Let’s first learn the most important greetings in Thai that you will need to know if you are visiting Thailand and plan to greet Thai people in Thai.
Table of contents
Polite particles
The first important thing you need to know about speaking Thai is that we have a word to show politeness.
The words are ครับ (khráp), ค่ะ (khâ), and คะ (khá).
ครับ (khráp) is for a male speaker.
The correct pronunciation is ครับ (khráp) but, commonly, Thai people pronounce it as คับ (kháp).
ค่ะ (khâ) / คะ (khá) is for a female speaker.
When you make a statement or say something that is not a question, you will pronounce it in a falling tone. But when you ask a question, you say it in a high tone.
How to use it?
You use this word after you say something.
For example,
สวัสดี (sawàtdii) means hello.
To make it sound polite, you will say
สวัสดี ครับ (sawàtdii khráp)
A male speaker
สวัสดี ค่ะ (sawàtdii khâ)
A female speaker
Basic greetings in Thai
1. Hello / Goodbye
–
สวัสดี ครับ (sawàtdii khráp)
–
สวัสดี ค่ะ (sawàtdii khâ)
2. Thank you
–
ขอบคุณ ครับ (khɔ̀ɔpkhun khráp)
–
ขอบคุณ ค่ะ (khɔ̀ɔpkhun khâ)
When saying hello, goodbye, and thank you, we perform a ไหว้ (wâay) hand gesture. However, It’s not necessary to do it every time you say these words.
ไหว้ (wâay)
For Thai people, when we say hello, goodbye, or thank you to older people or to a person who is in a higher position, we will do the ไหว้ (wâay). But we don’t do it with friends or younger people.
At hotels, restaurants, shops, etc., where there are service providers, they will normally greet us by saying สวัสดี ครับ/ค่ะ (sawàtdii khráp/khâ) and doing the ไหว้ (wâay) hand gesture at the same time. They also do the ไหว้ (wâay) when they thank us.
But as a customer, you don’t need to do the ไหว้ (wâay) back to them or don’t even need to say hello or thank you back. I know it may sound rude to you, but it is not rude in our culture as long as you smile back at them.
For me, I sometimes just smile back at them and other times I say hello or thank you back. I also do the ไหว้ (wâay) on some occasions especially when the service providers seem to be older than me.
3. Excuse me / Sorry
–
ขอโทษ ครับ (khɔ̌ɔthôot khráp)
–
ขอโทษ ค่ะ (khɔ̌ɔthôot khâ)
We use the same word for both excuse me and sorry. We don’t commonly make the ไหว้ (wâay) when we say excuse me. However, we may perform the ไหว้ (wâay) when we say sorry.
Again, when we say sorry to younger people we don’t make the ไหว้ (wâay) hand gesture. We just make it with people who are older than us.
It’s fine if you hit someone accidentally and just say ขอโทษ ครับ/ค่ะ (khɔ̌ɔthôot khráp/khâ) without the hand gesture. We make the ไหว้ (wâay) with the word sorry when it is quite a big deal because we want to show that we are really sorry about it.
4. It’s okay. No worries.
–
ไม่เป็นไร ครับ (mây-pen-ray khráp)
–
ไม่เป็นไร ค่ะ (mây-pen-ray khâ)
This is a common word Thai people use in everyday life. ไม่เป็นไร (mây-pen-ray) can mean it’s okay, no worries, or never mind depending on the situation.
If someone accidentally steps on your foot and says sorry, you can say ไม่เป็นไร ครับ/ค่ะ (mây-pen-ray khráp/khâ) to show that it’s okay, and you’re okay.
Or, when the driver gives you change, and you want them to keep it, you can also say ไม่เป็นไร ครับ/ค่ะ (mây-pen-ray khráp/khâ) to show that it’s okay you don’t want to get the change.
To Wrap Up
If you come to Thailand on vacation or just for a visit, these greetings terms are enough. I don’t add the phrase how are you? because Thai people don’t ask how are you? to someone we don’t know. It’s not our culture to do that.
It will be a little awkward if I am at a restaurant and ask the waiter or waitress how are you? in Thai. But if you feel like you want to ask this question anyway, you can do it. People will not get mad at you 🙂
Just in case you want to know how to say how are you? in Thai, they are:
–
สบายดี ไหม ครับ/คะ (sabaay-dii máy khráp/khá) = Are you doing well?
–
เป็นยังไงบ้าง ครับ/คะ (pen yaŋŋay bâaŋ khráp/khá) = How are you? / How are things with you?