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 (»Ç´) which means pain, ache, sore or hurt. and the second one is the Thai verb Jep (à¨çº) which also means pain, sore or hurt.

Using poo-what (»Ç´) to express pain

Let's learn how to use the poo-what (»Ç´) 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. :-)

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 (»Ç´) to express pain:

¼Á »Ç´ ËÑÇ Chan poo-what huaa. I (feminine) have headache.

¼Á »Ç´ ᢹ Pom poo-what khaaen. My arm hurts.

¼Á »Ç´ µÒ 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 (¨ÁÙ¡) which means nose.

¼Á »Ç´ µÒ Pom poo-what ja_muuk My nose hurts.

Using Jep (à¨çº) 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 (à¨çº):

¼Á à¨çº Pom jeb. I'm hurt

äÁèà»ç¹äà ¹ÔéÇ ¢Í§ ¼Á à¨çº ¹Ô´Ë¹èÍ à·èÒ¹Ñé¹ ¤èÐ Mai_pen_rai... niu kong pom jep nit nawwy thao_nan khrap. Never mind... My fingers only hurt a little.

à¢Ò µ¡ ¨Ò¡ ºÑ¹ä´ áÅÐ ¢Ò ¶Ù¡ à¨çº 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. :-)

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 (¶Ù¡) 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:

àËÁÕÂÇ ¢Í§ ¼Á ¶Ù¡ ¢âÁÂ ä» áÅéÇ 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 (¶Ù¡) reflects the passive voice in the sentence above. Without thuuk the sentence would mean, My cat went stealing already. :-P

Rippa Sama
http://MyThaiSensei.com