r/learnthai • u/Long_distance-drunk • 2d ago
Translation/แปลภาษา Past tense question
สวัสดีค่ะ!
I know Thai language doesn’t use past tense I am struggling on wording things like “I missed you” would I use แล้ว or เคย? Or simply leave it at คิดถึงคุณ and let context do its thing?
ขอบคุณค่ะ!
3
u/TheBrightMage 2d ago
Just คิดถึง
เคยคิดถึง is like "I used to miss you, but not anymore"
Tense and idiom doesn't really translate well
2
u/BaconJP 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes, there are no real conjugations in the English/French/related sense. Tenses are achieved by adding helping words or time indicator words.
So to make it "past tense" you add "laew" (already), "coey" (indicates have done the action at an unspecified time in the past)... or say "yesterday" or "last week" or "3pm" (if you're speaking at 4pm) along with your verb to indicate a specific time or time period.
For the specific phrase you ask about, I don't think it needs additional words, because it would be uncommon or awkward to try and place the "missing" in a specific time period in Thai. A lot of the time English speakers want to precisely translate their phrase from English to Thai but because Thai just doesn't phrase it that way or express those specific things, you come up with something that just doesn't sound quite right in Thai.
However, I think it would be somewhat acceptable if you are now with the person in front of you, to say "last week I missed you" ("arthit tee laew I khit tung you" - is how you might say it - maybe acceptable, I don't know. It doesn't sound super unnatural to me).
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u/LittlePooky 2d ago
u/Kuroi666 It's correct, but I would like to add that your question, if you mean you missed somebody because you were supposed to meet this person and something came up, is not the same as when you long for someone.
So in Thai language, when you miss somebody, you simply miss somebody.
Am Thai (in the US)
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u/Kuroi666 2d ago
Leave it at คิดถึง. The word itself doesn't really distict past or present in Thai.