ศาลาชุมนุม

[Mika]

Hi

I noticed that at the end of a sentence, a woman says 'kha' (ค่ะ, คะ). I'm not sure about men, though. Is it 'khap' (คับ) or 'khrap' (ครับ)? Or are both correct?

Thanks.
Mika

[Tgeezer]

Hi

I noticed that at the end of a sentence, a woman says 'kha' (ค่ะ, คะ). I'm not sure about men, though. Is it 'khap' (คับ) or 'khrap' (ครับ)? Or are both correct?

Thanks.
Mika

The word is ครับ often said คับ, and a strange thing about Thai is that some people insist on spelling words the way that they say them.
U no wat I meen ? It don't think it is considered as ignorant in Thai as it would be in English, perhaps someone will tell us.

[Mika]

Hi

I noticed that at the end of a sentence, a woman says 'kha' (ค่ะ, คะ). I'm not sure about men, though. Is it 'khap' (คับ) or 'khrap' (ครับ)? Or are both correct?

Thanks.
Mika

The word is ครับ often said คับ, and a strange thing about Thai is that some people insist on spelling words the way that they say them.
U no wat I meen ? It don't think it is considered as ignorant in Thai as it would be in English, perhaps someone will tell us.

Yup I know watcha mean Tgeezer. So, I guess the correct form is definitely ครับ!

[Toffeeman]

Yes the correct written form is ครับ but the spoken form is nearly always คับ. I got ridiculed by one Thai friend for using ครับ, and another friend said she liked listening to farangs speaking Thai because sometimes there words are so correct, meaning too correct. The word she picked me up on was ครับ. So I guess go with คับ.

In fact with this word you can even lengthen the vowel a bit. Similar to the way women use คะ. They lengthen the vowel and also change the tone but men can just lengthen the vowel for affect. It should remain high tone. An example of this is when you use the word on its own to acknowledge another person's comment. On the phone you will usually just use the short version like an English person would say yes, yep, ok, ahem and all the other words we use like that.

But when I friend might call my name, thus attracting my attention I usually lengthen the ครับ. This has the meaning of acknowledging them but also showing them that I know they want something. It is difficult to explain but probably indicates a little sarcasm in my response. I think I am conveying the meaning: What do you want now! but of course it is said between friends and thus taken in good spirit.

[Tgeezer]

I got ridiculed by one Thai friend for using ครับ, and another friend said she liked listening to farangs speaking Thai because sometimes there words are so correct, meaning too correct. The word she picked me up on was ครับ. So I guess go with คับ.

She would certainly enjoy the company I keep then, even the caddies say ครับ properly sometimes ครับผม too. One friend just a second ago declared that 'it is uneducated, บ้านนอก, to say คับ.

[Mika]

I'd like to thank you both Toffeeman and Tgeezer.
Both your answers were a great help.

[Vortarulo]

I wonder about the etymology of the word ครับ.
When I was reading a book, I found the word ขอรับ (obviously derived from ขอ and รับ) and my friend told me it is some very very polite particle. So it made me wonder if the etymology of ครับ really is: ขอ + รับ = ขอรับ > ครับ (and the tone of the second syllable was retained). Does anyone know?

I wish I had an etymological dictionary for Thai!

[daฟาน]

I wonder about the etymology of the word ครับ.
When I was reading a book, I found the word ขอรับ (obviously derived from ขอ and รับ) and my friend told me it is some very very polite particle. So it made me wonder if the etymology of ครับ really is: ขอ + รับ = ขอรับ > ครับ (and the tone of the second syllable was retained). Does anyone know?

I wish I had an etymological dictionary for Thai!

I saw it in a movie too. My friends told me that time that this ขอรับ is actually the etomology of ครับ. However they are not linguists so I won't guarantee that this is 100% correct.

[Pirin]

At the moment, please use “ครับ”.

It is said that “ขอรับ” becomes “ครับ” because of assimilation or change over time.

http://www.royin.go.th/th/knowledge/detail.php?ID=4090
คลังความรู้

“คำว่า ครับ เพี้ยนเสียงมาจากคำว่า ขอรับ ซึ่ง……”

[tod-daniels]

The penchant for Thais to teach foreigners Thai that sounds foreign is just plain crazy .

The only time I’ve EVER heard ครับ pronounced with the “r” is with pretentious Thais wanting to show they can roll their r’s or when used in a sarcastic manner to purposely “take the piss” outta someone where they’ll drag out the sound .

Listen to Thai talk radio, not a “ครับ” to be heard, watch Thai t/v, even news presenters hardly ever ครับ, they just คับ.

Honestly, I never use that particle unless it’s hooked into a “phrozen-phraze” like; หวัดดีคับ, ขอโทษคับ or สบายดีรึคับ. Any other time I totally leave it off of anything I say, to no apparent lost of comprehension or offence taken by the Thais I’m speaking to.

The reason Thais say foreigners have “foreign sounding Thai” is because we’re taught it by the Thais, …