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Thai Punctuation Marks & Other Characters, Part 3 Posted by on Nov 20, 2011 in Beginner, Intermediate

We continue with Part 3, the final part listing all of the various Thai language punctuation marks. The math symbols may be used just like you would in English.

 

“              ฟันหนู        fan1nuu5

The quotation marks are called ‘mouse teeth’ fan1nuu5 ฟันหนู. Use like you would in English.

 

%            เปอร์เซ็นต์  bper1sen1

The percentage mark.

 

=             เท่ากับ       tow3gap2

The equal sign. The Thai word translates to ‘the same as’.

 

X             คูณ           kuun1

Multiply.

 

+             บวก          buak2

Add.

 

–              ลบ            lop2

Subtract.

 

/              หาร           haan5

Divide.

 

–              เครื่องหมายยัติภังค์      krueng3maai5 yat4 dte2 pang1

Hyphen

 

@            แอ็ด          at2

For use with emails.

 

!              เครื่องหมายตกใจ

The word dtok2jai1 ตกใจ means ‘surprised’. This is the exclamation mark to show surprise, just like it is in English.

 

,               จุลภาค      jun2paak3           optional:              ลูกน้ำ        luuk3 nam4

The nickname of the comma in Thai means ‘child of water’. My guess is that it looks like a water droplet? Who knows. You do not use the comma when separating words which do not have spaces within the word, nor when there are only two items in a list.

For example, no commas should be used here:

กล้วย แอปเปิ้ล ส้ม ฯลฯ                                (a list of four items of fruit)

When there are only two items in the list, you must use กับ which means ‘with’.

กล้วยกับส้ม                                                (two items of fruit)

But in this example, there are names which have a space between first and last, so commas must be used:

ชวน หลีกภัย, บรรหาร ศิลปอาชา, ชวลิต ยงใจยุทธ, ทักษิณ ชินวัตร, สุรยุทธ์ จุลานนท์             (a list of famous politicians)

 

๛            โคมูตร       ko1muut2

This punctuation mark is used to formally mark the end of a story. You can typically find this on the last page of a Thai book – go have a look. And all this time you thought it was a cute artistic squiggly!

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Comments:

  1. mahoumagechan:

    I’m sorry if I’m being picky or annoying you…
    (I just stumbled upon your blog on coincidence… ><)

    With the comma, or ลูกน้ำ, I think it's supposed to mean "mosquito's baby" (that's how I've always thought of it, at least…) Because ลูกน้ำ literally means mosquito's baby (offspring/kid/newborn/etc.). You know those squirmy thingys in puddles of water that looks sort of like tadpoles except more disgusting?
    Doesn't it look like one? ^^
    Although I guess the "droplet" works as well..

    And… also, when you had the list of fruits, กลวย should be กล้วย… right? You wanted to say banana… right? 8D

    And oh my god, the first name in the list of famous politicians… made me bursted out laughing after confirming that such a person exists. 8D His name sounds hilarious.

    And oh, to see I, a native speaker, learned something new from a non-native speaker! XD The โคมูตร… that's new to me… AND my mum! (she thinks it's a new symbol that's just been invented recently – we don't live in Thailand anymore…)

  2. palmisano:

    > กลวย should be กล้วย… right?
    yeap, another typo of mine =X

    > the first name in the list of famous politicians… made me bursted out laughing
    lol, I didn’t realize how embarrassing his name was until you mentioned it

    As for โคมูตร, I was watching this Thai movie a week ago. In the movie, this plane almost crash landed but instead had skidded all over the runway in circles. The plane finally stopped and all the heroes lived. The camera then panned to a bird’s eye view of the runway, and the the skid marks looked exactly like ๛

    I think I was the only person in the room that laughed . . .

  3. Inger:

    I love your blog!

  4. Jan Knus:

    Hi,

    I can’t find “Thai Punctuation Marks & Other Characters, Part 1” by searching.
    What happened?
    I need an explanation for the mark:
    Ga-ran
    กๅรันต์

    cheers
    Jan Knus

    • palmisano:

      @Jan Knus The garan makes the letter below it silent.

  5. Candy:

    Hey I loved your blog. Could you elaborate more on the Quotation marks? I am writing a story so that I get to know more vocabulary /words/ grammar rules etc. Could you give a better example of how will a conversation be written? For Eg. His grandparents told Anne and Aof , “You are like our children. May God bless you both. ”
    How would you use the Quotation marks in Thai?
    Thank you.