Pronunciation

[joe552]

How do you pronounce Soi (as in street) - is it 'swah' or 'soy'?

Thanks.

[stevehadders]

Ive always used "Soy" as have the Thai people I know - but maybe we are all wrong and the blue blooded amongst you may do differently!

[Neal]

My Thai friend just verified it is soy as in soy sauce.

[joe552]

Many thanks. That's what I thought.

[francois]

If French you say "swah", if American you say "soy", if a Brit say "sew-eye".

[Neal]

and in Thailand you say SOI pronounced SOY

[ceejay]

if a Brit say "sew-eye".
What??? I'm a Brit and I've never heard anyone pronounce it so. I certainly don't myself.

[Neal]

And even if you were not a Brit, you would still need to pronounce it the way the Thais do so that they would understand. If you were Scottish then you can pronounce it anyway you want as nobody will fucking understand them anyway with all those marbles in their mouth!

... If you were Scottish ...nobody will fucking understand them anyway with all those marbles in their mouth!


When it comes to having a number of things in one's mouth at the same time my darling, 5 million Scots defer to your much greater experience.


:evil4: :evil4:

[Patexpat]

Having just doubled checked with my Thai staff ... Soi is technically a minor road/street off of a Sai (sounds closer to 'sigh') So Third Road in Pattaya is actually Sai Sam, not Soi Sam ...

[joe552]

Thanks, Patexpat. I knew Sai Song was 2nd road, but was unsure about the pronunciation of Soi, being as you say a small sidestreet.

Don't worry, scottish, I understand most of what you write - can barely detect an accent. :occasion9:

[francois]

Just joking ceejay! I figured if the Brits pronounce Pattaya as they do, then they must have an unusual pronounciation for "soi".

Actually the Americans have some unsual pronunciations for "soy" as is soy sauce, soy bean; so-ya and so-wee.

[Jellybean]

Well, I see youтАЩve got your answer on how to pronounce soi (as in soy-sauce) Joe552.

But the mention of тАЬsaiтАЭ intrigued me. I knew that s─Гai is the classifier for roads (ta-n┼Пn), side streets (sooi), rivers and canals, but never heard of a road being called a sai. I checked my Thai dictionary and see that yes another name for a road is a s─Гai. This board is an education, IтАЩve learnt something new today!

Note: There are no plurals in Thai so you need to use classifiers. For example: two streets = sooi-s┼Пong-s─Гai (street-two-classifier).

[Impulse]

Isn't beautiful called soi in Thai?

[Neal]

No that is pronounced sa waaaay
sa has a short a and way has a long a

[Dboy]

No that is pronounced sa waaaay
sa has a short a and way has a long a

Be careful with that word though; pronounced incorrectly it means "bad luck":

р╕Лр╕зр╕в --- bad luck

р╕кр╕зр╕в ----beautiful

Notice the problem there... both have wa-wan and ya-yak at the end. Really, the only way to get these two straight in your mind is to hear them demonstrated by a native Thai.

р╕Щр╣Ир╕▓р╕гр╕▒р╕Б ----cute/lovely "na-rak" is a safer choice if you are having troubles, but this is not a very "flirty" word in my opinion

This is one of those classic Thai language landmines. Another one, which I find amusing, surrounds the pronunciation of р╕лр╕┤р╕бр╕░ (snow). Anyone here know the "problem"?

Dboy

[Jellybean]

On the subject of the Thai word for тАЬbeautifulтАЭ for those that do not already know, you do not say that a Thai man (p├╗u-chaai) is s┼нai (beautiful) that word is used to describe women (p├╗u-y─нng) and other beautiful things.

For a man (p├╗u-chaai) you can say he is l├аw (handsome) or, better still, l├аw-m├вck (very handsome).

For example: Oh, Khun duu l├аw-m├вck тАУ Oh, you look very handsome!

Or even, n├вa-r├бk (cute) or n├вa-r├бk-m├вck (very cute).

Those words are bound to get you lots of brownie points with your man!

I suppose your ladyboy/transvestite friend (g├а-t╔Щ╔Щi) would probably like to be called s┼нai and not l├аw. But, as Dboy points out, please remember to use rising tone s┼нai and not level tone suai because that means unlucky/bad luck; otherwise you might find yourself being very unlucky!
:sign5:

I donтАЩt know of any problem over the Thai word for snow, h├м-m├б unless perhaps someone confuses it with kii-m─Гa (dog sh*t) which, of course, would not be very pleasant! If others have any other explanation IтАЩd be interested to hear it.

