พระ เอก
“พระ เอก” (пхра ээк) — main character (of a film) in Thai. Phrase, level A2. Literally "venerable chief": the hero of a film and a series. In a book it is the chief-body you know — cinema names the same person more reverently. In a live sentence: “พระ เอก แพ้ ตอน ต้น ชนะ ตอน จบ” — The main character loses at first and wins at the end. Written with the characters พ, ร, ะ, เ, อ, ก.
In short
| Written in Thai | พระ เอก |
| Read in Latin letters | пхра ээк |
| Translation | main character (of a film) |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "venerable chief": the hero of a film and a series. In a book it is the chief-body you know — cinema names the same person more reverently
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.
- พระ เอก แพ้ ตอน ต้น ชนะ ตอน จบпхра ээк пхэ тон тон чана тон джопThe main character loses at first and wins at the end
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 “main character (of a film)” in Thai?
«พระ เอก», read “пхра ээк”. In a live sentence: “พระ เอก แพ้ ตอน ต้น ชนะ ตอน จบ” — The main character loses at first and wins at the end. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters พ, ร, ะ, เ, อ, ก.
How is “พระ เอก” written in Latin letters?
пхра ээк. 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 "venerable chief": the hero of a film and a series. In a book it is the chief-body you know — cinema names the same person more reverently. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.