In the Thai language we find many groups of two or more words (mostly nouns) in which all members of the group have exactly the same meaning but some are Formal or Polite words and others are Common words.

The Formal or Polite words are generally used in writing but whether to use them in general conversation or not depends largely on the age, intimacy and relative social status of the speaker and the person spoken to.

In general, “Polite” words are used by educated people when talking to equals or superiors and the “Common” words by less educated people talking among themselves or by educated people talking to servants and inferiors, but there are many exceptions to this generalization which you will learn as you proceed.

If in doubt it is generally better to use the “Polite” word which at worst can only sound funny and not rude.

Both “Polite” and “Common” forms of the words will be given in the vocabularies together with an indication of their use.

In a special class of “Polite” words are the two words KRUP (ครับ) and KA (คะ) which have no meaning themselves but which are merely tacked onto the end of a sentence in conversation to round it off and make it sound more polite.

A peculiar feature of these two words is that irrespective of the sex of the person spoken to, only a male can say KRUP and only a female can say KA.

	YOO TEENY KRUP	Where do you live?	(Man speaking)
	YOO BAHNG-GAPI KRUP	I live in Bangkapi.	(Man speaking)
	YOO BAHNG-GAPI KA	I live in Bangkapi.	(Woman speaking)

As these two words are “Polite” words indicating respect, they are not normally used when speaking to sahmlor boys, servants etc. though they should and probably will be used by them when speaking to you in which case they are somewhat equivalent to “Sir” or “Madame”.

Under certain circumstances these two words can be used alone and are equivalent to “Yes” or “I understand” but nevertheless the limitations as to which sex may use which word still remain. This usage will be dealt with in a later lesson.

We have used these two words in appropriate places in the examples to these lessons so that you will get used to seeing and hearing and using them, but which word to use and whether they should be used at all in any particular sentence depends on your sex and who you consider you are speaking to.

Finally mention should be made of a large group of special words and phrases known as RAHCHAH SUP which are used by Thai people when referring to or speaking to Royalty and a further group of words used only in reference to or when talking to Buddhist Priests.

It is however beyond the scope of this book to deal further with these highly complicated and specialized versions of the language.

Generated by Lyndon Hill on Thu Jul 20 18:40:31 BST 2006.

Copyright remains with the original authors.