English, we usually use the containers as a classifier.

Food in a dish	จาน jaan	ex. ข้าวผัดหนึ่งจาน (kâaw-pàt nèung jaan) = A dish of fried rice
Food in a bowl (noodles, soup)	ชาม chaam	ex. ต้มยำหนึ่งชาม (dtôm-yam nèung chaam) = A bowl of Tom Yam soup
Sauce or food in a small saucer	ถ้วย tûuay	ex. ไอศรีมหนึ่งถ้วย (i-sà-cream nèung tûuay) = A small bow of icecream
Food in a box (take away)	กล่อง glàwng	ex. ผัดไทยหนึ่งกล่อง (Pad Thai nèung glòng) = A box of Pad Thai
Food in a bag (take away)	ถุง tǔng	ex. ก๋วยเตี๋ยวหนึ่งถุง (gǔay-tǐiaw nèung tǔng) = A bag of noodles
Drink in a glass or cup	แก้ว gáew	ex. น้ำแข็งหนึ่งแก้ว (náam kǎeng nèung gâew) = A glass of ice
Drink in a bottle	ขวด kùuad	ex. โค้กหนึ่งขวด (Coke nèung kùuad) = A bottle of Coke
Drink in a can	กระป๋อง grà-pǎwng	ex. สไปร์ทหนึ่งกระป๋อง (sà-príte nèung grà-pǎwng) = A can of Sprite

Practical examples

Let’s learn the usage of classifier in practical Thai dialogues.

A: เอาน้ำเปล่ากี่ขวด (ao náam-bplaao gìi kùuad)
= How many bottles of water do you want?

B: สองขวด (sǒorng kùuad)
= Two

A: บ้านคุณหลังไหน (bâan khun lǎng nǎi)
= Which house is yours?

B: บ้านใหญ่ๆหลังนี้ (bâan yài-yài lǎng níi)
= This big house.

A: ในห้องเรียนมีนักเรียนทั้งหมดกี่คน (nai hôorng-riian, mii nák-riian táng-mòt gìi kon)
= How many students in total in the class?

B: มีนักเรียนสามสิบคน (mii nák-riian sǎam sìb kon)
= There are 30 students.

A: วันนี้อยากซื้ออะไร (wan-níi yàak séu à-rai)
= What do you want to buy today?

B: อยากซื้อของหลายอย่าง (yàak séu kǒorng lǎi yàang)
= I want to buy many things.

Summary

Learning classifiers or units of nouns is the must in order to speak Thai naturally. Even though this concept might not exist in your mother’s language, however it can be learned and you can master it with ease and use in your daily life.

If you want to learn more about Classifiers or any fundamental topics of conversational Thai and foundation. Check out the Intensive Thai course. It’s the best online Thai course to get started.

All meanings of ได้ (dâi)

Content Overview

ได้ dâi (Verbs)

ได้ dâi as “Yes!”

ได้ + ending words

Example dialogue

A: คืนนี้เราไปดูหนังกันไหม (keun née rao bpai doo năng gan măi) = Let’s go watch a movie tonight? B: ได้เลย (dâi loey) = Yes, Absolutely!

ได้ dâi as “Can!”

ได้ (dâi) = “can” for availability

ได้ (dâi) “can” for ability

ได้ (dâi) “can” for permission

Tips for Verb can

ได้ dâi for past tense

Tips to differentiate “past tense” and “verb can”

Summary

Thai Past Tense อดีตกาล – Tell a story in the past

Content Overview

Tense indicators

Adverbs of time (for the past)

มา maa (When something happened somewhere else)

ได้ dâi (When something is completed, finished, ended)

When the verb is not visually with motions or action

Negative form

Telling a story

Example story

Learn More

Summary

Quick Guide to Thai Classifiers (units of noun)

Content Overview

What are classifiers?

How to use classifiers?

To talk about a amount of noun

So the Thai syntax to tell an amount of noun is

For examples

1.) หมาสองตัว (mǎa sǒorng dtua) = 2 dogs:

And then you want to ask for an amount of noun, you can use this syntax:

To specify a noun

To use with adjectives of quantity

A list of Thai Classifiers

Common Classifiers

Cheat word

Classifier for food and drinks

Practical examples

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A: คืนนี้เราไปดูหนังกันไหม (keun née rao bpai doo năng gan măi) = Let’s go watch a movie tonight?
B: ได้เลย (dâi loey) = Yes, Absolutely!