ไล่ ตาม
“ไล่ ตาม” (лай таам) — to chase; to catch up in Thai. Verb, level A1. Lai is to chase, tam is after: to run after someone in order to catch up. To truly catch up is tham than, a word you already took. Lai's tone falls. In a live sentence: “หมา ไล่ ตาม แมว” — The dog is chasing the cat. Written with the characters ไ, ล, ่, ต, า, ม. A word from the everyday Thai course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Thai | ไล่ ตาม |
| Read in Latin letters | лай таам |
| Translation | to chase; to catch up |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Lai is to chase, tam is after: to run after someone in order to catch up. To truly catch up is tham than, a word you already took. Lai's tone falls
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.
- หมา ไล่ ตาม แมวмаа лай таам мэоThe dog is chasing the cat
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 chase; to catch up” in Thai?
«ไล่ ตาม», read “лай таам”. In a live sentence: “หมา ไล่ ตาม แมว” — The dog is chasing the cat. Verb, level A1; written with the characters ไ, ล, ่, ต, า, ม.
How is “ไล่ ตาม” written in Latin letters?
лай таам. 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?
Lai is to chase, tam is after: to run after someone in order to catch up. To truly catch up is tham than, a word you already took. Lai's tone falls. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.