How? Questions/ยังไง,อย่างไร,เท่าไหร่
Sa-wat dii ka everyone, In this online Thai lesson we are going to learn about how to ask “How”? Questions which ask about the manner in which something is done follow the pattern verb + yang-ngai? (how?):
sà-gòt yang-ngai? How do you spell it?
bpen yang-ngai (bâang)? How are things?
bpai yang-ngai? How are we going?
If the sentence includes a grammatical object, this commonly occurs before the verb:
kem sà-gòt yang-ngai? How do you spell ‘salt‘?
má-mûang gin yang-ngai? How do you eat mangoes?
bpai roong-rian Thai Language Hut yang-ngai? How do i get to Thai Language Hut?
The Thai spelling of how? suggests that the correct pronunciation is yàang-rai rather than yang-ngai. In normal speech, however, the first vowel is shortened, the low tone changes to a neutral mid-tone and the final ng in the first syllable and initial r in the second syllable are assimilated into a ng sound. In fact, when greeting each other informally, Thais will often go a step further and say, simply, bpen ngai?
How? questions which ask how tall/heavy/long (in linear measurement or time) something is used tâo-rài? (how much?):
sǔung tâo-rài? How high/tall is it?
kun nàk tâo-rài? How heavy are you/ What do you weigh?
rian paa-sǎa tai naan tâo-rài? How long have you studied Thai?
OK! Now I have one sentence for you to practice! Try translating the sign in the picture below into Thai.
Enjoy Learning kâ:-)
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By Prae
Thai Language Teacher
