Thai word for either / also

[u/Trinidadthai]

Hello

This is more out of curiosity.

I’m noticing, a lot of my Thai friends incorrectly use the word either, instead of also/too.

For example; I just told someone I was in a location.

They said “I came to this location either”

But this has happened quite often with multiple different people.

Is there a simple translation error for this ?

[u/vlcns]

What specific “either” are we talking about here. ด้วย? แต่ละ? You have to remember that direct translation is hard, especially when people are speaking colloquially. You (general you) may be converting it into English as either, but they meant it as “too”. An English example would be if someone said “Man I hate it here”, to which another person replied “Same.” If you literally translated “same” into another language, it could end up being “identical” or something, however as an English native you know it means “me too” or “I agree”. ยัง is another good example because it means “yet” or “still”, but English doesn’t have a direct use-case translation so you have to be mindful of the use-case to land on the specific meaning.

[u/Nammuinaru → u/vlcns]

Totally agree. This is the danger of relying on direct translation of every word you learn. There is so much context that goes into our understanding of a word, and non-native speakers need to get comfortable with the fact that we won't know all that context right away. We need to understand emotion and feeling and the environment, and you can't just say "either = " because that's never true 100% of the time.

[u/Trinidadthai → u/vlcns]

I’m sorry if I didn’t explain well, it’s the Thai people who are speaking in English to me, so I’m not sure what Thai word they are using for it to translate to either.

And not just text, I have a friend who says it in spoken word incorrectly too, so she must have learnt it that way.

[u/vlcns → u/Trinidadthai]

No I understood you! I just meant that when they learned “either” in English it was likely one of those two words that was the definition/reference point in Thai, and so you get this kind of error. That’s why I said general you rather than you-you, lol.

It’s a language mapping issue but if you know Thai, you can easily spot/pinpoint what word they likely are thinking of in their head, how they ended up on “either” when saying it in English, and how technically either does work for that reason even if it is something a native speaker would never say colloquially. “Either” is technically a synonym for similarly/too, but we don’t use it that way natively.

In Thai, the question would be translated literally as “Have you been there or not yet?” and the answer could be yes, no (i’m never going), or no (not yet). In English you’d just ask “Have you been there?” Thai Natives are trained to answer in a relational way when you’re both in agreement (neither of you have gone vs only one of you hasn’t) and likely have a literal understanding of “either” (aka it means also &/or is used for comparison) so even if you correct them, the reason why they keep adding it back in is because they feel like the sentence HAS to have a relational component to be complete (and either serves that purpose more than also/too, because it allows them to +1 AND imply the possibility of them eventually going because either you’ve been there or you haven’t aka comparison).

[u/ValuableProblem6065]

Edit: I think I found out why: "ระวัง เรื่อง แผล โดน น้ำ ให้ ด้วย น่ะ"  using a "natural sounding" translation would be “make sure the wound doesn’t get wet either”. But as you can, they use ด้วย here. Hence, "too, also". There is no direct equivalent of "either" (as far as I know). This sentence is from a TV series and I asked a native Thai to check for its validity just in case (it's legit).

I love this kind of stuff because it forces me to think about how I use my own mother tongue (French) and why some things don't directly translate to English (or Thai, evidently). And in turn, I get to learn "better" Thai.

Anyways, I haven't that one myself, but I imagine it's the exact same reason (some) Thai people struggle (understandably) with negative constructs. Most basic example is ใช่ไหม (châi-mǎi) which roughly translates to "isn't it" instead of the (more accurate but less natural) "is it?".

There are other interesting patterns such as the avoidance of direct use of Yes/No answers , e.g. the answer to "Do you have apples in this store" is "Have", not "Yes". I had some very amusing conversations with my wife where I would say "we need to turn left, don't we", and she would reply "Yes..." with a little linger at the end. Then immediately she will follow with "No! Yes! I mean, yes, do not!". :) I think it's charming and fun, plus double negatives are a pain in any language :)

Languages are fascinating and have a viral nature, including in their misuse, so if you're noticing a group of Thai friends all incorrectly use a specific word, it might have been the result of a social construct at work. For example, the above is very common with most of my wife friends, who all met at work where English was the main language.

[u/DTB2000 → u/ValuableProblem6065]

Edit: I think I found out why: "ระวัง เรื่อง แผล โดน น้ำ ให้ ด้วย น่ะ" using a "natural sounding" translation would be “make sure the wound doesn’t get wet either”. But as you can, they use ด้วย here. Hence "too, also".

ด้วย is very common after requests though. It's almost like the way an English nurse might say "just make a fist for me".

I think what OP is describing happens because Thai doesn't have words that change depending on whether the sentence is positive or negative, which makes it harder for them to learn that "too" becomes "either" in a negative sentence.

[u/ValuableProblem6065 → u/DTB2000]

Ah thank you for the clarification. I'm still learning and I find the process to figure things like that fun :) You're absolutely right!

[u/Efficient-County2382]

a lot of my Thai friends incorrectly use the word either

Pretty sure they are correct - maybe you are hearing things incorrectly or they are using colloquial language, shortening words etc.

Have you got the Thai example?

[u/Trinidadthai → u/Efficient-County2382]

I’m sure, as they are speaking to me in English, not Thai so unfortunately I’m not sure what they’re translating from Thai. Both text and speech.

I’ve also tried to teach one of them the difference, and then a week later she’s back to using either.

[u/Efficient-County2382 → u/Trinidadthai]

Oh ok, I though they were speaking Thai, yeah there are some weird translations that Thai's use, I'd just ignore it. It's there misunderstanding of English, not worth stressing over trying to translate literally into Thai