RAANG (แรง) means “power”, “strength”, from which we get;

	RAANG MAH	แรงม้า	Horsepower.
	RAANG TEE-AN	แรงเทียน	Candlepower.
	KAANG RAANG	แข็งแรง	Bodily strength, robustness.

JAHNG (จ้าง) is “to hire” a person or thing.

	NAI JAHNG	นายจ้าง	An employer.
	LOOK JAHNG	ลูกจ้าง	An employee.
	GAHN JAHNG	การจ้าง	Employment.

CHOK (โชค) “luck” usually occurs as;

	CHOK DEE	โชคดี	Good luck.
	CHOK RAI	โชคร้าย	Bad luck.

NAA JY (แน่ใจ) is a verb meaning “to be certain” and NAA NORN (แน่นอน) is the adverb meaning “certain”, “sure”.

	KOW NAA JY WAH JA MAH เขาแน่ใจว่าจะมา	He is certain that he will come.
	KOW BORK WAH JA MAH NAA NORN He says that he will come for certain. เขาบอกว่าจะมาแน่นอน
	POM MY NAA JY WAH KOW KER-Y PY TEENUN REU MY I am not certain if he has ever been there or not. ผมไม่แน่ใจว่าเขาเคยไปที่นั่นหรือไม่

RAI (ราย) may be either a noun with the meaning of “a report”, “a record” etc. or a verb meaning “to be listed” or “to be arranged in series”. It forms a great number of compounds not all of which will bear too close an analytical examination but which have to be learned as a whole.

	RAI NGAHN	รายงาน	A report.
	RAI CHEU AH-HAHN	รายชื่ออาหาร	A menu. (List of food)
	RAI WUN	รายวัน	Daily.
	RAI DY	รายได้	Income.

DTUNG (ตั้ง) means “to set up”, “to promote”, “to establish” and is almost invariably used in compounds in a somewhat idiomatic form.

	DTUNG JY	ตั้งใจ	To intend. (Set up the mind)
	DTUNG DTAA	ตั้งแต่	Since. (See also Lesson 20)
	DTUNG RAHKAH	ตั้งราคา	To fix (establish) price.

HAYT (เหตุ) means “the cause”, “the reason” and though sometimes used alone is more often met in compounds such as;

	HAYT WAH	เหตุว่า	Because. (Reason that...)
	HAYT PON	เหตุผล	Reason.

You will meet some other compounds in Lesson 25.

HAANG (แห่ง) “of” is used only in the sense of “being associated with”.

ORNG GAHN ROT FY HAANG PRATAYT THAI The Railway Organization of Thailand. องค์การรถไฟแห่งประเทศไทย

It is not synonymous with KORNG “belonging to” and cannot generally be used in this sense.

There is no single word in Thai equivalent to the English word “of” in all its various uses.

NAHTEE (หน้าที่) is the same as “duty” in English but is used rather differently. In English we say “it is his duty to...” but in Thai we say “he has the duty to...”.

KON SOO-AN MEE NAHTEE CHET ROT HY SA-AHT TOOK WUN It is the gardener’s duty to clean the car every day. คนสวนมีหน้าที่เช็ดรถให้สะอาดทุกวัน

DUNG (ดัง) “similar” or “like” occurs in a large number of compounds such as;

	DUNG NEE/NUN	ดังนี้/นั้น	Thus. Like this/that.
	DUNG DTAA GORN	ดังแต่ก่อน	As before.
	DUNG RAI NGAHN	ดังรายงาน	As reported.

TALAANG (แถลง), GLAOU (กล่าว). Both these words mean “to relate”, “to tell” and though they are fairly synonymous they each have their own special usages which can only be learned by practice.

TALAANG is a rather formal word seldom used in conversation but GLAOU which is very similar to LOW (Lesson21) is common in speech and writing, mostly with the meaning of “to speak about”, “to describe”.

A common expression is;

DUNG GLAOU LAAW

ดังกล่าวแล้ว

As already related.

DOY MAHK (โดยมาก) is an adverb meaning “mostly” and should not be confused with SOO-AN MAHK (Lesson 22) which corresponds with the adjective “most”. This distinction however is not always observed in ordinary conversation and to a large extent these two words are interchangeable.

	KON THAI SOO-AN MAHK CHORP PY DOO NUNG Most Thai like going to the pictures. คนไทยส่วนมากชอบไปดูหนัง
	KON THAI DOY MAHK CHORP PY DOO NUNG Thai mostly like going to the pictures. คนไทยโดยมากชอบไปดูหนัง

DOY CHAPOW (โดยเฉพาะ) “especially”. Note that in this word the vowel เ-า is shortened by the addition of -ะ and hence is pronounced very short something like the “o” in “not”.

RAHTSADORN (ราษฎร), PRACHACHON (ประชาชน) both mean “the people” but are used differently. RAHTSADORN is a formal word used mainly in referring to “the sovereign people” whereas PRACHACHON is the ordinary word corresponding to “the people” or “the public” in English. Both words are used in speech and in writing with their own particular connotations.

NEE (หนี้) is “debt” from which we get;

	JOW NEE	เจ้าหนี้	A creditor.
	LOOK NEE	ลูกหนี้	A debtor.
	PEN NEE	เป็นหนี้	To be in debt.
	POM PEN NEE KOON TOWRY ผมเป็นหนี้คุณเท่าไร		How much do I owe you?
	TAHN PEN NEE POM SAHM ROY BAHT You owe me three hundred baht. ท่านเป็นหนี้ผมสามร้อยบาท

HEN DOO-AY (เห็นด้วย) means “to agree with someone” and you should note the difference between this word and YORM “to agree to” which you had in Lesson 16.

	POM HEN DOO-AY GUP KOON ผมเห็นด้วยกับคุณ	I agree with him.
	POM MY YORM TUM YAHNG NUN I don’t agree to do it like that. ผมไม่ยอมทำอย่างนั้น

DTOK LONG (ตกลง) “to agree” can generally be used in place of either HEN DOO-AY or YORM.

WITEE (วิธี) is “the method” or “the way” of doing something and usually implies “the correct method”.

POM YAHK SEUKSAH WITEE LEE-ANG GY I want to study poultry farming. (I want to study the method of raising fowls) ผมอยากศึกษาวิธีเลี้ยงไก่

DTIT (ติด) “to fix”, “to attach”, “to be stuck” usually occurs as a compound word and the meaning in most cases is very idiomatic.

	DTIT GUP	ติดกับ	Adjoining.
	DTIT KREU-ANG	ติดเครื่อง	Start the engine.
	DTIT DTOR	ติดต่อ	To contact, associate with. Infectious.
	DTIT TOORA	ติดธุระ	To be busy (Attached to work).

TEUNG MAA WAH (ถึงแม้ว่า) is the full form of the conjunction “although” but the word MAA is really the key word and appears on its own and in other combinations as below.

	MAA	แม้	Although.
	MAA WAH	แม้ว่า	Even if.
	MAA DTAA	แม้แต่	In spite of.

The meanings of these conjunctions are rather flexible and it is a matter of seeing which meaning appears the most appropriate in the given context.

Generated by Lyndon Hill on Thu Jul 20 18:40:34 BST 2006.

Copyright remains with the original authors.