My title to this post is a bit misleading. We aren’t going to cheat to learn Thai. Instead, we are going to learn about how to say ‘cheating’ in Thai.

As any tourist to Thailand knows, you’re going to be cheated, swindled, and scammed. Entire websites are devoted to filling databases of all the scams you can possibly experience. Well, I’d argue that these databases only cover 30%, but thats another story . . . Just do a Google search for ‘scam thailand‘, and you’ll come up with 2 million results.

So how do you talk about scams in Thai?

The Thai word for ‘trick’ is หลอก. For example, your Thai girlfriend tells you her parents water-buffalo got sick (again) and needs money for a veterinarian. You fork over the cash, completely unaware she lied to you. To say you were tricked, you can say ถูกหลอก. The word has other uses . . . if a soldier was firing blank rounds, he’d be using กระสุนหลอก.

Now to say lie, its โกหก. If you think someone is lying to you, just say this word at them. An offensive way to call someone a perpetual liar is ขี้หก. This word is only used in the southern Thai dialect, but they’ll all understand you, and wonder where you learned that word from.

A very common scam in Thailand is to sell you fakes and low quality wares. The word fake is taken from English, เฟค. The word ปลอม also means fake, although I only really hear it pronounced as ‘ปอม.’ If a girl has a fake nose, you may say จมูกปลอม. (Poetic sidebar: according to my girlfriend, all Thai actresses have fake noses). To say something is a fake, such as in a store, you’d say it’s ของปลอม. Something that isn’t fake is called ของแท้.

There is a saying for someone who appears nice and says all the right things, but behind your back does the complete opposite. The phrase is หน้าไหว้หลังหลอก. Literally, it means someone who was politely in front of you, but tricks you behind your back. It can describe someone who is hypocritical, or someone who treats you nicely but says mean things about you when you’re not around. Or it could refer to someone smooth talking you, but really scamming. A politician who says all the right things in public, but is corrupt inside and out, would fit this description.

Vocabulary:

หลอก trick

ถูกหลอก has been tricked

กระสุนหลอก blanks (as in bullets)

โกหก lie

ขี้หก liar (calling some a liar)

เฟค fake

ปลอม fake, counterfeit

จมูกปลอม fake nose

ของปลอม fake item (usually something for sale or was bought)

ของแท้ genuine, real, not fake

หน้าไหว้หลังหลอก adjective: hypocrit, smooth talker