เก่า แก่
“เก่า แก่” (гао гэ) — antique; old (and precious) in Thai. Adjective, level B1. Literally "old-old": the first old is for people, and also "ripe" for fruit. Antique is "old" in double strength, said with respect. In a live sentence: “วัด เก่า แก่ อยู่ ริม น้ำ” — An ancient temple by the water. Written with the characters เ, ก, ่, า, แ, ก, ่. A word from the everyday Thai course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Thai | เก่า แก่ |
| Read in Latin letters | гао гэ |
| Translation | antique; old (and precious) |
| Part of speech | adjective |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "old-old": the first old is for people, and also "ripe" for fruit. Antique is "old" in double strength, said with respect
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.
- วัด เก่า แก่ อยู่ ริม น้ำват гао гэ ю рим намAn ancient temple by the water
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 “antique; old (and precious)” in Thai?
«เก่า แก่», read “гао гэ”. In a live sentence: “วัด เก่า แก่ อยู่ ริม น้ำ” — An ancient temple by the water. Adjective, level B1; written with the characters เ, ก, ่, า, แ, ก, ่.
How is “เก่า แก่” written in Latin letters?
гао гэ. 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 "old-old": the first old is for people, and also "ripe" for fruit. Antique is "old" in double strength, said with respect. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.