[cdnmatt]

Go around, and tell all the cute Thai boys they're "naa-gin". You'll get some cute, shy laughs out of it.

Just say, "wow! kun naa-gin mak!".

I find "Suckee-Fuckee" works every time.
(Oh, with a rising tone of course)

:occasion9:

[joe552]

You have a real way with words, scottish - such a smooth operator :occasion9:

Less is more!

[christianpfc]

I donтАЩt know of any problem over the Thai word for snow, h├м-m├б unless perhaps someone confuses it with kii-m─Гa (dog sh*t) which, of course, would not be very pleasant! If others have any other explanation IтАЩd be interested to hear it.
You are close. As far as I know, it is р╕лр╕╡ р╕лр╕бр╕▓ h─Хe m─Гa which means "dog pussy".

[anonone]

That is the one I was thinking of. I mis-pronounced snow with my Thai teacher, and she wouldn't tell me what it meant. Had to ask my BF. oooops. Dog pussy. :sign5:

I am not certain, but I think a fairly offensive "slang type" word as well, more like cunt then vagina.

[Dboy]

You are close. As far as I know, it is р╕лр╕╡ р╕лр╕бр╕▓ h─Хe m─Гa which means "dog pussy".

Yup! i find that a good illustration of what a long vowel vs short vowel error can do.

[Dboy]

I am not certain, but I think a fairly offensive "slang type" word as well, more like cunt then vagina.

Yes, very crude word.

[Jellybean]

Thank you Christianpfc and anonone for enlightening me on the embarrassing consequences of mispronouncing the Thai word for snow (h├м-m├б).

h├м-m├б - (snow)
h─нi-m─Гa - (dog vagina (vulg.))

h─нi - (the vulgar word for vagina тАУ according to my dictionary)

The above two words do look alarming alike in their Romanized form. I must have pronounced it correctly in class because I do not recall any embarrassing silences with my female Thai teacher.

Of course there is not much occasion in Thailand for using the word h├м-m├б (snow) and even less for me using the word h─нi-m─Гa! But I shall at least now be extra careful the next time I have occasion to say h├м-m├б!

[anonone]

It only came up as my BF mentioned he would like to see snow one day....
I don't think he has much interest in seeing dog pussy. :sign5:

I am very glad thad most Thais are understanding about mispronunciations. I often wonder just how bad I am butchering some words and hopefully not offending anyone.

[Rob33]

No that is pronounced sa waaaay
sa has a short a and way has a long a

Or sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey. What I get when my first leg is exposed. The Dutch are tall no mistaking that I feel Like a circus freak most of the time and yet it has its advantages :evil4:

[Jellybean]

ItтАЩs taken me years to remember how to say тАШimmigration officeтАЩ in Thai and even now I still find it a bit of a mouthful.

s─Гmn├бk-ngaan dtr├╣at khon k├вo m┼лang
(office-check-person-enter-city/country)

ItтАЩs come up many times and IтАЩve struggled to tell a Thai boy where I must go, or where IтАЩve been, or ask a taxi driver to take me.

I mentioned this to my Thai teacher and she surprised me by telling me that there is a short and unbelievably simple version, which is тАУ taw-maw*

I tried it out last week with a Bangkok taxi driver when I said, тАЬbpai taw-maw* kr├бpтАЭ (Go to the immigration office). He understood immediately without further query and drove to the taw-maw*.

I pass on what I believe is rather useful information to any ex-pats who didnтАЩt already know of this short, easily remembered word.



*NB I donтАЩt have the half тАШoтАЩ characters on my keyboard so IтАЩve substituted тАЬawтАЭ which I think is the closest in sound to two half тАЬooтАЭ characters.

[llz]

I mentioned this to my Thai teacher and she surprised me by telling me that there is a short and unbelievably simple version, which is тАУ taw-maw
In thai it should rather be "daw maw" р╕Ф.р╕б. standing for р╕Фр╣Ир╕▓р╕Щр╕Хр╕гр╕з р╕Ир╕Др╕Щр╣Ар╕Вр╣Йр╕▓ р╣Ар╕бр╕╖р╕нр╕З daan dtr├╣at khon k├вo m┼лang

[Jellybean]

Thank you llz for the correction.

Although my teacher did write тАШtтАЩ in my notebook I forgot my school uses the Romanized system where тАШthтАЩ = t and тАШtтАЩ = dt, which means that my 'taw' should be pronounced as dtaw as in:

dtaw-maw

The word is however still far easier to say and remember than the long version I quoted in my earlier post!