ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย
“ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย” (пхуу тонг сонг сай) — suspect in Thai. Noun, level B1. Literally "person liable to doubt": a whole formula of three familiar parts. In the news this is the first word about any case — before the court nobody is called guilty. In a live sentence: “ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย ไม่ พูด” — The suspect does not speak. Written with the characters ผ, ู, ้, ต, ้, อ, ง, ส, ง, ส, ย.
In short
| Written in Thai | ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย |
| Read in Latin letters | пхуу тонг сонг сай |
| Translation | suspect |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "person liable to doubt": a whole formula of three familiar parts. In the news this is the first word about any case — before the court nobody is called guilty
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.
- ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย ไม่ พูดпхуу тонг сонг сай май пхуытThe suspect does not speak
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 “suspect” in Thai?
«ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย», read “пхуу тонг сонг сай”. In a live sentence: “ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย ไม่ พูด” — The suspect does not speak. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ผ, ู, ้, ต, ้, อ, ง, ส, ง, ส, ย.
How is “ผู้ ต้อง สง สัย” written in Latin letters?
пхуу тонг сонг сай. 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 "person liable to doubt": a whole formula of three familiar parts. In the news this is the first word about any case — before the court nobody is called guilty. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.