Thai English - favourite Tinglish words and expressions

[joshhb]

What are forum members favourite Tinglish expressions and words?

To me they seem to fall into 4 categories.

1. Words i.e. Same same, motorcy, check bill, tee wee.

2. Compound English consonants i.e. tch, ks are difficult for Thai, so box and sex becomes bok and sek

3. Brand names rather than generic words i.e. bleach is Haiter, washing up liquid is Sunlight

4. Stress (') on the final syllable i.e. Compu'ter. Or, after many requests to a taxi driver to take me to the 'Sheraton, he says "Ah, you go Shera'ton"

[colmx]

My friend you(aka your friend)

CentraN shopping mall

NAP club (instead of NAB)

I have no idea what the manager of Dave club was thinking when he renamed it to Dave Club Erra-root-shun (Evolution)

Friend of mine had an Austrian BF Heinz. In the end he used to just call him Hi or Heineken as he just couldn't get his tongue around that inz 

On the Blue'd app I frequently get asked to send a pic of my chicken (cock!)

My favourite error in translation was when my BF told me he had leprosy... turns out he had a rash! 

[joshhb]

Well, by BF can't say Box, but he nails Squirrel, which was the wartime test for German spies, as Germans can't say Squirrel.

I can't get my tongue around the Thai word for Snake - Ngu.

 

 

[floridarob]

On 5/25/2019 at 11:41 PM, joshhb said:

Squirrel, which was the wartime test for German spies, as Germans can't say Squirrel.

Never knew this....going to try it out on my German friends!

[Londoner]

Centran...yes, I know the place well. But even more familiar to us is Loyen Garden. I find myself calling it that now. Nearly sixteen years of attempting to encourage the pronunciation of "Royal" have ended in failure; if you can't beat 'em.....

[ceejay]

My first name is Clive. I now answer to Cly, Cry, Cliv, Criv, Cliff, Criff, and many variations thereon. "Clive" is basically unpronounceable to 99% of Thais.

[Bob]

1 hour ago, ceejay said:

My first name is Clive. I now answer to Cly, Cry, Cliv, Criv, Cliff, Criff, and many variations thereon. "Clive" is basically unpronounceable to 99% of Thais.

All of us somehow learn how to pronounce letters before we even attend school, sort of a muscle/mouth/breathing control that seems to get locked in and oftentimes is very difficult or impossible to change once we're older.  Say the "v" sound and you'll notice how you automatically form that sound without even thinking about it.  Given Thai has no "v" sound in their alphabet, it's generally impossible for Thais to pronounce.  David becomes "Dawit" (the Thai "d" at the end of a word or syllable is pronounced like a "t") and, of course, tv becomes "tee wee."

As for the "b's" in Bob, the Thai alphabet has a "b" (บ) which sounds exactly like an English "b" at the beginning of a word or syllable but it's always pronounced like a "p" at the end of a word or syllable; thus, I am forever "Bop" here.  That same anomaly is why you oftentimes see "crab" both pronounced and written in Thai menus as "crap."

Like Joshhb, I simply have never been able to pronounce the "ng" (ง)Thai consonant which is the initial consonant for Thai words such as snake (ngoo) or money (ngern).  I've tried for almost 20 years to pronounce it right but just can't seem to do it.  Whenever I do try to pronounce that damn consonant, usually Thais either badly attempt to hide a laugh at my attempt or, after a short tee hee, they actually try to help me pronounce it (without any real success so far).  

[joshhb]

One of my favourite Tinglish words is Sokot Taip. Lets see who can figure it out! Hint: Complex consonants get vowels inserted between the consonants.

 

[ceejay]

If we are playing "work it out" how about "gogobel"? Chatting on Romeo, a guy told me that he grew gogobel. It took a long, long time to work out what a gogobel is.

Clues:

G, K and C sounds are (to a degree) interchangeable to Thais

Some consonants, such as "M"  are sometimes completely swallowed by Thai speakers

Thai people can sometimes use the wrong vowel in an English word

Sometimes Thai people add or change a consonant at the end of a word to make it pronounceable to them.

 

[ceejay]

And another thing:

I have posted about this before, but it is worth repeating. The owners of this place could have benefited from some input from a native speaker before they had the stationery printed and the signage manufactured:

http://www.costlyplace.com/

And then again, perhaps not. A selfie with that name in the background would be very Instagrammable. Could make it into the same sort of success as "Cooking with Poo"

[spoon]

Sokot taip = scotch tape? 

Gogobel = i have not idea as well lol

[joshhb]

Exactly right, Spoon. Sokot taip is Scotch tape a.k.a Cellotape for British readers. I mimed using Cellotape in a 7-11, and was told the Tinglish word.

I've thought long and hard about Gogobel, but still no idea.

One Sunday my BF and I were staying in a village near Chiang Rai, and he announced what I heard as "lets go see shirts". I  got into the scooter expecting to drive the 10km into Chiang Rai, but we stopped after 1 km to visit one  of 4 churches in this Christian village.

[martinsen]

My boyfriend:  lizard have no boom translated to resort has no broom

[ceejay]

12 hours ago, ceejay said:

If we are playing "work it out" how about "gogobel"? Chatting on Romeo, a guy told me that he grew gogobel. It took a long, long time to work out what a gogobel is.

