An attributive verb is a descriptive word which, in addition to functioning like an adjective, can also stand alone because it can imply the verb "to be."

In English

In English, adjectives are used to modify nouns in two ways:

The second example uses the adjective, 'content', to describe a static state of the child. The child is not doing anything except "being" content. As shown in the example, we use a copula verb (in this case a form of the verb, 'to be') in a stative sentence such as this. An attributive verb would combine the functions of the predicative adjective and the copula verb into a single word.

Attributive verbs are generally not used in English; exceptions I was able to think up are colloquial:

It's interesting that these examples all have the same tenor; I couldn't think up any other English sentences which describe a static state and where the only verb is a form of an adjective. I invite your suggestions. Also, note that all four (but especially the last three) examples can also be interpreted with an entirely different meaning if the attributive verb is treated as an action verb (1. ...up the place—although perhaps giving the same effect, this is a different meaning from the stative sentence; 2. ...dirt [a vacuum] 3. [a tree] 4. ...a rose).

English does use many stative verbs, which function as above in describing a static state. However most of these are not forms of an adjective: be, think, own, have, etc.

In Thai

In Thai, description of a static state is commonly accomplished with attributive verbs. An attributive verb can function as either an adjective, or a verb which describes a static state—without requiring an additional copula verb such as เป็น   /bpenM/ (to be).

Some linguists even suggest that, in Thai, there is no non-verbal adjective function at all—only attributive verbs! In this case, a translation of the first example could be, "The child is content and (is) smiling." I prefer to think of the attributive verb as being able to act as an adjective, which gives the more concise, "The content child smiles."

Below is a list of some of the attributive verbs in our online dictionary. For attributive verbs, we have opted to create a single, consolidated entry, and use English adjectives in this definition. The notation, "[is]" at the beginning of every definition is a reminder of the word's dual personality. We have chosen this indicative form instead of the infinitive "to be" (which most Thai-English other dictionaries use) because it provides a better example of direct readability in the context of a translated sentence. This advantage will become more clear when we complete improvements to our online Thai-to-English bulk lookup facility.

Thanks to Richard and Bryan for contributing to the development of this material.