เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน
“เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน” (тао рап май тхам нган) — the socket does not work in Thai. Phrase, level A1. Tao rap is a socket, literally "a socket that receives" the plug; mai tham ngan — not working — both words you know. In a live sentence: “เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน ใน ครัว” — The socket in the kitchen does not work. Written with the characters เ, ต, ้, า, ร, บ, ไ, ม, ่, ท, ำ, ง…
In short
| Written in Thai | เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน |
| Read in Latin letters | тао рап май тхам нган |
| Translation | the socket does not work |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Tao rap is a socket, literally "a socket that receives" the plug; mai tham ngan — not working — both words 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.
- เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน ใน ครัวтао рап май тхам нган наи кхруаThe socket in the kitchen does not work
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 “the socket does not work” in Thai?
«เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน», read “тао рап май тхам нган”. In a live sentence: “เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน ใน ครัว” — The socket in the kitchen does not work. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters เ, ต, ้, า, ร, บ, ไ, ม, ่, ท, ำ, ง…
How is “เต้า รับ ไม่ ทำ งาน” written in Latin letters?
тао рап май тхам нган. 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?
Tao rap is a socket, literally "a socket that receives" the plug; mai tham ngan — not working — both words 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.