The following adverbs of degree or levels occur only after a verb or verb phrase.
They describe how much or how little emphasis the verb has – ie a little full or very full.
You will hear the following simple examples of commonly used Adverbs a lot in Thailand:
1.มาก/ mâak / a lot, very much, really
2.นิดหน่อย/ nít-noì / a little
Examples:
1เขาเมามาก
káo mao mâak.
He’s really drunk.
2.อากาศร้อนมาก
aa-gàat ráwn mâak.
The weather is really hot.
3.ฉันหิวนิดหน่อย
chán hĭw nít-noì
I’m a bit hungry.
But there is like in English a complete scale of adverbs to describe relative size:
Adverbs of Degree | Scale
Extremely Big / yài sùt-sùt / ใหญ่สุดสุด
Very Big / yài mâak / ใหญ่มาก
Rather Big / kͻ̂n-kâang yài / ค่อนข้างใหญ่
Quite Big /kͻ̂n-kâang yài / ค่อนข้างใหญ่
Fairly Big / yài bpaan-glaang / ใหญ่ปานกลาง
Slightly Small / A bit Small/ lék nít-diao/เล็กนิดเดียว or lék-nít-noì /เล็กนิดหน่อย/
Fairly Small/ lék bpaan-glaang / เล็กปานกลาง
Quite Small / kͻ̂n-kâang lék / ค่อนข้างเล็ก
Rather Small/ kͻ̂n-kâang lék / ค่อนข้างเล็ก
Very Small/ lék mâak / เล็กมาก
Extremely Small/ lék sùt-sùt / เล็กสุดสุด
Try describing things more precisely with this newly learned Thai Grammar to your Thai friends – they will be quite surprised you know this level of detail :-).
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