ตำ นาน
“ตำ นาน” (там наан) — legend; chronicle in Thai. Noun, level B1. A tale of the past handed down generation to generation: an old legend takes the old before it. A fairy tale is the other word, which you know. In a live sentence: “ตำ นาน เก่า ของ หมู่ บ้าน นี้ ยาว มาก” — The old legend of this village is very long. Written with the characters ต, ำ, น, า, น. A word from the everyday Thai course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Thai | ตำ นาน |
| Read in Latin letters | там наан |
| Translation | legend; chronicle |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
A tale of the past handed down generation to generation: an old legend takes the old before it. A fairy tale is the other word, which you know
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.
- ตำ นาน เก่า ของ หมู่ บ้าน นี้ ยาว มากтам наан гао кхонг муу бан ний йао макThe old legend of this village is very long
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 “legend; chronicle” in Thai?
«ตำ นาน», read “там наан”. In a live sentence: “ตำ นาน เก่า ของ หมู่ บ้าน นี้ ยาว มาก” — The old legend of this village is very long. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ต, ำ, น, า, น.
How is “ตำ นาน” written in Latin letters?
там наан. 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?
A tale of the past handed down generation to generation: an old legend takes the old before it. A fairy tale is the other word, which you know. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.