กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้
“กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้” (клуа ваа май даай) — I am afraid not in Thai. Phrase, level B1. Literally "afraid that cannot": the fear and the that — both yours. A refusal Thai serves with regret — the fear of upsetting matters more than the error itself. In a live sentence: “กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้ ครับ” — I am afraid not. Written with the characters ก, ล, ว, ว, ่, า, ไ, ม, ่, ไ, ด, ้.
In short
| Written in Thai | กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้ |
| Read in Latin letters | клуа ваа май даай |
| Translation | I am afraid not |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "afraid that cannot": the fear and the that — both yours. A refusal Thai serves with regret — the fear of upsetting matters more than the error itself
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.
- กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้ ครับклуа ваа май даай кхрапI am afraid not
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 “I am afraid not” in Thai?
«กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้», read “клуа ваа май даай”. In a live sentence: “กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้ ครับ” — I am afraid not. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ก, ล, ว, ว, ่, า, ไ, ม, ่, ไ, ด, ้.
How is “กลัว ว่า ไม่ ได้” written in Latin letters?
клуа ваа май даай. 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 "afraid that cannot": the fear and the that — both yours. A refusal Thai serves with regret — the fear of upsetting matters more than the error itself. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.