Learning how to express “pain” in
Thai can be quite useful when you
need to tell someone which part
of your body is in pain (i.e. to a
doctor when you’re in the clinic
or hospital).
It can be quite handy too when you need
to create an excuse or reason to
explain that you have certain “pain”
(e.g. headache).
Well, there are basically two Thai words that
describe pain in Thai. The first one
is the Thai verb, poo-what which means
pain, ache, sore or hurt. and the second one
is the Thai verb Jep which also means pain, sore or hurt.
Using poo-what to express pain
Let’s learn how to use the poo-what
to express which part of your
body hurt or ache. By the way,
please remember to practice the writing
Thai script below on a piece of paper. ๐
Using poo-what is really
simple. Just put it right after a pronoun
and place the body part (noun) right
after the Thai verb poo-what.
Here are some simple examples on how
to use the Thai verb poo-what to
express pain:
Chan poo-what huaa.
I (feminine) have headache.
Pom poo-what khaaen.
My arm hurts.
Pom poo-what dtaa
My eye hurts.
Notice the sentence structure in the 1st example.
Huaa actually means head. Literally translated
the sentence would mean “Me pain head” which
also means “My head hurts”.
The 2nd and 3rd examples are quite simple.
I merely just changed the last word (body part) so that
you can understand how easy it is to express
pain using poo-what.
Simple, right? Okay, now it’s your turn
to create a simple Thai sentence to express
that your nose hurt. You can use the
Thai word ja muuk which means nose.
Pom poo-what ja_muuk
My nose hurts.
Using Jep to express pain
Okay, now it’s time to create longer
and more interesting Thai sentence to express
pain in Thai. Let’s use the Thai verb jeb:
Pom jeb.
I’m hurt
Mai_pen_rai… niu kong pom jep nit nawwy thao_nan khrap.
Never mind… My fingers only hurt a little.
Khao dtohk jaak ban_dai lae khaa thuuk jep.
He fell from the roof and hurt his leg.
In the 2nd example, you will notice the famous
Thai phrase mai pen rai. In Thailand, you would often hear
Thai people saying “mai pen rai” which means
“It’s okay, no problem. Don’t worry, be happy. ๐
Niu means fingers and nit nawwy means a little.
Nit is actually a Thai adjective meaning tiny
or very small while naawy is just a word
that is used to soften the meaning
of a sentence. Thao nan means only.
In the 3rd example, dtohk means to fall and
jaak means from. Ban dai means roof in Thai.
Lae is a Thai conjunction which means “and”.
Khaa means leg in Thai.
Thuu is actually a Thai verb or particle
that reflects passive voice. What does
that mean? Well, let’s take a look
at the following example to get a better idea:
Mieow kong pom thuuk kha_mooy pai laeow.
My cat has been stolen.
Kha mooy means thief or burglar as a Thai noun
and “to steal, to pilfer or to buglarize” if it’s a Thai verb.
Notice how thuuk lects the passive
voice in the sentence above.
Without thuuk the sentence would mean,
My cat went stealing already. ๐
