Click on the underlined words or on the icon
to listen to the
sound.
Kinship terms are used in place of pronous in a home or informal setting. The formal pronouns คุณ [you], ดิฉัน /ฉัน /ผม [I - female/male] are used in formal settings outside the home, such as in school or in a business or social setting. At home a parent would say the equivalent of "Where is child [ ลูก ] going?" Or a younger sibling would ask an older, "When is Elder [ พี่ ] coming home?" A wife might also refer to herself [I] as น้อง /nawng/ [I/younger sister] and addressing her husband, พี่ /phi/ [you/elder brother]. Kin terms are used outside of the home to display courtesy and to reduce social distance. If you see a woman your mother's age, you would address her as ป้า /paa/ [aunt]; if she is your grandmother's age, call her ยาย /yaay/. The classifier for counting people is คน /khon/.
You might be asked,
|
How many older and younger
kids are there in your family (including yourself)? |
พ่อแม่มีลูกกี่คน
มีลูกชายกี่คน
ลูกสาวกี่คน |
How
many kids do your parents have? How many sons? How many daughters? |
หนู
/nuu/, which usually means mouse or rat, is also used
as a semi-formal pronoun. It is used to express something like
"humbleness." A teacher can call her student 'nuu' in place of 'you'
and the student can use 'nuu' for 'I' in talking to a teacher and elders. Some women
will refer to themselves as 'nuu' in talking to their husbands or a senior person.
Names are also use in place of pronouns.
Names are of two types: Nicknames, given at birth; Given names given by a monk or
respected elder. The given name is used at school. Nicknames will be used
throughout life by family and friends.
The kin term + nickname is commonly
used as well. For example:
พี่แดง /phi daeng/ - elder sibling Red. Nicknames include colors (แดง /daeng/ - Red,
ดำ /dam/ - Black), a physical feature (
อ้วน /?uan/ - Fat), an animal (
ไก่ /kay/ - chicken), or a meaningless sound (
อี๊ด
/Ete/,แอ๊ด /Aet/). In the 1980s and 90s, English names (Johnny, Billy)
became increasinly popular with urban Thai parents.
BACK
| kinship | in
laws | explanation | chart | passage I | passage II | exercises
|
| story18 | practice18 | vocabulary18 |
designer: Jenjit
October 2005