KA. There are actually two words (written KA in the transliteration) used by women, and though there is little difference between them in normal conversation it is appropriate to draw attention to them at this stage.

KA (คะ) pronounced in the high tone is normally used in questions and requests.

KA (ค่ะ) pronounced in the dropped tone is used with a reply to a question or as an affirmative. (See Lesson 15.)

	PY NY MAH KA	ไปไหนมาคะ	Where have you been?
	PY DORN MEU-ANG MAH KA ไปดอนเมืองมาค่ะ		I have been to Don Meuang.

PEN (เป็น) is used to indicate a “state of being” and in this sense can be translated as “is”.

KOW PEN PEU-AN KORNG CHUN เขาเป็นเพื่อนของฉัน

He is my friend.

PEN is not used in front of verbs or adjectives.

	KOW MAH	เขามา	He is coming. (He comes)
	BAHN YY MAHK	บ้านใหญ่มาก	The house is very big.

It is not very easy to lay down definite rules as to when and when not to use PEN, but if you study the examples in this and the succeeding lessons you will gradually acquire the correct usage. In general foreigners tend to use the word far too much. KEU (คือ) has roughly the same meaning as PEN but is used more in an introductory sense.

	NEE KEU MARLINEE	นี่คือมาลีนี	This is Marlinee.
	NUN KEU ROT MY KORNG CHUN นั่นคือรถใหม่ของฉัน		That is my new car.

KEU is also used as an adverb meaning “namely”. You will come across this meaning in a later lesson.

NY (ไหน) meaning “where?” can be used in many cases instead of TEENY. Which word to use is largely a matter of custom and euphony of the sentence. A very common expression is:

TAHN JA PY NY

ท่านจะไปไหน

Where are you going?

It is also used as an interrogative adjective meaning “which?”.

TAHN JA PY BAHN NY ท่านจะไปบ้านไหน

Which house are you going to?

HEN (เห็น) means “to see with the eyes” and can also be used for “to think or comprehend” i.e. “to see with the mind”. (See Lesson 13.) It cannot be used in the common English sense of “to meet”. If you want to say “I saw him today” meaning “I met him today” you must use POP “meet” and not HEN.

POP (พบ) “to meet” is generally used for “seeing” or “meeting” someone but not for “going to meet” someone, for which you must use another word RUP. (See Lesson 7.A.4.)

OW (เอา) means “to take” but it is not often used alone in this sense. It is usually combined with MAH “to come” or PY “to go” to mean “bring” or “take away”.

Double verbs of this nature are a common feature of the Thai language and will be dealt with more fully in Lesson 20.

You should note however that where there is an object it is placed between the two verbs. (Examples 3, 15.)

OW also means “want”. You will come across this meaning later.

TEENY (ที่ไหน) “anywhere” is the same word as you have had in Lesson 1 meaning “where”.

You are not likely to find that these two different meanings cause you much trouble.

ARY (อะไร) This word generally means “what?” except in negative sentences where it usually has the meaning of “anything”.

	TUM ARY	ทำอะไร	What are you doing?
	MY TUM ARY	ไม่ทำอะไร	I’m not doing anything much.

DY ( ได้) “can” is the same word as DY ได้ “to get”. (Lesson 7.)

PEU-AN (เพื่อน) MIT (มิตร) Both these words mean “friend, companion”. PEU-AN is the most commonly used in conversation but you will come across MIT occasionally in reading and in certain compound words.

SEUNG (ซึ่ง) TEE (ที่) Both these words mean “who”, “which” but TEE is in more general use than SEUNG which is rather more formal. Note that TEE is the same word as TEE which you had in Lesson 1 meaning “at”. See also Lesson 3 and 20.

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