How to give directions to a taxi driver
Hi everyone,
Are you the one who always use the service of Bangkok taxi and sometimes you can’t communicate with the driver and are overcharged?
You don’t have to worry about that anymore because now we are going to learn some important conversation that you can use with the taxi driver:)
Telling the destination
bpai ….location….
**please do not forget to finish the sentence with kâ (for female speaker) or kráp
For example : you would like to go to Asoke
Taxi driver : bpai nǎi kráp? (sometimes they don’t ask you any question, they just wait for you to tell the destination)
You (male speaker) : bpai Asoke kráp.
You (female speaker): bpai Asoke kâ
Use the meter
Now if the taxi driver just names the price ( I have to accept that it often happen to tourists) you can ask them to use the meter.
In English you say : Could you please …(do something)…?
In Thai language, to form a kindly request we say : chûai…..(verb)….dûai
So you would like to ask the driver to use the meter.
Could you please use the mitor?
You (male speaker) :chûai chái mitor dûai kráp.
You (female speaker): chûai chái mitor dûai kâ
then ready and happy to go!
*please mark that it is nice and polite to finish the sentence with kráp/kâ.
Stop here
Right now you are at the destination and you would like to out of the taxi.
in English you would say “please stop here” , but in Thai we say “please park here”.
park = jͻ̀ͻt
here = tîi-nîi
Could you please park here?
You (male speaker) :chûai jͻ̀ͻt tîi-nîi dûai kráp.
You (female speaker): chûai jͻ̀ͻt tîi-nîi dûai kâ
How ask how much
It’s time to pay the price. Do you remember how to say “how much?” in Thai?
How much = tâo-rài?
and then say “thank you” which is “kòp-kun” kráp/kâ
So you may pay 100 Baht instead of paying 500 🙂
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Prae
Thai Language Teacher
