แทบ ไม่ พอ
“แทบ ไม่ พอ” (тхэп май пхо) — barely enough; running short in Thai. Phrase, level B1. Literally "almost not enough": time and money right to the edge. The particle intensifies the negation — "hardly". In a live sentence: “เว ลา แทบ ไม่ พอ ต้อง ไป เลย” — Time is running short — we must go right now. Written with the characters แ, ท, บ, ไ, ม, ่, พ, อ. A word from the everyday Thai course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Thai | แทบ ไม่ พอ |
| Read in Latin letters | тхэп май пхо |
| Translation | barely enough; running short |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "almost not enough": time and money right to the edge. The particle intensifies the negation — "hardly"
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.
- เว ลา แทบ ไม่ พอ ต้อง ไป เลยве лаа тхэп май пхо тонг пай лёйTime is running short — we must go right now
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 “barely enough; running short” in Thai?
«แทบ ไม่ พอ», read “тхэп май пхо”. In a live sentence: “เว ลา แทบ ไม่ พอ ต้อง ไป เลย” — Time is running short — we must go right now. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters แ, ท, บ, ไ, ม, ่, พ, อ.
How is “แทบ ไม่ พอ” written in Latin letters?
тхэп май пхо. 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 "almost not enough": time and money right to the edge. The particle intensifies the negation — "hardly". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.