ศาลาชุมนุม

[CalmDownMonkey]

นิด adjective: tiny; very small; microscopic
เล็ก adjective: [is] small; tiny; fine; little

I notice some adjectives in the dictionary have "[is]" before the translation; others don't. Is there a reason for this that I should be aware of?

[David and Bui]

CDM,

We have decided to show all "adjectives" preceeded by "[is]". Some of the older entries have not been updated to reflect the latest format. The reason that "is" prefaces the adjective is that in Thai noun modifiers (what we call adjectives in English) are often not related to their noun via the use of a "to be" verb. So, for example, a Thai would use a similar expression for "red house" (บ้านสีแดง) as he would for "This house is red" (บ้านหลังนี้สีแดง). There is no เป็น in the second sentence.

So, in Thai a word that we would call "adjective" can serve either as a noun modifier or as an "intransitive verb". Our bracketed [is] reflects this dual nature.

See "A Reference Grammar of Thai", Iwasaki and Ingkaphirom, Chapter 7, page 92,

"When an adjective modifies a noun, it is placed after the noun. A classifier often precedes the adjective. . . . Adjectives may be used as the predicate in a sentence as well. Such predicate adjectives are considered intransitive verbs for they do not require a copula [the verb "to be"] as in English."

For more on adjectives, see http://www.thai-language.com/ref/modifiers especially Section IV.