น้ำ ยา ล้าง จาน
“น้ำ ยา ล้าง จาน” (нам йа лаанг чаан) — dish soap; detergent in Thai. Noun, level A1. Literally "liquid-medicine for washing dishes": yaa, "medicine", you know — Thai calls household chemicals with it too. The laundry liquid is assembled the same way. In a live sentence: “ล้าง จาน ด้วย น้ำ ยา ล้าง จาน” — Wash the dishes with dish soap. Written with the characters น, ้, ำ, ย, า, ล, ้, า, ง, จ, า, น. A word from the everyday Thai course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Thai | น้ำ ยา ล้าง จาน |
| Read in Latin letters | нам йа лаанг чаан |
| Translation | dish soap; detergent |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "liquid-medicine for washing dishes": yaa, "medicine", you know — Thai calls household chemicals with it too. The laundry liquid is assembled the same way
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.
- ล้าง จาน ด้วย น้ำ ยา ล้าง จานлаанг чаан дыай нам йа лаанг чаанWash the dishes with dish soap
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 “dish soap; detergent” in Thai?
«น้ำ ยา ล้าง จาน», read “нам йа лаанг чаан”. In a live sentence: “ล้าง จาน ด้วย น้ำ ยา ล้าง จาน” — Wash the dishes with dish soap. Noun, level A1; written with the characters น, ้, ำ, ย, า, ล, ้, า, ง, จ, า, น.
How is “น้ำ ยา ล้าง จาน” written in Latin letters?
нам йа лаанг чаан. 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 "liquid-medicine for washing dishes": yaa, "medicine", you know — Thai calls household chemicals with it too. The laundry liquid is assembled the same way. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.