เดิน ไม่ ไกล
“เดิน ไม่ ไกล” (дён май глай) — a short walk away in Thai. Phrase, level A1, topic — asking the way. Literally "on foot not far": nearness Thai measures in walking, not in steps. To say doen mai glai is to promise you will get there without a car. In a live sentence: “โรง แรม เดิน ไม่ ไกล จาก ตลาด” — The hotel is a short walk from the market. Written with the characters เ, ด, ิ, น, ไ, ม, ่, ไ, ก, ล.
In short
| Written in Thai | เดิน ไม่ ไกล |
| Read in Latin letters | дён май глай |
| Translation | a short walk away |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "on foot not far": nearness Thai measures in walking, not in steps. To say doen mai glai is to promise you will get there without a car
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- โรง แรม เดิน ไม่ ไกล จาก ตลาดронг рэм дён май глай джак талатThe hotel is a short walk from the market
Nearby words: asking the way
Right, left, straight on, how far. You ask the way rarely — and always at the moment when there is no time to work it out.
- อยู่ ที่ไหนю тинайwhere?Literally "is located where". One thinai at the end of a phrase turns anything into a question: raan khaafae yu thinai — "the coffeehouse is where?"
- ที่ นี่ти нийhereLiterally "place this". The Thai row "place + pointer" works everywhere: there is thi nan, where is thinai
- ที่ นั่นти нанthereThe pair of "here": only the pointer changes. There is no separate word "to there" in this pair — the direction is said by a verb and an adverb
- ขวาкхваto the rightOne word, "right"; "turn right" is said with the verb liao in front. For a turn Thai says "bend", not "go"
- ซ้ายсайto the leftThe pair of "right". It argues with the word "to mourn" in tone alone: "left" rises, and on the road you can hear it
- ตรง ไปтронг пайstraight aheadLiterally "evenly go": the two words hold together as one. In signs and in spoken answers it is the first phrase of any route
- ใกล้клайnear; closeThe initial sign is the rare "in twenty words" one. It argues by ear with glai, "far": "near" falls, "far" is mid
- ไกลглайfarThe pair of "near", and the difference is the tone and the first letter only. The booster is the familiar mak: glai mak — "very far"
- เดิน ไป อย่างไรдён пай янграйhow do I get there?Literally "on foot go how": yangrai is the polite "how", you heard it in khun pen yangrai. Where exactly — put the place at the end
- ไป ถึงпай тхынгto get to; to reachPai, "go", plus theung, "as far as": to get as far as the very place. You heard this theung in ma theung laeo — "already arrived"
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “asking the way”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “a short walk away” in Thai?
Literally "on foot not far": nearness Thai measures in walking, not in steps. To say doen mai glai is to promise you will get there without a car
- How do you say “near; close” in Thai?
The initial sign is the rare "in twenty words" one. It argues by ear with glai, "far": "near" falls, "far" is mid
- How do you say “there” in Thai?
The pair of "here": only the pointer changes. There is no separate word "to there" in this pair — the direction is said by a verb and an adverb
- How do you say “to get to; to reach” in Thai?
Pai, "go", plus theung, "as far as": to get as far as the very place. You heard this theung in ma theung laeo — "already arrived"
- How do you say “straight ahead” in Thai?
Literally "evenly go": the two words hold together as one. In signs and in spoken answers it is the first phrase of any route
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “a short walk away” in Thai?
«เดิน ไม่ ไกล», read “дён май глай”. In a live sentence: “โรง แรม เดิน ไม่ ไกล จาก ตลาด” — The hotel is a short walk from the market. Phrase, level A1, from the set “asking the way”; written with the characters เ, ด, ิ, น, ไ, ม, ่, ไ, ก, ล.
How is “เดิน ไม่ ไกล” written in Latin letters?
дён май глай. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally "on foot not far": nearness Thai measures in walking, not in steps. To say doen mai glai is to promise you will get there without a car. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.