B Level 2.8: Days in Thailand

Study Focus: Days

• The names for the days of the week all begin with the word for "day," วัน (wan).

• The names all come from Sanskrit and are based on the names of gods who rule over various planets.

• In Thai tradition, each day is also associated with a hue depending on the perceived color of the planet that rules it.

• We use วัน (wan) in many compound words related to days.

  • วันธรรมดา (wan-tham-má-daa) means a "regular day" or an ordinary weekday that isn't a holiday of any sort.

  • วันหยุด (wan-yùt), literally a "stop-day." It refers to a Sunday or a national holiday when work stops and schools, banks, and offices are closed.

  • The word for "birthday" is วันเกิด (wan-gòoet).

• The majority of religions have specific holy days, such as Sunday for Christianity.

  • In Buddhism, however, the days for regular special observances follow the lunar calendar and occur on various days of the week each month.

  • Every month, there are four of these observance days, which occur on the full moon, new moon, and each half moon. We call these days วันพระ (wan-phrá) in Thai.

  • To say "weekend" in Thai, you just combine the words for "Saturday" and "Sunday" to form the term เสาร์อาทิตย์ (sǎo-aa-thít).

    • เสาร์อาทิตย์จะไปกรุงเทพ (sǎo-aa-thít jà bpai grung-thêep)

      ➤ "I'm going to Bangkok for the weekend."

• Finally, we have the system for giving the date in Thai, which consists of the word for "day," วัน (wan), followed by an ordinal number. We form the ordinal numbers with the preposition ที่ (thîi) followed by a number.

  • วันที่เจ็ดเป็นวันหยุด (wan thîi jèt bpen wan-yùt)

    ➤ "The seventh is a holiday."

Vocabulary & Phrases

• กี่... (gìi...)

  • We use this word to ask "how many?" with countable objects.

  • กี่ (gìi) is always directly followed by a classifier.

  • If there is a noun that goes with the classifier, we place กี่ (gìi) after the noun and before the classifier.

  • มีกี่คน (mii gìi khon) ➤ "How many people?"

  • มีเด็กกี่คน (mii dèk gìi khon) ➤ "How many children?"

• วันที่เท่าไหร่ (wan thîi thâo-rài)

  • We use this expression to ask "what date?"

  • This phrase literally translates as "day-which-how much?"

  • เท่าไหร่ (thâo-rài) means "how much?" so when asking for the date in Thai you are really requesting a number value.

  • Thai people will usually understand from the context whether you need to know the name of the month as well, such as when asking somebody when his or her birthday is.

• วันที่... (wan thîi*...*)

  • When stating the date, begin with วันที่ (wan thîi) and follow this with the number of the date.

  • You might remember that ที่ (thîi) before a number makes an ordinal number.

  • So if the date is the sixth, then in Thai we'd say วันที่หก (wan thîi hòk), which is literally "the sixth day."

• วันอะไร (wan à-rai)

  • If you want to know which day of the week instead of which date, then you use วันอะไร (wan à-rai), which is literally "What day?"

  • The answer to this question would have to be the name of one of the days of the week.

What You Need to Know about the Thai Days of the Week

• The western custom of naming the days of the week after the sun, moon, and five visible planets is borrowed from India.

• There is a hue connected with each day in Thailand.

• Sunday is the color red, Monday is the color yellow, Tuesday is the color pink, Wednesday is the color green, Thursday is the color orange, Friday is the color blue, and Saturday is the color purple.

• At some companies, it is customary to wear apparel corresponding to the day of the week. Thus, even men must wear pink shirts on Tuesdays.

• Particularly common in temples is a row of Buddha statues, each shown in a different attitude for each day of the week.

• Thais enjoy accumulating virtue by delivering candles, incense, and flowers to the Buddha picture reflecting their birth day.