What’s wrong with you? = àrai khŏrng ther = อะไรของเธอ

It’s been a long while since I last posted! Today’s new slang/colloquial term is:

อะไรของเธอ

Àrai khŏrng ther

What’s (wrong) with you?

Example of how to use:

อะไรของเธอ อยากไปห้องน้ำก็ไปสิ มาชวนคนอื่นทำไม

àrai khŏrng ther, yàhk pai hôrng nám kôr pai sì, mah chuan khon èun tham mai

What’s wrong with you? If you want to go to the washroom, just go, why would you ask along other people?

(Disclaimer: Habit of Thai girls includes = not being able to go to the washroom on their own. Sometimes I am guilty of that too, depending on the time and location.)

พูดอะไรของเธอคนเดียว

Phôod àrai khŏrng ther khon diao

What’s wrong with you speaking on your own?

As usual, here is the question for today:

What does this mean:

อะไรเนี่ยะ

àrai nîa

Isn’t it?/Is it so? = rĕu.. rĕr.. = หรือ.. เหรอ..

หรือ vs. เหรอ

Sometime ago one of my students mentioned to me that he thought he had heard “rĕr” instead of “rĕu”. So here is my explanation:

 

As a conjunction, rĕu (wâh) means “or”.

เธออยากไปดูหนังหรือ(ว่า)ไปกินข้าว

Ther yàhk pai doo năng rĕu (wâh) pai kin khaâo

As a yes-no question word, rĕu and rĕr are just like a question mark at the end of the sentence. The first one is more formal than the latter. The meaning would be a little similar to when you say “chái măi”, with a slight different in speaker’s certainty of the fact that he/she asks.

คุณเป็นคนไทยใช่ไหมคะ

Khun pen khon Thai châi măi khá

ใช่ค่ะ คุณรู้ได้ยังไงคะ

Châi khâ, khun róo dâi yang ngai khá

เมื่อกี้บังเอิญฉันได้ยินคุณคุยโทรศัพท์ค่ะ

Meûa kêe bang ern chăn dâiyin khun khui thohrásàb khâ

คุณเป็นคนไทยเหรอคะ

Khun pen khon Thai rĕr khá

ใช่ค่ะ คุณรู้ได้ยังไงคะ

Châi khâ, khun róo dâi yang ngai khá

เมื่อกี้บังเอิญฉันได้ยินคุณคุยโทรศัพท์ค่ะ

Meûa kêe bang ern chăn dâiyin khun khui thohrásàb khâ

When being used alone, it can be referred to a response to the previous statement, something like “is it so?”.

ฉันจะไปญี่ปุ่น

Chăn jà pai yêe pùn.

เหรอ แล้วจะไปเมื่อไหร่

Rĕr, laéw jà pai meûa rài

เดือนหน้า

Deuan nâh

In certain situations it is also possible to add rĕr at the end of the question with question words:

คุณชื่ออะไร

Khun chêu àrai

คุณชื่ออะไรเหรอ

Khun chêu àrai rĕr

Basically there is no grammatical difference between these 2 questions. Just that the 2^nd sentence sounds more casual (and possibly slightly more friendly) than the 1^st sentence.

Lesson 7 = Bòt thêe jèd = บทที่ ๗

Yàhng rai / yang ngai, thammai

Yang ngai is a simplified/casual version of Yàhng rai.  This is simple because it would always be at the end of the question.

คุณนกเป็นคนยังไง นิสัยดีมั้ย เจ้าชู้หรือเปล่า

Khun nók pen khon yang ngai, nísăi dee mái, jâo chóo rĕu pláo

เธอรู้สึกยังไงกับเรา

Ther róosèuk yang ngai kàb rao

On the other hand, thammai can appear at both end of the sentence. In addition,

instead of thammai, it is also possible to use “phrór àrai – เพราะอะไร“ or because of what. As a matter of fact, it is more common for thammai to start a question and phrór àrai to end a question. Examples are:

ทำไมเธอไม่มาทำงาน

Thammai ther mâi mah tham ngaan

เธอไม่มาทำงานเพราะอะไร

Ther mâi mah tham ngaan phrór àrai

ทำไมคุณอยากเรียนภาษาไทย

Thammai khun yàhk rian phaasăh Thai

คุณอยากเรียนภาษาไทยเพราะอะไร

Khun yàhk rian phaasăh Thai phrór àrai

ทำไมโรมิโอรักกับจูเลียตไม่ได้

Thammai Romeo rák kàb Juliet mâi dâi

โรมิโอรักกับจูเลียตไม่ได้เพราะอะไร

Romeo rák kàb Juliet mâi dâi phrór àrai

All questions above are basically interchangeable. Just one thing to note: sometimes if thammai appears at the end of a question, this would show a slight discontent of the speaker.

ดึกแล้ว ทำไมเธอโทรหาฉัน = It’s already late, why would you call me?

