Mastering the use of การ kan and ความ khwam to Expand Your Thai Vocab by Stu Jay Raj

There aren't many sentences in Thai that don't contain the word / particle การ 'kan' or ความ 'khwam'. These two particles have meanings of their own, but can also be considered your Swiss Army Knife of nouns in Thai. You can take almost any word or concept and add one of these babies to them and customize that concept into a noun of your liking.
I also explain why การ is spelled with an 'r' at the end but pronounced 'n' and look at where this word creeps up in other places outside of Thai.
If you have any questions or video requests, drop me a line via my website at stujay.com
Enjoy
Stuart Jay Raj - เจ - 王懷樂

[@StuartJayRaj]

The Thai word to work is 'ngan' งาน - but you might often hear Thais say ทำงาน ทำการ tam ngan tam kan - where 'การ' has the meaning of 'official actions that need to be done'. I have another video out there that's on my youtube channel about pronouncing NG at the beginning of a syllable that might help.

[@jimilite]

fantastic. Thank you

[@karolchorvat5850]

Dear Mr. Jay Raj, there is no doubt you are the perfect example and inspiration for us (farangs) it´s possible to learn thai language (or any language). Of course not to your extend and level :) I admire you very much (actually the most) and I believe you could be helpful to us (learners)... Only.......... I don´t know who do you address your videos to? I have been learning Thai language already 3rd year ( unfortunatelly only as autodidact, so my source is internet only), but your videos are toooooo complicated for me. Excuse me my boldness - my words don´t want to be any kind of criticism - I just think the PERSON as you are (I mean so highly educated and moreover farang) could help us much more, because you completely understand our troubles with learnig thai language. Many thai teachers here on KZbin are very good, but they can´t understand so well what we (farangs) need... I hope I didn´t offend you with my comment. If so - I beg your pardon. It could happened only because of my poor knowledge of English.

[@StuartJayRaj]

The plan is to get all my stuff together and put a series of books out. Really want to run some workshops back home in BKK over the next few months - I've just arrived back in Oz, but should be back over there in a few weeks. I will keep you posted if anything on. Great to hear that you've gotten something from the clips!

[@StuartJayRaj]

No. การ (kaan) is very different to กัน (kan) ... I've spelt them differently here in this comment to emphasise the point. The first one is a long vowel and the second is a short vowel. Also, there is no such sound as 'G' in Thai ... and while I sometimes write G and J in some places, it's technically wrong - ก is a non plosive 'k'. The word กัน gan as in ด้วยกัน duaygan means 'reciprocal' / 'one another'. It can also mean to protect.

[@StuartJayRaj]

The word กำลัง literally means 'power' or 'energy' being exerted and it puts a verb into present continuous ผมกำลังกินข้าวอยู่ - I am EATIING (in the process of eating) .. the อยู่- yoo at the end hooks in with the kamlang for that present continuous pattern. Thanks for the question - I will do a clip on these words.

[@StuartJayRaj]

하다 and する kind of do the opposite - they turn words such as nouns into verbs ... but it's similar in that they are particles that can be applied to one class of word to turn them into another.

[@SadethCheng]

In Khmer, ការ (ka), which is spelled with ក (kâ), ា (sra [vowel] aa) and រ (rô) [silent in modern Khmer]), also means action or a state of a verb. We also commonly use it to mean "work" as well.

[@StuartJayRaj]

I will let you know. I could be doing it mid-June

[@StuartJayRaj]

Maybe it's a good opportunity to get into Thai!

[@marcopolo3001]

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Heisenberg of Language Aquisition!

[@billyboyles]

This is a Great lesson...really insightful ... thank you

[@StuartJayRaj]

I'm in a video making frenzy at the moment... so hopefully more coming in the next few days :)

[@criskity]

ความ seems to be something like 性 in Chinese... a quality or attribute, a "-ness".

[@amjan]

I have no idea about Thai (though I've learned Japanese and a little Chinese, so I'm not a complete stranger to asian languages), but I'm fascinated by this. It feels like watching a tutorial on a language from a different planet.

[@proofreader4584]

it would be nice if you put all of these types of words 'naa' 'kwaam' 'gaan' 'gam lang' 'pra' 'tum' etc etc. If I could master these words it might help just as much as interrogative words do.

[@remnant888]

Just what i needed...

[@StuartJayRaj]

YES! ... except its used in a much broader sense.

[@lennyleapsin5477]

Hi Aajaan Stu. How did you learn the hundreds of different Thai words?

[@magneticlanguagesofudon5499]

very informative Jay. I've begun to see these particles, now that I can read Thai a little, all over the place, they seem to ubiquitous in Thai.

[@christopheclugston]

Yes, give expected dates and times in BKK

[@mulberry1967]

Thank you, this was exactly what l wanted to know !

[@205executive]

Why is the consonant ไก่ gɔɔ-gài romanised as a letter K. It always sounds like the letter G. Letter G as in the word ‘Gary’. (Not in the English word ‘George’ which clearly sounds like the letter J) Also the Thai word Kwaam to my mind simply means ‘the state of’ eg the State of enjoy -happiness (ความสุข kwaam-sùk)

[@StuartJayRaj]

I actually did a clip on this very question - kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGa7XpaDZsiWm7M

[@zencat]

Wow, what an awesome vid! Thanks to 'Women Learning Thai' for linking to this on Facebook!

[@SeintDirk]

Great Teaching. ^^ İ'm a thai person.

[@LaurenzoFang]

very informative video :) thanks so much for the video :)

[@aguy1888]

Thanks a bunch , Stu Jay Raj .

[@Payu89]

Action or ing words are verbs. Which made your explanation very confusing to me

[@StuartJayRaj]

:)

[@NadaSouSou-SK]

🙏

[@takforalt]

Stu, I am so glad that you are making vids again. I hope you will continue making them. Will you be giving any lectures/talks/appearances/classes etc in Thailand? I live in Phuket and would not want to miss an opportunity to see you. Will you write a book on learning Thai? It is so fantastic to learn Thai in the context of its etymology. You got me thinking of learning Sanskrit and Chinese now! And the Sanskrit ties-in with my mother's language Lithuanian Wow! I want to learn that too! Thank you

[@damned1313]

Stu, thank you for making this awesome video so fast. This is a big step in getting me from good intermediate to upper intermediate and advanced. Having things explained by a native English speaking person helps so much. Huge fan.

[@pda4613]

Wow you presented this smoothly. I am just starting to learn Thai. ขอบคุณมากนะครับ 🙏

[@oofeewise]

:( now i feel sucky watching this