Tinglish is even widespread on official signs in Thailand.
Tinglish (also Thenglish, Thailish or Thainglish) is the imperfect form of English produced by native Thai speakers due to language interference from the first language. Differences from native English include incorrect pronunciation, wrong word choices, misspellings, and grammatical mistakes.
Examples
Some common examples (direct translation) are:
- same same (similar, as usual) and same same but different (seems similar but different in some ways);
- open/close the light (means "To turn on/off the light");
- I love you too much;
- I'm not pretty sure (means "I don't know");
- I have ever been to London;
- I'm interesting in football (means "I am interested in watching/playing football");
- wash the film (means "develop the film");
- I very like it (means "I really like it");
- I'm sad when my mother angries me meaning is angry with me;
- I used to go to Phuket or I go to Phuket already meaning I have been to Phuket before or I went to Phuket;
- take a bath referring to taking a shower;
- "Do you know how to eat this?" referring to food with taste that may be unfamiliar, or food requiring special eating method (such as wrapping it in lettuce) that may not be known to the listener;
- I play internet (I go on/use the internet);
- "This is suck!" means "This sucks!";
- omission of pronouns and of the verb be;
- non-use or incorrect use of articles, declension and conjugation.
- addition of Thai final particles, e.g. I don't know na
Particles
The words of Thai prefix particles and their implied meanings:
- khun (literally mister, miss, or mrs.) or k. = mister or miss (e.g. Khun Somchai will have a meeting on Friday.)
Following is the list of Thai final particles and their implied meanings:
- la = to give suggestion (e.g. Why don't you ask her la?), to inform the listener of something (e.g. I'm going to bed la.), or to ask if the subject would do something that the subject of the previous sentence does (e.g. I'm going to have dinner now, how about you la?)
- na = to give suggestion (e.g. You must do your homework first na.), to inform the listener of something (e.g. I'll be right back na.), or to express opinion about something that the speaker think should have been done but have not yet been done (e.g. Why don't you ask her na?)
- ja = to add informality to the conversation (e.g. Hello ja.)
- krab (or, alternatively, krub) (for male speaker only) = add at end of sentence to make the conversation polite/formal; also as confirmation (Yes!) (e.g. Hello krab.)
- kha (or ka) (for female speaker only) = same as krab (e.g. Hello kha.)
Particles can also be combined, as follows:
- la na, e.g. I have to go la na.
- na ja, e.g. Don't go too far na ja.
- la ja, e.g. Where have you been la ja?
- na krab/kha, e.g. Please excuse me na krab/kha.
Some less common particles:
- munk/mung = to guess/estimate something (e.g. The shop already closed munk. / He's 25 years old munk.)
- leoy = totally or immediately (e.g. I don't understand leoy la. / See you there leoy na)
- laew = already or done (e.g. I have to go laew la.)
- wa = to give suggestion (it's likely to be used with someone who's close to you, such as your close friend) (e.g. I don't know at all wa, why don't you come with me wa?)
Pronunciation
As some sounds in English just simply don't exist in Thai language, this affects the way native Thai speakers pronounce English words:
- shifts the stress to the last syllable of the word
- omits consonant clusters
- final consonants are often omitted or converted according to the rules of Thai pronunciation: l and r become n, while s becomes t
- "sh" and "ch" sounds are hardly distinguishable, e.g. ship/chip, sheep/cheap, wish/witch
- "v" sound is almost always replaced by "w" sound, e.g. vow -> wow, ville -> will
- "g" and "z" sounds are usually devoiced, e.g. dog -> dock, zoo -> sue
- "th" sound is often replaced by "t" or "d" sound, e.g. thin -> tin, through -> true, then -> den
- ambiguity between the short "e", as in "bled", and a long "a", as in "blade"
Native Thai speakers of English have a tendency to pronounce certain words differently. E.g.: sleep - sahleep speak - sahpeak snore - sahnore swim - sahwim stay - sahtay school - sahcool album - alabum apple - appol bottle - bottol
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