This article was originally posted on WomenLearnThai.com.
Using High Frequency Thai Vocabulary: Adjective Pattern Sounds…
As promised, here are the sound files to the Adjective Patterns post. Apologies for it taking so long but I packed away my notes (spring cleaning a condo is a pain) and had to redo them. Many ta’s go to Khun Phairoa for coming to my rescue at the last minute!
Remember, if you want to follow Hugh’s explanations in full both in the post and in the comments, go to: Adjective Patterns.
And as before, the downloads for the audio files and the spreadsheet for the High Frequency Thai Vocabulary are at the end of this post.
Pattern 1: Noun + adjective: หมา + ใหญ่…
The first pattern is a simple noun with a describing adjective.
หมาใหญ่
A big dog.
หมาสีขาว
A white dog.
หมาดุ
A vicious dog.
Pattern 1a: Negative adjective patterns: Noun + not + adjective…
All adjective patterns can also be negative.
หมาไม่ใหญ่
The dog isn’t big.
หมาไม่ใช่สีขาว
The dog isn’t white.
หมาไม่ดุ
The dog isn’t vicious.
Pattern 2: Classifiers for nouns: Noun + classifier + adjective…
Thai nouns have classifiers. Classifiers are usually used when counting nouns but can also be used when describing them too.
หมาตัวใหญ่
The big dog.
หมาตัวสีขาว
The white dog.
หมาตัวดุ
The vicious dog.
Pattern 3: Be: Pronoun/noun + be + noun + (class) + adjective…
The verb “be” (เป็น) is not usually used with Thai adjectives but can be used in sentences.
มันเป็นหมาตัวใหญ่
It’s a big dog.
มันเป็นหมาตัวสีขาว
It’s a white dog.
หมาโน่นเป็นหมาตัวสีขาว
That dog over there is a white dog.
มันเป็นหมาดุ
It’s a vicious dog.
Pattern 4: Verbs: Pronoun/noun + verb + noun + (class) + adjective…
Other verbs can also be used in sentences with adjectives.
ผมชอบหมาตัวใหญ่
I like big dogs.
ผมชอบหมาตัวสีขาว
I like white dogs.
ผมไม่ชอบหมาดุ
I don’t like vicious dogs.
Pattern 5: Which/that: Noun + ที่ + (class) + adjective (+ phrase)…
Thai can also use the equivalent of which/that when describing nouns.
Note: KP added a twist to the pattern: Noun + classifier + ที่ + adjective.
หมาที่ตัวใหญ่อยู่ที่วัด
The dog, which is big, is at the temple.
Or… หมาตัวที่ใหญ่อยู่ที่วัด
หมาตัวสีขาวอยู่ที่วัด
The white dog is at the temple.
Or… หมาตัวที่สีขาวอยู่ที่วัด
หมาตัวดุอยู่ที่วัด
The vicious dog is at the temple.
Or… หมาตัวที่ดุอยู่ที่วัด
Pattern 6: Intensifiers: Noun + adjective + intensifier…
Thai adjectives have “intensifiers”. Intensifiers are words that make adjectives stronger.
หมาใหญ่มาก
A very big dog (general intensifier).
หมาใหญ่จริงๆ
A really big dog (general intensifier).
หมาใหญ่เบ้อเร่อ
A huge dog (specific intensifier for “ใหญ่”).
หมาดุร้าย
An incredibly vicious dog (a double adjective).
หมาใหญ่ๆ
A truly big dog (repeating the adjective).
Exercise: Interpreting adjective patterns…
ฉันต้องการบ้านหลังใหญ่มาก
I want a very big house.
มันเป็นวัดสีขาว
It is a white temple.
หมาน่าเกลียด
It is an ugly dog.
รถของพวกเขาเป็นรถที่ช้า
Their car is slow.
ห้องนี้ไม่แพง ห้องนี้ถูก
This room is inexpensive. It is cheap.
Exercise: Creating complete Thai sentences…
เธอมีสุนัขสีขาว
She has a white dog.
ฉันต้องการห้องใหญ่
I want a big room.
รถเร็วจริงๆ
That car is really fast.
ต้นไม้ไม่ใช่สีเขียว
The tree isn’t green.
เธอซื้อดอกไม้สีแดง
She bought some red flowers.
วัดใหญ่จริงๆ
The temple is huge.
มันเป็นกระต่ายตัวเล็ก
That is a small rabbit.
มันเป็นงูเขียว
It a green snake.
เธอมีบ้านแพง
She has an expensive house.
รถสีแดงแพง
The red car is expensive.
Challenge question…
Below is Hugh’s version of the challenge sentence. Where’s yours?
