Verbs in a row
Combine several actions in one sentence.
English says go and eat or go to eat. Thai simply puts the verbs side by side: ไปกินข้าว, literally “go eat rice”. Nothing goes between them, neither and nor to. The first verb is often ไป or มา. The topic “ไป and มา: away and towards” explains how these two also show direction.
The first verb says someone is moving, the second says what for.
I'm going to get something to eat.
They came to look at the house.
Mum went shopping at the market.
You can have three verbs in a row: ออกไปซื้อของ, go out shopping.
The second verb doesn't always give a purpose. Often it says how the first action turned out: ทำ means do, and ทำเสร็จ means finish doing. English sometimes does this with a small word, as in eat up, while Thai uses a full verb.
Second verb: the result, or whether you managed
With these result verbs, the negative goes before the result, not before the first verb: หาไม่เจอ means looked but couldn't find, and ทำไม่เสร็จ means didn't finish. ไม่หา would mean didn't even look. A purpose pair like ไปกินข้าว works differently: you negate the whole chain, ไม่ได้ไปกินข้าว. The topic “ไม่ได้: didn't and can't” explains that word.
หาไม่เจอ couldn't find, ทำไม่เสร็จ didn't finish, กินไม่หมด couldn't eat it all, ฟังไม่เข้าใจ couldn't follow.
They've finished work.
I can't find my keys.
ไม่ comes before เจอ, not before หา: the looking did happen.
Common mistake
Thai does have words for and, และ, and in order to, เพื่อ, but they don't usually go between verbs in a chain. ไปและกินข้าว sounds like a word-for-word translation, and ไปเพื่อกินข้าว sounds formal. In everyday speech it's just ไปกินข้าว.
Practise
Kai says
High, middle and low are consonant classes, not instructions to raise or lower your voice. The class works with the rest of the syllable to determine its tone.