Growing up, we just know how to use words and in what order to use them. Four pairs of scissors, three cups of coffee or one sheet of paper. I knew the time would come that I'd have to learn the infamous Thai classifiers...but so far I have been managing quite fine without them, thank you very much. Even if I do sound like a big dumb farang.
When I order two fried rice with chicken, I have faith that they’re going to be delivered in a bowl or on a plate, so I can get away with just saying 'fried rice chicken two please'.
I know I MUST learn them, they’re part and parcel of the language. So to help me learn I often look for a way to remember things, whether it be visual or by association.
In class we were running through a few of them, nineteen out of an unmerciful 259 or more, to be precise. We get to 'khan', the classifier for: spoons, forks, cars, carts, prams etc. Sure, I can see the similarities between cutlery and forms of transportation...NOT!
My eyes are glazed over at this point, so I didn’t have any questions forthcoming, but someone else asks, "what about knives?" Kruu K was obviously armed and ready for this question and referred to 'lêm', saying “we'll get to that in a minute”.
Lêm (เล่ม) the classifier for: knives, books, needles etc. BUT WHY?????
“Because they were all once made from rock” she explains “and people used to write on rock in the old days”...so hence, books. Oh, cool, thanks, that makes it easier to remember.
I think of other items than may have been made of stone, back in the day. Axe, spear, sickle, pickaxe...which all have lêm as their classifier.
So, I'm sitting here doing my homework and click on the classifier 'lêm' in my computer dictionary. Hmmmmm, what's a 'candle' doing in amongst that lot? I ponder for a while and try to find a way getting a ‘candle’ out of a ‘rock’. Nope...sorry, can’t see the connection.
I decide to Google it and find that 'umbrella' also has the same classifier. I remember being told that most Thais don’t even know the reason why nouns are classified the way they are. Comforting? Not really, they just know what goes with what, like I do in English.
'Things with handles'...OK...this is getting weird! I'm starting to think that I should have been learning classifiers along with the nouns...like, realising I had to learn to read and write, to be able speak.
ACCOUNTING, SPECIES, LEGAL CONTRACTS...AH, COME ON!
Is there a method to the madness? Are there reasons why nouns are classified the way they are?
When I order two fried rice with chicken, I have faith that they’re going to be delivered in a bowl or on a plate, so I can get away with just saying 'fried rice chicken two please'.
I know I MUST learn them, they’re part and parcel of the language. So to help me learn I often look for a way to remember things, whether it be visual or by association.
In class we were running through a few of them, nineteen out of an unmerciful 259 or more, to be precise. We get to 'khan', the classifier for: spoons, forks, cars, carts, prams etc. Sure, I can see the similarities between cutlery and forms of transportation...NOT!
My eyes are glazed over at this point, so I didn’t have any questions forthcoming, but someone else asks, "what about knives?" Kruu K was obviously armed and ready for this question and referred to 'lêm', saying “we'll get to that in a minute”.
Lêm (เล่ม) the classifier for: knives, books, needles etc. BUT WHY?????
“Because they were all once made from rock” she explains “and people used to write on rock in the old days”...so hence, books. Oh, cool, thanks, that makes it easier to remember.
I think of other items than may have been made of stone, back in the day. Axe, spear, sickle, pickaxe...which all have lêm as their classifier.
So, I'm sitting here doing my homework and click on the classifier 'lêm' in my computer dictionary. Hmmmmm, what's a 'candle' doing in amongst that lot? I ponder for a while and try to find a way getting a ‘candle’ out of a ‘rock’. Nope...sorry, can’t see the connection.
I decide to Google it and find that 'umbrella' also has the same classifier. I remember being told that most Thais don’t even know the reason why nouns are classified the way they are. Comforting? Not really, they just know what goes with what, like I do in English.
'Things with handles'...OK...this is getting weird! I'm starting to think that I should have been learning classifiers along with the nouns...like, realising I had to learn to read and write, to be able speak.
ACCOUNTING, SPECIES, LEGAL CONTRACTS...AH, COME ON!
Is there a method to the madness? Are there reasons why nouns are classified the way they are?