Dèuk laéw, thammai ther thoh hăh chăn

ดึกแล้ว เธอโทรหาฉันทำไม = It’s already late, why would you call me? (I might be groggy from being woken up in the middle of the night, therefore I am probably in a bad mood.)

Dèuk laéw, ther thoh hăh chăn thammai

ทำไมเขาอยากมาหาเธอบ่อยๆ = Why does he always want to see you?

Thammai khăo yàhk mah hăh ther bòi bòi

เขาอยากมาหาเธอบ่อยๆทำไม = Why does he always want to see you? (I might be feeling jealous because this particular guy keeps calling you, and I want to know why.)

Khăo yàhk mah hăh ther bòi bòi thammai

Quiz:

What is the difference between: tham yang ngai ทำยังไง and tham yang ngai dee ทำยังไงดี

Lesson 6 = Bòt thêe hòk = บทที่ ๖

How much (thâo rài = เท่าไหร่) & How many (kèe = กี่)

 

Thâo rài

 

Thâo rài is quite similar to how we look at “how much”. Firstly, it can be used to talk about price in general:

 

Seûa tua née thâo rài khá mâe khá

เสื้อตัวนี้เท่าไหร่คะ แม่ค้า

Jà lâek ngern pai Yêepùn thâo rài dee ná

จะแลกเงินไปญี่ปุ่นเท่าไหร่ดีนะ

 

Secondly, it can also be used with adjective, to measure the extent of it:

 

Kháo hâam thăam phôoyĭng ná wâh nàk thâo rài nâ, man yàab khaai

เค้าห้ามถามผู้หญิงนะว่าหนักเท่าไหร่น่ะ มันหยาบคาย

Nók sŏong thâo rài nîa, wehlah khui rao tôrng ngoei nâh khêun morng, pùad khor mâak loei

นกสูงเท่าไหร่เนี่ยะ เวลาคุย เราต้องเงยหน้าขึ้นมอง ปวดคอมากเลย

 

Noun + kèe + classifier

 

Kèe is more commonly used with a countable noun, which, of course, has its associated classifier. Example:

 

Thêe bâhn (khŏrng) ther mee maew kèe tua

ที่บ้าน (ของ) เธอมีแมวกี่ตัว

Khun jà ao sôm kèe kilo(gram) khá

คุณจะเอาส้มกี่กิโล(กรัม) คะ

*Khun mâe jà pai Krung Thêp kèe wan khráb

คุณแม่จะไปกรุงเทพฯกี่วันครับ

 

*Please note that in this case, there is no “wan” in front of kèe. That is because the classifier of “wan” is also “wan”. Hence it would be acceptable to omit the noun.

 

What is the use of knowing how to ask a question but not knowing how to answer grammatically correct?

 

If you notice, the structure for kèe in the box above is very similar to what I had explain earlier: https://rianthaikabkelly.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/lesson-3-bot-thee-saam-%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88-%E0%B9%93/

 

There you would find that the structure for counting any countable noun is:

 

Noun + qty + classifier

 

What we need to do now is to simply replace kèe with the quantity of the noun. Voilà, that’s it!

 

See below the answers to the questions above:

 

Thêe bâhn (khŏrng) chăn mee maew sŏrng tua

ที่บ้าน (ของ) ฉันมีแมวสองตัว

Chăn ao sôm săam kilo(gram) khâ

ฉันเอาส้มสามกิโล (กรัม) ค่ะ

Mâe jà pai Krung Thêp sèe wan khâ

แม่จะไปกรุงเทพฯ สี่วันค่ะ

 

[It is also possible to use kèe to ask about how much money, but remember to replace the classifier with the currency you are interested in.]

Lesson 4 = Bòt Thêe Sèe = บทที่ ๔

Do you know that “Năi = ไหน” falls in the same category of “Khrai = ใคร” and “Àrai = อะไร” in terms of Thai grammar? It is considered as such because the answer to all three question words would be nouns.

 

Năi rawng thaáo khŏrng ther? = ไหนรองเท้าของเธอ

Khun jà pai năi? = คุณจะไปไหน

 

However, during lesson, I had explained that Năi should be treated like an adjective:

Noun + Classifier + Adjective

 

Therefore you should be getting something like this:

Noun + Classifier + Năi

 

The reason I explain in this manner is due to the fact that at times we do use Năi with classifier. For example, we say:

 

Nák rian khon năi mâi dâi tham kaan bâhn = นักเรียนคนไหนไม่ได้ทำการบ้าน

Khun chôrb kràpăo bai năi khá = คุณชอบกระเป๋าใบไหนคะ

 

So: Nák rian khon năi and kràpăo bai năi are placed in a position of subject and object, respectively. This follows Thai standard sentence structure of:

Noun + Action (+ Object) (+ Complement)

 

Now I realize that when we simply put Năi without classifier it sounds very casual (note: not impolite, a little bit colloquial). I would teach my student to use something not too formal, yet not overly casual. Hence it would be better to practice using Năi with the noun and its classifier.

 

Quiz: Can you try to transform the last 2 examples of Năi with classifier to the one without it?