All Hell broke loose / นรกแตก

The other day, my wife uttered this phrase, and when she explained it to me, I realized that the Thai นรกแตก is basically exactly the same expression as the English “all hell broke loose.”

In Thai, แตก means “break,” specifically with the implication of shattering, bursting, and with stuff spilling out. Glasses break (แก้วแตก), bags burst (ถุงแตก), and you can bust your head open (หัวแตก). In contrast, breaking pencils or body parts is หัก, as in แขนหัก.

And of course, นรก means Hell.

So the mental picture in both languages is the gates of Hell bursting open and all sorts of mayhem flooding forth. Both languages use the expression to describe the point in time when something orderly falls into chaos, perhaps in an unsalvageable way.

(Incidentally, my professional life has changed quite a bit recently, and nowadays, I am working exclusively with non-Thai-speaking foreigners. So it is now very difficult for me to find sources of information for this blog. Nevertheless I shall continue to post things as I come across them.)

Spine / สัน

Thai and English share the same concept of a spine. สัน means “spine,” for men and for books.

English speakers understand “spine” alone to mean the backbone. But in Thai, that is กระดูกสันหลัง—so it’s not a perfect match with English, but still easy to remember.

The spine of a book is สันหนังสือ (literally, “book spine”), correlating with English very closely.

Just remember that the spines (little sharp things) on porcupines and sea urchins are not the same word in Thai. That is a different concept with different words in each language.

Update February 4, 2008: Thanks to Rikker for pointing out in the comments that “ridge” is likely the best meaning for สัน. So go ahead and remember “spine” as a mnemonic for backbones and books; but to take it further, “ridge” is better for understanding.

Corner of mouth / มุมปาก

Well, I have to get started posting again. I lost my creative spark ever since I was cruelly and illegally stifled by Twentieth Century Fox. Don’t they know this is the twenty-first century?

Yesterday I discovered that Thai speakers and Anglophones have the same expression for that place on the sides of your mouth where mustard always gets stuck: the corner of your mouth, or มุมปาก.

English also has the “corner of the eye,” but I do not see such a phrase (มุมตา) used in Thai as much on the Internet, although I suspect it would be recognizable by many Thai speakers.

Eyes bigger than stomach / ตาโตกว่าท้อง

A few days back, I had the pleasure of having lunch at the Queen Sirikit Convention center. It was a spectacular buffet. Among the huge selection were all the ingredients needed to make some very inspiring turkey sandwiches. It was bliss. I ate probably my biggest meal of the year.

On my final round to the buffet tables, I saw plenty of things that I had not sampled, so I brought them all back to my table. Unfortunately, I was unable to rise to the occasion; I had to admit defeat. I had served myself more food than I was capable of putting down without being obscene.

Happily, I learned another expression that both Thais and Anglophones use to describe when a person orders more food than he can actually eat: ตาโตกว่าท้อง. This is just like the English, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” Budding Thai speakers, take note that Thais use โต here instead of ใหญ่. To my understanding, both words can translate to the English “big,” although โต is connected with the concept of growth, and is often considered a verb. So I think the image Thais have with this expression is that of overgrown eyes, when compared to the stomach.

I wouldn’t go that far / ผมไม่ไปไกลถึงขนาดนั้น

How about a pseudo-cognate from current events? Bangkok Pundit addresses Privy Councilor Prem’s take on a PPP win in the election this weekend. Firstly, this is a blog about the Thai language only. I am interested only in helping people by spreading knowledge; I want my writing to be helpful for decades, not days.

You can read the Thai interview at Matichon. Check the paragraph under the second ‘@’ sign. In my opinion, Bangkok Pundit’s translation is faithful.

Firstly, this is an ideal pseudo-cognate:

• It is a long phrase
• It is composed of short, simple words most of us know already
• It has a subtle and nuanced meaning—a powerful communication tool

Both languages, Thai and English, use the metaphor of traveling some distance to mean following one’s thought process. What a great phrase! Not just for Bangkok taxi drivers anymore!

This phrase gives us all a polite way to tell somebody that we understand their thinking—basically; however, we might not reach the same extreme conclusions as they.

Had better (do such-and-such) / (such-and-such) ดีกว่า

English and Thai both use the word for “better” to describe a preferred action. “You had better do your homework first.” ทำการบ้านก่อนดีกว่า

Wikipedia tells me that the English usage is as a modal auxiliary verb. Just don’t get carried away: the two aren’t exactly similar. I’m not sure why, but you can’t say “The bus had better get here soon,” as รถเมล์มาแล้วดีกว่า–it’s nonsensical. (Consider รถเมล์ต้องมาเดี๋ยวนี้.) So I think it’s best say ดีกว่า when something would literally be “more good.”

Some may say that this is too common in all languages to deserve special attention; but my objective is to expose ways that good English speakers can become good Thai speakers (and, wherever possible, vice versa). Like Krav Maga, the idea is to exploit natural reflexes, except that instead of whooping ass, the idea is to communicate better.

Following footsteps / เจริญตามรอยเท้า

Here is one that I was very happy to discover: Thai and English both have expressions meaning to grow up and into the same role as one before you. In this example, I’ll use the father as the role to fulfill.

English: Following in his father’s footsteps
Thai: เจริญตามรอยเท้าพ่อ

เจริญ means to grow, to develop or to progress, which is exactly the meaning in the English version. Also, my sources say เจริญตามรอยพ่อ works too, since รอย implies some sort of track or trail.

Voicebox / กล่องเสียง

เสียง and Vote

เสียง can also mean the nouns “vote” or “ballot.” English also has this usage somewhat when we say, “make your voice heard this Sunday.” The verb “vote” or “cast a vote” is เลือกตั้ง, with a literal translation more like “choose”–so there’s no connection there.

What I am not quite sure about is what Thais call the box where physical ballots are placed during an election. Surely they aren’t shoving ballots inside somebody’s larynx! I suspect it could be กล่องใส่เสียง, or maybe just ถังขยะ.

Thai กล่องเสียง literally translates to “voice box,” the common English word for “larynx.” เสียง usually implies sound or voice, so there you have it: voicebox. I am not sure however if there is a medical term more in line with “larynx,” but I suspect not.

Run a cable / เดินสาย

The other day it occurred to me that Thai and English have similar expressions for installing cables, such as telephone lines or network cables. Thais say เดินสาย which translates very well to “run a cable” or even “run a line” — quite spooky. I suppose this is just coincidence–the law of large numbers at work–and it’s not quite a pseudo-cognate, but close enough to merit consideration.

The reason I chronicle pseudo-cognates that I notice is to build a list of easy-to-remember terms whose simplistic translations coincidentally lead us to the correct meaning.

In truth / ในความจริง

Similar to in theory, both Thais and anglophones use the preposition “in,” or ใน to admit or clarify something. Compare: “in truth, I am not brave,” with ในความจริงผมไม่กล้า.

Thais will also say ที่จริง, which has no pseudo-cognate in English.