Questions
Ask who, what and where, and see where the question word goes.
A Thai question keeps the word order of a statement. Where English moves the question word to the front, Thai leaves it where the answer would go: คุณไปไหน is literally “you go where”. Rising intonation isn't the main signal either. Question words and final particles do that job.
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
Where's the restroom?
Question words
Without a question word, a particle at the end of the sentence turns it into a question. It works much like a spoken question mark.
Question particles
Are you hungry?
Have you eaten yet?
A common friendly greeting, a bit like “How are you?”. It isn't always an invitation to eat.
You're Thai, right?
Common mistake
Thai has no single all-purpose “yes”. The usual answer repeats the verb or adjective: หิวไหม? หิว, “Hungry? Hungry.” A “no” is ไม่ with the same word. ใช่ means “that's right”, so it fits questions that check a fact, such as those with ใช่ไหม. A polite ครับ or ค่ะ on its own can also acknowledge or agree.
Practise
- Who → does what → to whom → ไหมA yes-or-no question is the same sentence with ไหม at the end
- Who → does what → อะไรอะไร, what, goes where the answer would be: at the end, not at the start
- Who → does what → ที่ไหนที่ไหน, where, goes where the place itself would be: at the end
- Pick the marker6 cards from this topicChoose the word missing from a phrase
- Build a phrase4 cards from this topicPut the words of a phrase in the right order
Kai says
The transcription uses bp and dt for sounds without an extra puff of air. The letters p and t mark their aspirated partners.