นัก กีฬา
“นัก กีฬา” (нак килаа) — athlete; sportsman in Thai. Noun, level A2. Literally "scholar of sport": the sport is yours already. Anyone who plays seriously is this word already, even in the yard. In a live sentence: “นัก กีฬา วิ่ง ทุก เช้า” — The athlete runs every morning. Written with the characters น, ก, ก, ี, ฬ, า. A word from the everyday Thai course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Thai | นัก กีฬา |
| Read in Latin letters | нак килаа |
| Translation | athlete; sportsman |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "scholar of sport": the sport is yours already. Anyone who plays seriously is this word already, even in the yard
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.
- นัก กีฬา วิ่ง ทุก เช้าнак килаа винг тхук чаоThe athlete runs every morning
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 “athlete; sportsman” in Thai?
«นัก กีฬา», read “нак килаа”. In a live sentence: “นัก กีฬา วิ่ง ทุก เช้า” — The athlete runs every morning. Noun, level A2; written with the characters น, ก, ก, ี, ฬ, า.
How is “นัก กีฬา” written in Latin letters?
нак килаа. 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 "scholar of sport": the sport is yours already. Anyone who plays seriously is this word already, even in the yard. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.