Nuance and politeness

Politeness and softening

Make greetings, requests and everyday sentences more polite.

Thai politeness doesn't come from changing the verb. A particle at the end of the sentence does most of the work. The particle depends on the speaker, not the listener: male speakers use ครับ, female speakers use ค่ะ in statements and คะ in questions. Choose the one that fits you. Without a particle a sentence isn't rude, but with strangers it can sound abrupt.

  • ครับkráp

    polite particle

    male speaker, any sentence

  • ค่ะkâ

    polite particle

    female speaker, statements

  • คะká

    polite particle

    female speaker, questions

  • หน่อยnɔ̀ɔi

    a little

    softens a request

  • นะná

    softener

    asks for agreement, like okay? or all right?

  • สิsì

    urging particle

    go on, do it

  • ด้วยdûai

    also, too; please

    at the end of a sentence

Common mistake

ค่ะ and คะ are the same word with different tones: falling ค่ะ in a statement, high คะ in a question. Thai listeners notice the difference straight away.

Practise

Kai says

555 in a Thai message is laughter. Five is ห้า, hâa, so a row of fives reads like haa, haa, haa.