ยิ้ม
“ยิ้ม” (йим) — to smile in Thai. Verb, level A1. One word both for "to smile" and "smile!". It does not argue with "borrow" by ear — the tone and the consonant class differ. In a live sentence: “เขา ยิ้ม ให้ ผม” — He smiles at me. Written with the characters ย, ิ, ้, ม. A word from the everyday Thai course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Thai | ยิ้ม |
| Read in Latin letters | йим |
| Translation | to smile |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
One word both for "to smile" and "smile!". It does not argue with "borrow" by ear — the tone and the consonant class differ
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.
- เขา ยิ้ม ให้ ผมкхао йим хай пхомHe smiles at me
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 “to smile” in Thai?
«ยิ้ม», read “йим”. In a live sentence: “เขา ยิ้ม ให้ ผม” — He smiles at me. Verb, level A1; written with the characters ย, ิ, ้, ม.
How is “ยิ้ม” written in Latin letters?
йим. 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?
One word both for "to smile" and "smile!". It does not argue with "borrow" by ear — the tone and the consonant class differ. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.