Sentence Boundaries

เนื่องจากภาษาอังกฤษเป็นภาษา ที่มีขอบเขตของประโยคให้เห็นอย่างชัดเจน กล่าวคือคำแรกของ ประโยคต้องขึ้นต้นด้วย ตัวใหญ่  และท้ายประโยคต้องมีมหัพภาคหรือ "." ในขณะที่ภาษาไทยไม่มี   ทำให้เกิดปัญหาในการแปลบ่อยครั้ง โดยเฉพาะเวลาที่แปล ภาษาไทยเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ

There are several ways you could say this in English.  Below are some possibilities:

• Unlike Thai, English has a clear sentence boundary: a capital letter at the beginning and a period or "." at the end of the sentence. This often poses problems, especially in Thai-English translation.

• Since English is a language with clear sentence boundaries, that is, the first word of the sentence must begin with a capital letter and the end of a sentence must have a period or “.” while Thai does not, it has often caused problems in translation, especially when translating Thai into English.

• Since English is a language with clearly visible sentence boundaries...

• Since English is a language with clearly observable sentence boundaries...

• Whereas the English language has a clear sentence boundary, i.e. a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end of the sentence, Thai does not. This often causes problems when Thai sentences are translated into English.

• Since the English language has a clear boundary for sentences, i.e. a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end of the sentence, while Thai does not, problems frequently arise when Thai sentences are translated into English.

Omitted Subjects

(Thai-English)

ชอบวิชาแปลจังเลย

Here the omitted subject is the first person pronoun.

• I really like Translation. (= I like the course called "Translation")

• I so like translation class. (= I like the translation class I'm currently taking.)

• I like translation courses a lot. (= I like any course on translation.)

ตามทันมั้ย

The subject can be omitted in Thai questions as well as in statements, as is the case here. The object is also implied. Therefore, this question can be translated several ways, as you fiddle around with various tenses:

• Are you following?

• Are you following me?

• Do you follow me?

• Following this so far? (Here is a possible English omission of subject.)

• Can you follow what I've just said? / just been saying?

• Are you with me?

Topic-Comment

(Thai-English)

#1: หนังสือเล่มนี้อ่านสนุกดีจัง เลย

• This is such a fun book (to read).

• This book was so much fun (to read).

• This book is great fun.

• This is an exciting read.

• This was a great read.
  

#2: ห้องนี้นักเรียนเก่งๆ ทั้งนั้น
Note potential ambiguity: In English "class" also means students in the same year/graduating class, not just classroom.

• This is a formidable class.

• This is such a good class.

• Students in this class are all very bright.

• This class has such smart kids.

• You are such a proficient class.
  

#1: คน ส่วนใหญ่เชื่อว่าสุนัขเป็นเพื่อนที่ดีที่สุดของมนุษย์

In English, "man's best friend" means dogs. Not so in the Thai. In Thai, it's a descriptive phrase rather than an alternative term or euphemism.

• Most people believe dogs to be man's best friend.

• The majority of people consider dogs to be humans' best friends. [An attempt not to use the idiom in order to keep the phrase descriptive]
  

• Most folks see dogs as their best friend.

• Most people think dogs are mankind's best friend.

#2: Joy told me that she would go to Chiang Mai in May.

• จอยบอกเราว่าจะไปเชียงใหม่เดือน พฤษภา

• จอ ยบอกผมว่าเขาจะขึ้นไปเชียงใหม่ตอนเดือนพฤษภาคมครับ
  

#3: What were you thinking when you bought this skirt? It is so short.

• คิดยังไงถึงได้ซื้อกระโปรงนี้ มา  สั้นเหลือเกิน
• ใช้สมองรึเปล่าตอนซื้อกระโปรง ตัวนี้น่ะ  สั้นได้ใจจริงจริ๊ง
  

#4: He will return the book to you on Friday.

• เขาจะเอาหนังสือมาคืนครูวัน ศุกร์ครับ
• เขาจะคืนหนังสือวันศุกร์นะคะ
• เขาจะคืนหนังสือให้วันศุกร์
  

#5: Don't call me between 6 and 7. I will be having dinner then.

• อย่า โทรมาตอน 6 โมงเย็นถึงทุ่มนะ  เรากินข้าวอยู่
• อย่าโทรมาระหว่าง 18 ถึง 19 น. นะคะ ดิฉันรับประทานอาหารเย็นอยู่เวลานั้น

#6: รัฐบาล ประกาศขึ้นราคาน้ำมันแล้ว

• The government has announced the gas price hike.

• The government has announced a raise in gas prices.
• The government has declared an increase in gas prices.
  

#7: เล็ก ไปญี่ปุ่นมาสองครั้งแล้ว

• Lek's been to Japan twice.

• Lek has visited Japan two times.
  

#8: ใหญ่ ไปอเมริกาแล้ว  จะกลับมาเดือนหน้า

• Yai's gone to the States. He's coming back next month.

