ศาลาชุมนุม

[hhrh]

Anyone? Just do not understand it's million uses. At All!

all I know is give and ทำให้, lol. ;(

[claude06thailand]

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main meanings for ให้

<-- Lexitron Thai-English -->

ให้ /hâj/ [AUX] to
Def. เป็นคำช่วยบอกความบังคับเช่น สั่งให้ทำ, บอกให้ทำ
Example : ขณะที่เราเข้าไปใกล้ปากน้ำผู้บังคับการเรือก็สั่งให้หยั่งดูความลึกของน้ำ
Related word: กำนัล, แจก, ถวาย, ประทาน, มอบ, มอบให้, ยก, ส่งเสีย, อำนวย, เอื้ออำนวย

ให้ /hâj/ [V] permit
Def. ยอมให้ทำ, ปล่อยให้ทำ
Example : หมอให้เธอลุกจากเตียงได้หลังจากอาการป่วยดีขึ้น

ให้ /hâj/ [V] give
Def. หยิบยื่นให้
Example : แม่ให้เงินติดตัว 1,000 บาทเป็นค่ารถและค่ากินอยู่ในกรุงเทพ

ให้ /hâj/ [V] give

[pensive]

Very amusing, Claude. Superficially, all the verb meanings appear to define ให้ in terms of itself! For the first meaning, I can't see how it can be rendered as "to" in the example.

Anyway, I think we can clearly say that, as a main verb, ให้ means to give. This use it not encountered so often, though. When a Thai showed me the little motto "Give the cow some grass, give the child a smack", I couldn't initially see the meaning, because it was simply "give".

As, I think, Smythe explained, if ให้ is not the main verb then it sort of means "allow", but in a limited way, which I'll explain shortly. So, the easiest thing to do is to translate it with "let". The limited way is that it allows the natural course of action to occur. So if you want to get to work and something is stopping you, lifting the impediment will "allow" you to go to work. But if you are talking at the watercooler and the boss comes along and suggests you move away from the watercooler, again the impediment to work has been lifted, though in this case we would say that the boss "made" you go back to work. So mostly we can use "let" though occasionally "make" would be more suitable.

Finally, if you do something for someone, you cannot use สำหรับ, you must use ให้.