passa thai: lesson #3
i'm a little late with your thai lesson this week but here it is. i thought this week to make up for my tardiness i'd give you a bit longer of phrase to learn. actually it's two phrases, a question and an answer. you have already learned to how to say hello. now i'll teach you how to ask "how are you?" as well as the common answer "i'm well". here's the whole phrase then i'll break it down to each word. sabai dee mai [krap/kha] (note: both audio links have the word "kun" which means "you" but it is not often said since it is understood).
first off you should already recognize dee from the greeting sawatdee. it means good or well. sabai in this case basically means "to be" and the last word mai is what makes the phrase interrogative (a question). the reply therefore is quite simple once you get the question down. all you do is simply repeat the phrase but leave off the mai. so men would say sabai dee krap and women would say sabai dee kha. this is actually pretty common in the thai language. if a question is asked to affirm the answer you simply repeat the verb and leave off the mai. as another bonus to negate the question or respond with a no you simply repeat the verb with mai in the front. in this case the mai is the word for not or when used by itself just "no" (ie mai sabai dee means not doing well). have a nice week.
