Tongue Thai’d Translations

Given Thailand’s deservedly-renowned cuisine, it should come as no surprise that Thai people constantly talk about eating. Where we might greet each other by saying ‘hello’, Thai people will often say kin khao rue yang? (have you eaten yet?), regardless of the time of day.

While Thai doesn’t have quite as many words for eating as the Inuit language apparently does for snow, it is certainly true that there are many different ways to say ‘to eat’ in everyday use.

In the phrase in the first paragraph, I used kin to mean ‘to eat’. Kin is probably the commonest way to say ‘eat’ in Thai, but while certainly not vulgar, it is not considered particularly polite either. Therefore in a polite social setting, or particularly when talking to strangers or someone of a higher social status, the verb to use would be thaan. This means exactly the same thing, but is simply a more refined way of saying it.

If you know some Thai, you will also note that ‘eat’ in the first paragraph is actually rendered kin khao, which literally means ‘eat rice’. Of course Thai people do not eat rice all the time, and kin khao in this context isn’t confined to having eaten rice – it merely means ‘to eat some kind of food’.

However, to avoid any confusion, a really formal way of saying ‘to eat’ is rap prathaan ahaan, which literally means ‘to receive food that is bestowed’. It should be noted that this is extremely formal indeed, and is used more in written Thai than in the spoken language.

To move even further up the social scale, the verb ‘to eat’ when applied to monks is chan, which specifically refers to the partaking of the monk’s meal before midday (after which time monks are not allowed to eat). With the Royal Family, as I have mentioned in a previous post, one would use the word sawoei.

Climbing back down the social scale, the word mam is generally used to mean ‘to eat’ when talking to babies or young children, who are traditionally weaned on jok, or congee (Chinese-style rice porridge). I imagine the origins of this word are probably just standard universal baby talk.

A very vulgar way of saying ‘to eat’ is daek, which means something like ’scoff’ or ‘gobble up’, which may be acceptable among groups of close male friends, but is only a fraction off being a swear word, and in no account should it be used in ordinary conversation.