หมาตัวใหญ่สีขาวดุร้ายและหิว
The big, white, vicious dog is hungry.
From the comments…
From Keith: Or could one say: หมาตัวใหญ่สีขาวดุร้ายก็หิวด้วย ?
KP suggested: หมาตัวใหญ่สีขาวดุร้ายแล้วก็กำลังหิวด้วย
Vocabulary from the High Frequency Vocabulary List…
Nouns (classifiers):
dog: หมา, สุนัข (ตัว)
rabbit: กระต่าย (ตัว)
temple: วัด (วัด)
house: บ้าน (หลัง)
car: รถ, รถยนต์ (คัน)
tree: ต้นไม้ (ต้น)
flower: ดอกไม้ (ดอก)
woman: ผู้หญิง (คน)
snake: งู (ตัว)
room: ห้อง (ห้อง)
Pronouns:
it: มัน
I (female)
: ฉัน
I (male speaker)
: ผม
you, she
: คุณ
they: พวกเขา
Verbs:
like: ชอบ
want: อยากได้, ต้องการ
have: มี
buy: ซื้อ
sell: ขาย
belong to: ของ
Adjectives:
white: สีขาว
black: สีดำ
green: สีเขียว
red: สีแดง
yellow: สีเหลือง
blue: สีฟ้า
Quality:
big: ใหญ่
small: เล็ก
vicious: ร้าย, ดุร้าย
kind: ใจดี
fast: เร็ว
slow: ช้า
tall: สูง
short: เตี้ย
expensive: แพง
cheap: ถูก
cute: น่ารัก
beautiful: สวย
ugly: น่าเกลียด
hungry: หิว
Using the High Frequency Thai Vocabulary List…
Below is the list so far, as well as the audio files for Hugh’s Adjective Patterns post.
High Frequency Thai Vocabulary: download
Adjective Pattern Audio files: download
Next up in the Using High Frequency Thai Vocabulary series are Yes/No Question Patterns. If you are clueless and confused about how to respond to questions in Thai, it’s a gotta post, for sure.
Thanks Lani 🙂
Thanks you two for your hard work. I know it’s a labor of love, but wow, just wanted you to know we appreciate it. The Thai script and sound bites are the best!!!
Hi Jan, our list comes from a range of high frequency lists (you can see them in the original post). I added words not found in the lists (voted in by Thai teachers) so after asking advice I assigned numbers. It’s not exactly academic but does show importance.
Btw – I gave up on the Chula list because it comes from academic papers. Not exactly useful for beginners-intermediate Thai students.
While knowing a ballpark frequency number can be interesting, in this series we decided to study words in groups (tends to be far more useful).
Dear Cathy
I’m a young computer scientist who started learning Thai back in 2011. I’ve created some stuff to support my studies and those are surely helpful for others as well.
For example I also have a list of the 1000 most common Thai words, sorted by frequency and a corresponding .anki package, even with audio for all 1000 files.
Furthermore I’ve created a mindmap like version of the tone rules, to visualize how the rules depend on each factors. Check it out at my website, and feel free to use, promote, edit my content.
I’ve added your 3000 high frequency vocab excel to my Download ressources. What I don’t get is the frequency column. It would be more helpful to give an absolute distribution of the frequency. So we could sort the list like in my 1000-frequency list from chulalunkorn university.
Thanks for your helpful ressources.
Jan
Updating the plugin (whatever) is inevitable but it’ll have to wait until at least late November early December. Or January. The rest of this year is already packed.
In the meantime, please download the sound files – you can listen to them in iTunes.
Yes…I am also on an Ipad and unable to hear the sound files…
Hi Bernard, I too am enjoying Hugh’s frequency posts. Lately, preparing files for WLT is the only time I get to spend with Thai, so they come in handy.
The audio plugin was the best available when I started the site. I don’t have a clue what the latest plugin is. Thanks for letting me know but I don’t have time to redo the entire site at the moment.
Thank you you two(and others too) for this very simple, practical sessions. Easy to create new sentences. This one is more common than the First อยู่ๆ one… (but it was fun to discover something I didn’t know at all, and never heard before).
I was just willing to know why you use Flash for the audio, as HTM5 can do that as far as I know. Flash isn’t use on iPad and will disappear quickly from any mobile as Adobe dismiss the Mobile even on Android. Even on my Macs, I have plugins that force HTML5. If the site as no HTML5 or HTML 5 alternative, I just get Flash grey blocks, and have to click one time on each block ti ear the sound.
For iPad I finally found an alternative browser (SkyFire) that is linked to a service that catch the pages I request then interprets the Flash they get in, then send to the iPad the page and audio/video as HTML5… It is quite slow but seems to work.
Thanks again. Bernard.