• Yai has left for the US. He's returning next month.
• Hyai's over in America. He'll be back next month.
• Yaie's gone to America and will be back in a month.
  

#9: คุณทำงานหนักมาตลอด  ตอนนี้คุณควรจะพักผ่อนบ้างได้แล้ว

• You've been working hard all this time. You're due for some rest.

• You have been working so hard. It's time you had a vacation.

• You've been working hard. You should take some time off now.
  

#10: ระหว่างที่รอพบหมอ ฉันอ่านนิตยสารจบไปสองเล่ม

• While waiting for the doctor, I finished two magazines.

• While waiting for my appointment with the doctor, I went through two magazines.
• I got through two magazines waiting for my doc.
  

#11: เมื่อ เช้านี้ ตอนไปถึงที่ทำงาน เห็นว่ามีคนงัดเข้าไปในบริษัทตอนกลางคืน

• This morning, when I got to my office, I saw that someone had broken into the building last night.

• This morning when I arrived at work, I saw that someone had broken into the place during the night.
  

Serial Verb Construction

(Thai-English)

In all these cases with serial verb construction, you need to decide on a main verb for the English translation.

#12: พ่อ พยายามเลี่ยงไม่ตอบคำถามเรา

#13: แม่ ให้ออกไปเรียกน้องมากินข้าวเย็น

Passive Voice

(Thai-English)

The Thai ถูก which many take to be automatic cues for using the passive voice when translating into English actually requires contextual consideration: oftentimes it's better to use the active voice or complex sentence structures instead of the passive voice.

#14: ตั๋วรถไฟไปขอนแก่นขายหมดตั้งแต่ เมื่อวานนี้

#15: ต้องการนักวิจัยเพิ่มอีก 2 คนมาทำโครงการนี้

#16: กล่าวกันว่าชาวจีนเป็นพวกแรกที่ ค้นพบใบชาและดื่มชากันมานานหลายศตวรรษแล้ว

Passive Voice

(English-Thai)

Similarly, the passive voice in English needn't always be translated with ถูก.

#17: The house was built over 70 years ago, but it is still in very good condition.

#18: The whole village was burned down and all the people were brutally killed.

#19: It was reported that the new government had promised to increase the minimum wage by 10%.

Meanings and Uses of It: Dummy It or Empty It, Donkey Anaphora, Pronoun

(English-Thai)

#20: From the study, it was found that most volcanoes on the island are extinct.

#21: It is my duty to warn people of the danger from these gangsters.

#22: Don't waste your money on me. You should keep it for yourself.

#23: I finished this book a few days ago. Please return it to the library for me.

Articles and Demonstratives

(English-Thai)

#24: เขา ซื้อเสื้อโค้ตหนังตัวยาวสีดำของฝรั่งเศสให้เธอเป็นของขวัญวัน เกิด

#25: ฉัน ไม่ชอบตุ้มหูพลาสติกสีชมพูอันโตน่าเกลียดที่เธอใส่อยู่เลย

#26: เพื่อนฉันกำลังคิดจะย้ายไปอยู่ บ้านสวย ๆ ทันสมัยหลังเล็ก ๆ สักหลัง  เขาไม่อยากอยู่คอนโดแล้ว  ปัญหาจุกจิกกวนใจเยอะเหลือเกิน

Diction

False friends are pairs of words in different languages that look or sound similar, misleading unsuspecting language learners to think that they have the same meaning when that may not be the case. In the case of Thai, it is not so much a matter of looking or sounding similar to a word in English or in another language but having a close meaning to that word, or the literal translation of the word is not the same as the sense or meaning of that word. A common example of this is mistaking "study" to mean "เรียน." If an American says "I'm going to study now," she most likely means that she is going to study on her own (that is, to read, review her lesson, write papers, research, do homework), but the Thai student might understand the sentence to mean that the person is about to go to class.

Links: False Friends | False Friends between Spanish and English | False friends

แต่งงาน

Students are familiar with "to marry" as meaning แต่งงาน, but often don't realize that there are several ways that this verb can be used as well as multiple ways of saying "getting married."

• to marry + N sing.
  Ex. Somlim is marrying Surapong tomorrow.
  

• to marry + N + N or to marry + N pl. (= someone is performing the ceremony for the two people getting married)
  Ex. Friar Laurence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet.
  

• to get married

• to get married to + N

• to be married

• to wed

• to get hitched

• to tie the knot

เศร้า

• sad, sorrowful, down, blue, depressed, gloomy, unhappy, dejected

นอน

• sleep, lie down, recline

• go to sleep, go to bed, hit the sack, turn in

หลับ

• asleep, sleeping, out

เบื่อ

• bored (with) vs. boring

• tired of, weary of

• fed up with
• have enough of

กลัว

• afraid (of), scared (of), fear, fearful

• frightened (of)

• frightening

เรียน

• study, read, work
  

• to go to class; to be in class; to attend class