From the perspective of
linguistic typology, Thai can be considered an
analytic language. The
word order is
subject–verb–object, although the subject is often
omitted. Additionally, Thai is an isolating language lacking any form of inflectional morphology whatsoever. Thai pronouns are selected according to the gender and relative status of speaker and audience.
Adjectives and adverbs There is no morphological distinction between
adverbs and
adjectives. Many words can be used in either function. They follow the word they modify, which may be a noun, verb, or another adjective or adverb. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3
Comparatives take the form "A X B" (, ), 'A is more X than B'. The
superlative is expressed as "A X " (, ), 'A is most X'. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3 Adjectives in Thai can be used as
complete predicates. Because of this, many words used to indicate tense in verbs (see Verbs:Tense below) may be used to describe adjectives. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|lang=th|glossing4=yes|indent=3 :*
Remark mostly means 'I am hungry right now' because normally, () marks the change of a state, but has many other uses as well. For example, in the sentence, (): 'So where are you going?', () is used as a discourse particle.
Verbs Verbs do not
inflect. They do not change with person, tense, voice, mood, or number; nor are there any
participles. The language being analytic and
case-less, the relationship between subject, direct and indirect object is conveyed through word order and
auxiliary verbs.
Transitive verbs follow the pattern
subject-verb-object. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes In order to convey
tense, aspect and mood (TAM), the Thai verbal system employs auxiliaries and
verb serialization. Similarly, (, ) is a post-verbal aspect marker which corresponds to the continuative or temporary aspect. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes The
passive voice is indicated by the insertion of (, ) before the verb. For example: {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes The construction is traditionally an
adversative passive, a feature
common to many Southeast Asian languages where a passive construction is restricted to unfavorable meanings (e.g. "he was killed" but not "he was rewarded"), but in current usage is found with virtually all transitive verbs. This neutral usage first arose as an
Anglicism as Thailand became
Westernized in the early 20th century, but has since become pervasive. The adversative passive persists in the similar construction with (, ).
Negation is indicated by placing (, ; not) before the verb. • , () 'He is not hitting' or 'He doesn't hit'. Thai exhibits
serial verb constructions, where verbs are strung together. Some word combinations are common and may be considered set phrases. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes
Nouns Nouns are
uninflected and have no
gender; there are no
articles. Thai nouns are
bare nouns and can be interpreted as singular, plural, definite or indefinite. Some specific nouns are
reduplicated to form
collectives: (, 'child') is often repeated as () to refer to a group of children. The word (, ) may be used as a prefix of a noun or pronoun as a collective to pluralize or emphasise the following word. (, , , 'we', masculine; , , emphasised 'we'; , '(the) dogs'). Plurals are expressed by adding
classifiers, used as
measure words (), in the form of noun-number-classifier: {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes While in English, such classifiers are usually absent ("four chairs") or optional ("two bottles of beer"
or "two beers"), a classifier is almost always used in Thai (hence "chair four item" and "beer two bottle").
Possession in Thai is indicated by adding the word () in front of the
noun or
pronoun, but it may often be omitted. For example: {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes
Nominal phrases Nominal phrases in Thai often use a special class of words
classifiers. As previously mentioned, these classifiers are obligatory for noun phrases containing numerals e.g. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes Unlike any numeral, ('one') can mark on both positions of classifier, but in different functions. The post-head one potentially marks a referent as
indefinite article. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes In the previous example () acts as the classifier in the nominal phrase. This follows the form of noun-cardinal-classifier mentioned above. Classifiers are also required to form quantified noun phrases in Thai with some quantifiers such as ('all'), ('some'). The examples below are demonstrated using the classifier , which is used for people. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes However, classifiers are not utilized for negative quantification. Negative quantification is expressed by the pattern (, ) + NOUN.
Demonstratives Thai has a three-way distinction for its demonstratives:
proximal (, ; 'this/these'),
medial (, ; 'that/those'), and
distal (, ; 'that/those over there') which is rarely used. The tone is changed depending on usage: as a pronoun, the proximal demonstrative is
(, ); while
(, ) is a modifier placed after nouns, prepositions, classifiers, etc. For example: {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes The word (, ) plays the role of an interrogative determiner or pronoun. {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|lang=th|indent=3|glossing4=yes The syntax for demonstrative phrases, however, differ from that of cardinals and follow the pattern
noun-classifier-demonstrative. For example, the noun phrase "this dog" would be expressed in Thai as (literally 'dog (classifier) this').
Pronouns Subject
pronouns are
often omitted, with
nicknames used where English would use a pronoun. See Thai name#Nicknames for more details. Pronouns, when used, are ranked in
honorific registers, and may also make a
T–V distinction in relation to
kinship and
social status. Specialised pronouns are used for royalty, and for Buddhist monks. The following are appropriate for conversational use: The reflexive pronoun is (), which can mean any of: myself, yourself, ourselves, himself, herself, themselves. This can be mixed with another pronoun to create an
intensive pronoun, such as (, lit: I myself) or (, lit: you yourself). Thai also does not have a separate
possessive pronoun. Instead, possession is indicated by the particle (). For example, "my mother" is (, lit: mother of I). This particle is often implicit, so the phrase is shortened to (). Plural pronouns can be easily constructed by adding the word () in front of a singular pronoun as in () meaning 'they' or () meaning the plural sense of 'you'. The only exception to this is (), which can be used as singular (informal) or plural, but can also be used in the form of (), which is only plural. Thai has many more pronouns than those listed above. Their usage is full of nuances. For example: • "" all translate to "I", but each expresses a different gender, age, politeness, status, or relationship between speaker and listener. • () can be first person (I), second person (you), or both (we), depending on the context. • Children or younger women could use or be referred by word () when talking with an older person. The word could be both feminine first person (I) and feminine second person (you) and also neuter first and neuter second person for children. • commonly means rat or mouse, though it also refers to small creatures in general. • The second person pronoun () (lit: you) is semi-feminine. It is used only when the speaker or the listener (or both) are female. Males usually do not address each other by this pronoun. • Both () and () are polite neuter second person pronouns. However, () is a feminine derogative third person. • Instead of a second person pronoun such as ('you'), it is much more common for unrelated strangers to call each other or (brother, sister, aunt, uncle, granny). • To express deference, the second person pronoun is sometimes replaced by a profession, similar to how, in English, presiding judges are always addressed as "your honor" rather than "you". In Thai, students always address their teachers by , or (each meaning 'teacher') rather than ('you'). Teachers, monks, and doctors are almost always addressed this way.
Particles The
particles are often untranslatable words added to the end of a sentence to indicate respect, a request, encouragement or other moods (similar to the use of
intonation in English), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in elegant (written) Thai. The most common particles indicating respect are (, , with a high tone) when the speaker is a man, and (, , with a falling tone) when the speaker is a woman. Used in a question or a request, the particle (falling tone) is changed to a (high tone). Other common particles are: == Register ==