The Verbs You Use Every Day

The twenty that do the work

Thai verbs never conjugate, so a verb you learn once is finished - no -s, no -ed, no am/is/are. That makes a small list go a very long way, and this is the list. What you think and know: khit (คิด, think), ru (รู้, know a fact), ru chak (รู้จัก, know a person or place), khao chai (เข้าใจ, understand), yak (อยาก, want to). What you do with your body: pai (ไป, go), ma (มา, come), doen (เดิน, walk), ro (รอ, wait), tham (ทำ, do or make), ao (เอา, take), hai (ให้, give). What you do with your senses and your mouth: hen (เห็น, see), du (ดู, look at), dai yin (ได้ยิน, hear), fang (ฟัง, listen), ru suek (รู้สึก, feel), phut (พูด, speak), khui (คุย, chat), bok (บอก, tell). Every one of them is one or two syllables, and none of them will ever look different from how you learned it.

You already have every tense

Because the verb never bends, the same three words are past, present and future depending on what you put around them. phom pai is I go, I went and I am going, all of it. Add laeo (แล้ว) after the verb for something finished. Add ja (จะ) before it for something coming. Add kamlang (กำลัง) before it for something happening right now. That is the whole tense system. So the effort you would spend on irregular verbs in a European language goes instead into knowing which twenty verbs to reach for. Learn the verb, and the tenses are free.

Wanting, and wanting to

There are two different wants and Thai keeps them apart. yak (อยาก) is followed by a verb - wanting to *do* something. ao (เอา) is followed by a thing - wanting to *have* it. yak kin, want to eat. ao nam, I will take water. Say ao in front of a verb and you have said something odd; say yak in front of a noun and you have said nothing at all. For a polite request, khoh (ขอ) beats both: khoh nam noi, may I have some water. It is the single most useful word in a shop.

Verbs in a row do the joining

Thai does not need 'to' or 'and' between two verbs. Put them next to each other in the order the events happen and you are done. pai kin khao, go eat. ma ha phom, come see me. ro du kon, wait and watch first. English needs a preposition or a conjunction in every one of those; Thai needs a space. hai (ให้) is the one to watch, because it does two jobs. On its own it means give. In front of a person it means for or to, and after a verb it turns an action into something done for somebody else: tham hai phom, do it for me.

See is not look, hear is not listen

English blurs these and Thai does not. hen (เห็น) is seeing - it happened to your eyes. du (ดู) is looking - you pointed them. dai yin (ได้ยิน) is hearing. fang (ฟัง) is listening. So du nang is watch a film, but hen nang would mean you happened to catch sight of one. fang phleng is listen to music; dai yin phleng is there was music and you noticed. The same split runs through knowing. ru (รู้) is knowing a fact. ru chak (รู้จัก) is being acquainted with a person or a place. Ask someone khun ru chak khao mai - do you know him - and never khun ru khao mai, which asks whether you know him as a piece of information.

Speak, chat, tell

phut (พูด) is to speak - it takes a language or a manner. phut thai, speak Thai. phut cha cha, speak slowly. It does not take a person as its object. khui (คุย) is to chat with somebody. khui kap phuean, chat with a friend. It is the verb for the activity, not for the content. bok (บอก) is to tell somebody something, and it is the one that takes both. bok phom noi, tell me. If you find yourself trying to say 'talk to him about it', the verb you want is bok. One more that catches everybody: ru suek (รู้สึก) is to feel an emotion or a sensation. It is not the verb for touching something, and it is not how you say 'I feel that you should' - that is khit wa.

A day in twenty verbs

Every sentence below is built from the list at the top of this topic and nothing else. This is what that small set actually buys you.