น้ำ
“น้ำ” (нам) — water in Thai. Noun, level A0, topic — food and drink. "Water" plain and water inside compounds: naam som — "water of an orange", juice. Drinking water in a cafe is naam plao, "plain water". In a live sentence: “ขอ น้ำ ครับ” — Water, please (a man says it). Written with the characters น, ้, ำ. One of 177 words in the set “food and drink” in the Thai course.
In short
| Written in Thai | น้ำ |
| Read in Latin letters | нам |
| Translation | water |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
"Water" plain and water inside compounds: naam som — "water of an orange", juice. Drinking water in a cafe is naam plao, "plain water"
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.
- ขอ น้ำ ครับкхо нам кхрапWater, please (a man says it)
Nearby words: food and drink
A menu, a market, a shop sign, the question “what is this?”. Food is the most frequent subject of the first weeks and the safest excuse to start talking.
- กาแฟкафэcoffeeThe word came from English coffee. In Thai you order it through kho — "I will take" — and asking for it "cooled" (yen) means asking for iced coffee
- ชาчаteaOne syllable that argues with chai, "yes": only the tone tells them apart. Thai tea is brewed with milk and sugar in advance — "plain tea" has to be asked for
- ขนม ปังкханом пангbreadLiterally "floury sweet" + pang, from the Portuguese pao: bread came to Siam with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The Thai table does not know bread — it is food on the run
- อาหารаханfoodFood in general, and the second half of the word "restaurant". "Appetizing" and "pungent" grow from the same root — the root of food is everywhere in Thai
- นมномmilkOne syllable. In a cafe "coffee with milk" is said with the verb "to put in": kafae sai nom — literally "coffee put milk"
- เนย แข็งнёй кхэнгcheeseLiterally "hard butter": there was no cheese in the Thai kitchen, and the name was assembled from what there was. Soft cheese is still called "butter"
- เนื้อныаmeatMeat in general, and beef in particular; pork is a separate word. The same syllable names fabric and the lyrics of a song — a long vowel and the tone decide
- ปลาплаfishA long "aa", a mid tone. In counting it takes the animal classifier: plaa nueng tua — "one fish", literally "one body"
- ผัก สลัดпхак салатsaladLiterally "vegetables-salad": the word is English, the vegetable part is Thai. Thai salad is sharper than the European kind — the dressing is the main thing, not the greens
- ซุปсупsoupA borrowing, like the soup plate in a Thai meal. The native soups are named differently: the famous tom yam is not sup but tom yam
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “food and drink”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “water” in Thai?
"Water" plain and water inside compounds: naam som — "water of an orange", juice. Drinking water in a cafe is naam plao, "plain water"
- How do you say “meat” in Thai?
Meat in general, and beef in particular; pork is a separate word. The same syllable names fabric and the lyrics of a song — a long vowel and the tone decide
- How do you say “bread” in Thai?
Literally "floury sweet" + pang, from the Portuguese pao: bread came to Siam with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The Thai table does not know bread — it is food on the run
- How do you say “soup” in Thai?
A borrowing, like the soup plate in a Thai meal. The native soups are named differently: the famous tom yam is not sup but tom yam
- How do you say “cheese” in Thai?
Literally "hard butter": there was no cheese in the Thai kitchen, and the name was assembled from what there was. Soft cheese is still called "butter"
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 “water” in Thai?
«น้ำ», read “нам”. In a live sentence: “ขอ น้ำ ครับ” — Water, please (a man says it). Noun, level A0, from the set “food and drink”; written with the characters น, ้, ำ.
How is “น้ำ” written in Latin letters?
нам. 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?
"Water" plain and water inside compounds: naam som — "water of an orange", juice. Drinking water in a cafe is naam plao, "plain water". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.