Another word for ma / very

[johnray]

I hear Thai people saying a wide variety of 'very' but can not catch what they are saying.

 

Something like wer, la, lai, tee sut.

 

Are there any good variations of ''Ma''?

[katana]

WER is likely เวอร์ from the English 'over' meaning something is over the top eg you might give fulsome praise to a girl's beauty and she might reply เวอร์ meaning "That's a bit much".

LAI หลาย - many, several etc eg หลายคน many people; หลายสี multicoloured; หลายใจ - unfaithful, promiscuous etc.

THEE SUT ที่สุด - extremely eg มากที่สุด the most, เร็วที่สุด the fastest.

[retiredusn]

If your around the lao folks Ma means dog

[bannork]

I think the op means mak มาก not ma for many

mak mai  มากมาย also .

Another word is yer  เยอะ or  yer yeh เยอะแยะ    I  often hear คนเยอะ many people      the English letters I've used for เยอะ are only an approximation of the Thai words. Another reason it's better to learn to read Thai!

[johnray]

Yes Maak without the k is still very.  And they drop the final consonant.

 

Like aroy ma, geng ma, suay ma.

 

What other word can I say for ma?

[tgeezer]

The tone is more important than the ending which is no more than an ending of the vowel, no sound is made, it is a ‘dead ending”.  That is the reason that ก ข ค are all said to be the same ending ก. 

Similarly ช ซ ณ ฎ ด ต ท ฒ  etc. are all ด where the tip of the tongue contacts the gum to end the vowel. 

I believe that it is better to write the word so that it isn’t confused with dog or horse.   

As I sit here repeating มาก หมาด ภาพ over and over I honestly can’t tell whether a listener would hear the closing consonant or the tones, can they be separated? I don’t think so. 

I think that I mentioned recently, being criticised for my ตกน้ำ ฝนตก where ต was said to have a hint of ด still.  ด is hard, whereas ต is soft, but all vowels are hard( vocal cords vibrating strongly) so there is no way to say ต softly because it can’t be said without a vowel if there is to be any sound at all, so it isn’t ต which I am saying wrongly but the whole word ตก: Is my teacher right ?  

Is there a speech therapist in the house? I wouldn’t mind being told in English how to make the sounds of the Thai consonants. 

[digbeth]

เยอะ Yer 

is quite similar to how kid these days use 'extra'

 

 

[johnray]

Aroi Wer - So Delicious

Aroi Jang Loei - Damn Delicious

Aroy Lai - Very Delicious

Aroi Aroi - Very Delicious

Aroi - Delicious

Aroi Jing - True

Aroi Dii - Good

Khot Aroi - ??

 

 

 

[katana]

Khot is colloquial slang used for emphasis, a bit like 'damn' maybe eg khot aroi - damn delicious; khot nao - bloody cold.

[Richard W]

On 07/02/2018 at 4:43 AM, tgeezer said:

I believe that it is better to write the word so that it isn’t confused with dog or horse.   

As I sit here repeating มาก หมาด ภาพ over and over I honestly can’t tell whether a listener would hear the closing consonant or the tones, can they be separated?

A lot of the perception of different stops depends on the glides in the transition to the neighbouring vowel.  I remember reading about 40 years ago of experiments where initial consonants were sliced off and swapped around.  People couldn't recognise the consonants before the wrong vowel segment.

 

There's enough consonantal quality that linguists have argued over whether final stops in Thai are voiced or not.  The sanest conclusion seemed to be that it was up to the speaker.

[tgeezer]

3 hours ago, Richard W said:

A lot of the perception of different stops depends on the glides in the transition to the neighbouring vowel.  I remember reading about 40 years ago of experiments where initial consonants were sliced off and swapped around.  People couldn't recognise the consonants before the wrong vowel segment.

 

There's enough consonantal quality that linguists have argued over whether final stops in Thai are voiced or not.  The sanest conclusion seemed to be that it was up to the speaker.

Thank you Richard, I was hoping for your input and more than happy to have my opinion confirmed and that a word can not be split up into its component parts.  I wonder if the experiments of which you read were conducted by native speakers.  In any case it would seem to support what I have implied, that all three elements เสียงพยัญชนะ เสียงสระ  and วรรณยุกต์ must be taken together and cannot be separated. 

When Thai natives point out errors as my friend did, that the consonant is perhaps, not the whole story. 

By final stops I guess that you mean ‘dead words’.  

 

 

[digbeth]

 Ma without the ending consonant that the OP heard could be มะ which is not *very*  but rather a question?

 

Aroi Ma? อร่อยมะ? which is diminutive of อร่อยมั๊ย?

 

used as a rhetorical question it could signify that is is indeed good or 'very'

 

[Richard W]

On 09/02/2018 at 4:03 AM, tgeezer said:

I wonder if the experiments of which you read were conducted by native speakers.

