A Brief Note on Polite Particles

H

F

H

F

F

H

F

F

H

F

H

Below, you'll find some Thai phrases that may come in handy when you are travelling in Thailand. But first...Most of these phrases can (and should) be made more polite by adding a particle to the end. Male speakers should add/khrap/ while women should add/kha/ to the end of statements and/kha/ to the end of questions./ja/ can be used by children or between intimate friends. There are many more particles in common use, especially considering regional variations; some Thai people will stick with an obscure favorite as a matter of personality.At first, Westerners find these particles easy to forget, but with practice, eventually you will find yourself adding polite particles automatically. You can further "soften" requests or aggresive statements by also adding/na/ before you say khrapor kha(ladies, remember to use/na/kha/ to make your questions more polite). If you listen to broadcast talk shows in Thailand, you may hear a speaker ending every single sentence with /nakhrap/—since he doesn't know who may be listening, he endeavors to be most polite.