In Lesson 1.A. we saw that an interrogative sentence was formed by adding the interrogative word MY or the words CHY MY at the end of the sentence.

REU and REU PLOW are two other words which are used in a similar manner.

The distinction between the various forms of question is not easy to make and in many cases they are used alternatively but we can set out the following broad principles as a general guide.

MY is generally used for a direct question concerning something in the present or future.

MY cannot be used in a negative question or in questions where pronouns นี่, นั่น or โน่น are written or implied.

In these cases we must use CHY MY (preferably) or else REU.

	KOON CHORP LEN TENNIT MY Do you like playing tennis? คุณชอบเล่นเทนนิสไหม
	WUN NEE KOON JA PY BAHNGSAAN MY Are you going to Bangsen today? วันนี้คุณจะไปบางแสนไหม

CHY MY corresponds fairly close to “is it”, “are you”, “does it”, etc. and is used in sentences where we could use “is it?” in English even though in English we would probably use a rather different form of construction.

	WUN NEE WUN SOOK CHY MY Is today Friday? (Today is Friday. Is it?) วันนี้วันศุกร์ใช่ไหม
	NEE BAHN KORNG KOW CHY MY Is this his house? (This is his house. Is it?) นี่บ้านของเขาใช่ไหม
	KOON JA PY HOO-A HIN CHY MY Are you going to Hua Hin? (You are going to Hua Hin. Are you?) คุณจะไปหัวหินใช่ไหม

REU PLOW is mostly used in questions to which you do not know what the answer is likely to be, i.e. questions in which in English we might end with the words “or not?”.

	NAI CHIT YOO TEENEE REU PLOW Does Nai Chit live here, or not? นายชิตอยู่ที่นี่หรือเปล่า
	MEU-A WAHN NEE KOON PY BAHNGSAAN REU PLOW Did you go to Bangsen yesterday, or not? เมื่อวานนี้คุณไปบางแสนหรือเปล่า

REU is similar to MY but is not such a good word to use generally. In many cases it does not sound very “polite”. It is however the general word to use in the following circumstances.

1. Combined with MY CHY to mean “isn’t it?”

   NEE BAHN KORNG NAI SAMIT MY CHY REU This is Mr. Smith’s house, isn’t it? นี่บ้านของนายสมิธไม่ใช่หรือ

2. In negative questions.

   NAI MY DY PY HOO-A HIN REU You didn’t go to Hua Hin, did you? นายไม่ได้ไปหัวหินหรือ

3. In certain idiomatic questions such as

   SABAI BEE REU

   สบายดีหรือ

   Are you well?

   which is generally used as a conventional greeting and corresponds to the English “How do you do?”.

4. In long drawn out form REU-U-U as an expression of surprise.

   PRALAHT JY MAHK REU It is very surprising, isn’t it? ประหลาดใจมากหรือ

Negative questions of the form of (b) above are not very common in Thai and should be avoided for the present as the answer is rather tricky. See Examples 8 and 12 in A.5. of this lesson.

This type of question will be dealt with more fully again in Lesson 15.A.

There are many exceptions to the above general rules on question words and in many cases alternative forms of question are equally acceptable just as they are in English.

Experience in the language alone will enable you to pick out the most appropriate form for each question.

Generated by Lyndon Hill on Thu Jul 20 18:40:32 BST 2006.

Copyright remains with the original authors.