Serial Verb Constructions

Verbs in a row

Thai happily puts several verbs one after another with no conjunction and no infinitive marker. pai sue khong: go buy things. ma ha phom: come see me. The order is chronological. Whatever happens first is said first, and the string reads like a little sequence of events. This is why Thai sentences can feel like a list of actions. Where English needs 'go to the shop in order to buy', Thai needs go, buy - and nothing between them.

Direction verbs on the end

pai (ไป, go) and ma (มา, come) attach to other verbs to show direction relative to the speaker. ao pai, take it away. ao ma, bring it here. Same verb, opposite directions. This pair is everywhere. song pai, send it off; song ma, send it to me. klap pai, go back; klap ma, come back. Get into the habit of hearing the last syllable of a verb string, because that is usually where the direction lives.

Result verbs

A second verb often reports how the first one turned out. dai (ได้) can, set (เสร็จ) finished, mot (หมด) all gone, thueng (ถึง) arrived. kin mot means ate it all. tham set means finished doing it. ha mai choe means looked and did not find. These pairs behave as units and are worth learning whole rather than assembling. They are also how Thai does much of what English does with adverbs and particles: eat up, use up, run out.

Trying, and doing a bit

long (ลอง) in front of a verb means give it a try: long chim, have a taste; long sai du, try it on. du (ดู) on the end softens the whole thing into 'and see': long tham du, try doing it and see how it goes. Thai loves this pair, and it is a friendly, low-pressure way to suggest anything. noi (หน่อย) on the end means a little and softens a request, as it does everywhere else.

Strings you will use

Read each of these as a sequence of little actions in order, and the structure stops being strange.

Inserting a to

There is no infinitive marker in Thai. Nothing goes between the verbs. Learners often try to insert phuea (เพื่อ, in order to) everywhere, and while it exists, it is for genuine purpose statements and sounds heavy in an ordinary sentence. pai sue khong is 'go and buy things'. pai phuea sue khong is 'go for the purpose of buying things', which is fine in an essay and stilted in a kitchen.

Getting pai and ma backwards

Direction is relative to the speaker, not to the listener. ao ma means bring it towards me; ao pai means take it away from me. On the phone this catches everyone out: if you are asking someone to bring something to where you are, it is ma, even though they will be doing the travelling.