...

By final stops I guess that you mean ‘dead words’. 

I believe the experiments were carried out by native English speakers on native English speakers using English words.  However, there is no reason to believe the results do not apply to other languages.

 

No, by final stops I mean the final stops of words that end in a stop for which the closure is in the mouth; I do not include final glottal stops, for they cannot be voiced and remain glottal stops.

[tgeezer]

I think now I see what you mean, If you take a live ending ไหม the reason that many people say ไม้ is, I suppose, because they don’t recognise the live ending without which the fourth tone seems impossible to me. This is the danger of learning ไ ใ as vowels. This can only happen with ย ว  can’t it?  I can see how live endings can be distinguished from dead endings by tone, but I still like to I think that the live and dead endings are shown by the final consonant being voiced.   Perhaps when I know more vocabulary I will know which aspect of a particular word to emphasise. 

it is with mid class initial consonants where I see that lazy endings can’t be tolerated.  กด กบ กก dead words but a hint of voice is needed if you are not looking, กน กง กม must be voiced. Having said that of course how often are these words said as single words ? 

 I will never give up ไหม consciously because it is so ingrained but other words?   

[Aforek]

"reng " also in some expressions is used to say " very ", or much

fon tok reng, phoot thai reng 

[Mark1066]

On 2/16/2018 at 12:42 PM, tgeezer said:

I think now I see what you mean, If you take a live ending ไหม the reason that many people say ไม้ is, I suppose, because they don’t recognise the live ending without which the fourth tone seems impossible to me. This is the danger of learning ไ ใ as vowels. This can only happen with ย ว  can’t it?  I can see how live endings can be distinguished from dead endings by tone, but I still like to I think that the live and dead endings are shown by the final consonant being voiced.   Perhaps when I know more vocabulary I will know which aspect of a particular word to emphasise. 

it is with mid class initial consonants where I see that lazy endings can’t be tolerated.  กด กบ กก dead words but a hint of voice is needed if you are not looking, กน กง กม must be voiced. Having said that of course how often are these words said as single words ? 

 I will never give up ไหม consciously because it is so ingrained but other words?   

I believe it is just informal spoken Thai, not an error on the part of the speaker. You would sound quite odd if you insisted on pronouncing ไหม with a rising tone in daily conversation.

 

And in your earlier post, I believe you were confused - you said that ด was hard and ต was soft but it's actually the other way around. ด is unaspirated (no puff of breath as you enunciate) whereas ต is aspirated. The position of the tongue is also different for these two consonants. For ด, the tongue touches the roof of the mouth, in roughly the same place as when making the sound for D (perhaps a touch further back) and for ต it is right behind the teeth, touching them (at least that is the only way I can make the correct sound for ต)

 

 

[Mark1066]

8 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

I believe it is just informal spoken Thai, not an error on the part of the speaker. You would sound quite odd if you insisted on pronouncing ไหม with a rising tone in daily conversation.

 

And in your earlier post, I believe you were confused - you said that ด was hard and ต was soft but it's actually the other way around. ด is unaspirated (no puff of breath as you enunciate) whereas ต is aspirated. The position of the tongue is also different for these two consonants. For ด, the tongue touches the roof of the mouth, in roughly the same place as when making the sound for D (perhaps a touch further back) and for ต it is right behind the teeth, touching them (at least that is the only way I can make the correct sound for ต)

 

 

I can't edit this post now but on reflection I would say your tongue has to be under your front teeth rather than behind them, when pronouncing ต, in a similar position to when you are pronouncing the 'th' consonant cluster in English ( but not quite so far forward).

[tgeezer]

Thanks for the comment. I wasn’t suggesting a mistake, although I am sure that I probably don’t always say ไหม I am sure that I never say ไม้ . I have never been aware of it but does anyone say มั้ย? When asking “Will/let’s/what about/ with ‘go’? ” ไปไหม with close friends for example, I sound more like “pa ma” with the vowel softened by the suggestion or ย ending.

 

 

 

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[tgeezer]

light type. If you look at อโฆษะ ถ

 

 

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Sorry I will try again.

[tgeezer]

I have read only Thai books on the subject and as I understand it ด is produced by the vocal chords vibrating strongly เสียงก้อง and ต by the vocal chords open ไม่ก้อง ต is additionally described as เสียงเบา .
The best way to learn this is by listening to a teacher of course.
For a little more ‘street cred’ my book also uses more academic terms to describe ต คือ พยัญชนะ อโฆษะ สิถิล whereas ด is given the characteristic of only โฆษะ neither สถิล or ธนิต .
Returning to the accusation that when I say ฝนตก ต เตา is wrong I think that it must be that I was not being careful enough, saying เอาะ instead of โอะ as I said earlier. I corrected this by closing the syllable with rounded lips.


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