Clues:

G, K and C sounds are (to a degree) interchangeable to Thais

So "gogobel" becomes "cocobel"

Some consonants, such as "M"  are sometimes completely swallowed by Thai speakers

So "cocobel" becomes "cocombel"

Thai people can sometimes use the wrong vowel in an English word

So "cocombel" becomes "cucumbel"

Sometimes Thai people add or change a consonant at the end of a word to make it pronounceable to them.

And "cucumbel" becomes "cucumber"

And "cucumber" is, indeed, what it was. He must have heard the word from another Thai and spelt it phonetically, as he had heard it.

[Bob]

6 minutes ago, ceejay said:

And "cucumber" is, indeed, what it was. He must have heard the word from another Thai and spelt it phonetically, as he had heard it.

And I was thinking it was maybe "cuckoo birds!"  Ya gotta love the Tinglish pronunciations.

 

[lotus123]

One, two, teen!

[Gaybutton]

On 5/25/2019 at 10:03 PM, colmx said:

My favourite error in translation was when my BF told me he had leprosy... turns out he had a rash! 

My own favorite was when I had a boy at my house and it was raining rather heavily when it was time for him to leave.  I told him he should stay until the rain ends.  He said, "No problem raining.  I have condom."

Of course, he was trying to convey he has a raincoat.

[anddy]

another classic that strikes the farang as an unusual, yet understandable, use of words is: to open & to close. You "open/close" the aircon/the light/the TV, whatever. They don't use the rather complicated English terminology " to switch/turn on/off". Which, knowing Thai, makes sense because in Thai the equivalent verbs for open and close are used for this purpose (poed เปิด / pit ปิด)

Which, if you think about it, isn't that wrong. You flip an electric switch, which "opens" ("closes") a gate for the electricity to flow to the device.

 

As for the intial consonant ng (ง) that @Bob mentioned: this consonant is obviously very common as an ending consonant or in the middle of a syllable in English, so all English speakers can very well pronounce it as such. Just oddly not as an initial consonant which should require just a little getting used to to do it given its ubiquity  in English. Try this:

you can say "I sing"

you can say "I'm singing"

now say singing-singing-singing.... successively

then and gradually try to leave out the "si" 

singing-singing-singing-nging-nging-nging 

I find it very easy

from there you can go on to say ngong (งง) which fittingly means confused, puzzled, bewildered  

[spoon]

In malay, we also use one word to describe switch on/off and open/close. I believe there are tonnes of other examples where this is true. One word in a language can have several words equivalent and vice versa. 

[anddy]

On 7/3/2019 at 3:42 AM, ceejay said:

And another thing:

I have posted about this before, but it is worth repeating. The owners of this place could have benefited from some input from a native speaker before they had the stationery printed and the signage manufactured:

http://www.costlyplace.com/

And then again, perhaps not. A selfie with that name in the background would be very Instagrammable. Could make it into the same sort of success as "Cooking with Poo"

I can't figre out what they actually mean to say. The Thai writing doesn't explain it as it is just a transliteration of the English words into Thai. 

Is it supposed to be "cosy place"?

[kokopelli]

47 minutes ago, anddy said:

another classic that strikes the farang as an unusual, yet understandable, use of words is: to open & to close. You "open/close" the aircon/the light/the TV, whatever. They don't use the rather complicated English terminology " to switch/turn on/off". Which, knowing Thai, makes sense because in Thai the equivalent verbs for open and close are used for this purpose (poed เปิด / pit ปิด)

Which, if you think about it, isn't that wrong. You flip an electric switch, which "opens" ("closes") a gate for the electricity to flow to the device.

 

 

 

Open and close makes more sense than the archaic English expression "turn on/off" which may refer to the original electrical switches which one literally had to twist/turn. Or maybe a reference to  earlier gas fixtures where one had to turn a knob to open/close a gas line?

[spoon]

41 minutes ago, anddy said:

I can't figre out what they actually mean to say. The Thai writing doesn't explain it as it is just a transliteration of the English words into Thai. 

Is it supposed to be "cosy place"?

Without knowing the place itself, maybe it wants to say luxury? But the google translate it to costly instead?

[anddy]

2 hours ago, spoon said:

Without knowing the place itself, maybe it wants to say luxury? But the google translate it to costly instead?

that's what I thought too, but can't think of a Thai word that would mean luxurious but also translate to costly/expensive. But then my Thai vocabulary isn't THAT extensive to cover all the possible unusual words there might be for this. A google translate from "costly" to Thai didn't turn up anything plausible either. 

[ChristianPFC]

A boy I met in 2010 or 11 told me: "My friend has (I can't make out the word)". Your friend has what? "My friend has (I can't make out the word)".

Then I asked him to write the word on my phone: pormbel. I understand written, even if mangled, much better than spoken and instantly understood: problem.

[joshhb]

Yesterday got my BF to say "Cucumber" - no problems.

Today he was having a customary afternoon nap. The Aircon was running, set at 24C. Complaining he was too hot he said "Open air". So "open' seems to be used not just to switch on, but also turn up.