Thai words for English 'for'

[EricTh]

Can somebody explained the different Thai words for English 'for' because I'm not sure in which different circumstances I should use them. eg. samrap, pheua (two different tones), wai and hai.

 

[tgeezer]

There are only the first two ‘samrap’ and ‘pheua’ which are directly translated as for.
A table samrap two people,
I work pheua the children.
But there are ways of expressing ‘for’ where a preposition is not used in Thai.
The low tone pheua and wai probably are the words for setting aside where the translation contains ‘for’. Hai can also have ‘for’ in the translation. He collected money hai children.
It is all guesswork without examples and rules can’t be laid down without them.
Eg. Starting with English ‘for’ a length of time, Thai has ‘bpen’ : I have lived here bpen two years.
Oh, in your title; Thai words ‘for’ English ‘for’. The first ‘for’ might be ‘ten’ :
Use word Thai what ‘ten’ word English (ว่า)‘for’ .
Or better perhaps bple แปล
I hope that you can substitute Thai words where I have used English, it is too frustrating trying to transliterate Thai.



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[katana]

http://www.learnthaiwithmod.com/2012/10/learn-thai-do-something-for-someone-other-for/

[AbeSurd]

I sympathesise. 'For' in English and Thai ... it gets complicated.

Another poster will probably shoot me down for this...

Another meaning of 'hai' is 'to give'. So:

Do you have a key hai/for me? (Do you have a key to give me?)

I have a present hai/for you. (I have a present to give you.)

I think you can see this in the link in the previous post. "She cooks Thai food to give to her husband.' 'Mom gave dad a massage'.

Or in the post before that: He collected money to give to the children.

[tgeezer]

I sympathesise. 'For' in English and Thai ... it gets complicated.

Another poster will probably shoot me down for this...

Another meaning of 'hai' is 'to give'. So:

Do you have a key hai/for me? (Do you have a key to give me?)

I have a present hai/for you. (I have a present to give you.)

I think you can see this in the link in the previous post. "She cooks Thai food to give to her husband.' 'Mom gave dad a massage'.

Or in the post before that: He collected money to give to the children.

Never fear that another poster may shoot you down, we don't all see things in the same way and neither do we all use the same English parlance, so everyone's input is valid.

I agree with you by use of the Thai meanings we distance ourselves from English syntax. In answering questions like how to say 'this word' in Thai, the first thing I do is look up the English definition, then the Thai equivalent word, then the Thai definition of that word.

The Thai definition is what counts.

Take เผื่อ which from katana's link กินเผื่อฉัน is understood to mean "eat for me" ! I think that this comes about when it is thought that the English idiom needs to be expressed in Thai so something must be found. กินเผื่อ only needs ฉัน in order to make it do. In time เผื่อ is seen as 'for' เพื่อ but goodness knows how the Thai interlocutor understands กินเผื่อฉัน . That is not to say that เผื่อ doesn't mean 'for'; กักนำ้ไว้-เผื่อแล้ง hold the water back against (for) a drought. กักเผื่อ แล้ง, กินเผื่อ ฉัน !

The real explanation is that provided there is enough context it doesn't matter too much, when a native speaker corrects only one word, then you know that you are on the right track.

Take the modern English, "I could of told him that" compared with "I could have told him that" depending on your age or education one of those seems wrong but is it wrong if the meaning is clear enough? It must be the same in Thai surely, so we must never be reluctant to give an opinion because we fear criticism.

 

 

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