เข้า ใกล้
“เข้า ใกล้” (као клай) — to approach; to draw near in Thai. Verb, level B1. Literally "enter into near": the distance shrinks. You know the near — here it becomes movement. In a live sentence: “พายุ เข้า ใกล้ ฝน จะ ตก” — The storm is drawing near, the rain is about to fall. Written with the characters เ, ข, ้, า, ใ, ก, ล, ้. A word from the everyday Thai course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Thai | เข้า ใกล้ |
| Read in Latin letters | као клай |
| Translation | to approach; to draw near |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "enter into near": the distance shrinks. You know the near — here it becomes movement
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.
- พายุ เข้า ใกล้ ฝน จะ ตกпхааю као клай фон ча токThe storm is drawing near, the rain is about to fall
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 “to approach; to draw near” in Thai?
«เข้า ใกล้», read “као клай”. In a live sentence: “พายุ เข้า ใกล้ ฝน จะ ตก” — The storm is drawing near, the rain is about to fall. Verb, level B1; written with the characters เ, ข, ้, า, ใ, ก, ล, ้.
How is “เข้า ใกล้” written in Latin letters?
као клай. 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 "enter into near": the distance shrinks. You know the near — here it becomes movement. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.