ถูก กว่า
“ถูก กว่า” (тхук кваа) — cheaper in Thai. Adverb, level A2. You know the word as "correct" — Thais speak of "cheap" with the same word. The place in the phrase tells them apart: before a price it is the wallet's joy. In a live sentence: “ที่ ตลาด ถูก กว่า” — At the market it is cheaper. Written with the characters ถ, ู, ก, ก, ว, ่, า. A word from the everyday Thai course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Thai | ถูก กว่า |
| Read in Latin letters | тхук кваа |
| Translation | cheaper |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
You know the word as "correct" — Thais speak of "cheap" with the same word. The place in the phrase tells them apart: before a price it is the wallet's joy
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.
- ที่ ตลาด ถูก กว่าти талат тхук квааAt the market it is cheaper
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 “cheaper” in Thai?
«ถูก กว่า», read “тхук кваа”. In a live sentence: “ที่ ตลาด ถูก กว่า” — At the market it is cheaper. Adverb, level A2; written with the characters ถ, ู, ก, ก, ว, ่, า.
How is “ถูก กว่า” written in Latin letters?
тхук кваа. 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?
You know the word as "correct" — Thais speak of "cheap" with the same word. The place in the phrase tells them apart: before a price it is the wallet's joy. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.