clark_kent911
Hope you're still available for assistance:
I know there are two ways to order a dish in a Thai restaurant.......for example, พัดกะเพราลาดข้าว when you want your phatgrapao over rice.......and พัดกะเพราเป็นกับ when you want your phatgrapao separately (and usually a larger, more expensive portion).
I'm usually pretty good about dissecting a word (ผัด = fried กะเพรา = basil).....but I can't dissect เป็นกับ. Maybe I've got the spelling (เป็นกับ) wrong.
In short, my question is: how is it that เป็นกับ refers to a dish that's not served over rice?
Hope you can help. Thanks

sawasdee Bor Khun Clark Kent..
I am Kiwi in New Zealand, and girlfriend in Udon
we chat by email
we are building a house, and sometimes she doent understand inportant instructions and things I am talking about to her..
If I need you, can I PM you with my english email, and you translator into Thai, so then I can send to her?
Koopkun kap

I am so use to talking pigdin english its becoming the norm...oyiiiiiiiiiiii..
me have big tom tom..hahaha

To address Parrot's questions:

First of all, I correct the word Phad. Phad is written in Thai as ผัด (not พัด), the first consonant is Pho Phueng, not Pho Phan
ผ is in the group of high-level consonant and this consonant, ผ cannot be a final consonant in any words, always. 
We have 44 consonants in Thai, only 2 are not presently available for being used in any words, those are ฃ (Kho Khuad) and ฅ (Ko Kon) We have 3 level consonants in Thai, high, middle and low.
High level consonant composes of ข, ฉ, ถ, ผ, ฝ, ส, ห (Kho Khai, Cho Ching, Tho Thung, Pho Phueng, Fo Fa, So Sua and Ho Heeb)
Middle level composes of ก, จ, ด, ต, บ, ป, อ (Ko Kai, Cho Chan, Do Dek, To Tao, Bo Bai Mai, Po Pla, Or Ang)
Low level composes of those which are not in above 2 groups.

We back to the issue, Phadkaprao (ผัดกะเพรา , many Thai people write kaprao incorrectly, they write as กระเพรา, this is absolutely wrong. The correct one is as Parrot has written here. Other words which are written wrongly by Thai people are for examples: กะเทย (they write as กระเทย, meaning gay) กระทะ (they write as กะทะ, meaning frying pan):
When we have dishes with any street food vendors and make orders of Phadkaprao (pork, beef, shrimp, squid and other kinds of meat that can be cooked for Phadkaprao dishes), of course they (vendors) understand that we ask for rice with phadkaprao if we do not order for phadkaprao separately. So if we would like to take an order of phadkapra as a separate dish, we suppose to ask them as phadkaprao pen kab (ผัดกะเพราเป็นกับ, เป็นกับ means separate phadkaprao or phadkaprao without rice). เป็นกับ (penkab) is a generally used word (not official) to tell food vendors that we prefer a separate dish of food which is often come with rice, except Khao Pad (fried rice) which we cannot order Khao Pad (khao = rice, pad = fried) as a separate dish or penkab  . Pen Kab = as a dish, pen = as or “to be”, kab is a short form of kabkhao (dishes). Or another way, you can say is “phadkaprao mai ao khao” to notify vendors that you prefer a separate phadkaprao.
But when we have dishes at any food shops or restaurants and we order for a phadkaprao, I would say all of them (waiters/waitresses/food shop owners) suppose to be confirmed that we are ordering a separate dish of phadkaprao or phadkaprao with rice. So we would like to have a separate phadkaprao, we just say “phadkaprao mai ao khao” (phadkaprao without rice, mai ao = without) or “phadkaprao plao plao” (plao plao = no other things, khao plao = only rice or pain rice).

So from my clarification above, it depends on in where you are having dishes, either a street food vendor or a food shop/restaurant.

Note: ผัดกะเพราราดข้าว (padkaprao rad khao) not ผัดกะเพราลาดข้าว (padkaprao lad khao),
ราด means pouring or putting liquid things onto another thing,
ลาด means laying or paving or tilting, for example we lay a mattress on a floor.

To address Maaka's inquiries:

First, I correct your greeting words. Sawadee krub (สวัสดีครับ), you suppose to say this, not Sawasdee Bor. If you say Sawasdee bor, I guess you are saying/asking as Sabaidee Bor (how are you?, sabaidee = สบายดี, bor = บ่, a local Isan word, used when we would like to know anything, like sabaidee bor = how are you?, mee bor = Do you have'....?, mee = there is/are, you have, they have....).

Khob khub krub (ขอบคุณครับ= Thank you) , not koob kun kub.

You can drop me messages in this topic or directly email me at [email protected] or my skype line is somprata .
For long messages or urgent help, just go to my email address or Skype line.

Cheers,
Patrick.

ผัด = fried =

Patrick, thanks again for another detailed explanation. Very easy to understand. ขอบคุณครับ

Hi, I'm looking to learn thai. I'm from California, USA 67 y/o

Hello Joe Blow,

You can directly contact me via the given channels of mine which have been declared in the topic.

Hello Kun Patrick, I have a question about Thai language concerning time and detailing lengths of time that I would appreciate if you could answer (presuming this thread is still active). For example if I wanted to tell someone " I studied at Chiang Mai university for 3 years' How would i structure that in thai? 'Pom rian pasaa Thai tee mahawitiyalai Chiang Mai dtawn waylah sahm bpee"? Is how I would attempt to say an example sentence like that, but I'm not sure if that's how a Thai would speak. Please excuse my bad transliteration, I think everyone has their own different way, I can read thai script ok, just cannot write very well, so please feel free to write back using Thai characters.
Also for example, if one wanted to say something like "In 2 months' time (August) I will have lived in Udon Thani for 3 years' how could you say/write that in Thai? Muea eek sawng pbee teung laeo, Pom/Chan ja yoo tee Udon Thani sahm bpee laeo.
Again excuse my karaoke Thai. I struggle to understand how to say certain time related things like " i had a girlfriend for 2 years' as opposed to 'I had a girlfriend 2 years ago' including the examples above and would really appreciate if you enlighten me as to how a Thai would say it AND write it. Thanks very much

สวัสดีครับ คุณ Lesroyalflush (Sawadee Krub Khun Lesroyalflush, Hallo Herr Lesroyalflush),

I explain mainly in English so that everyone who is interested in my post can understand as well (I believe many of them do not speak Thai, I mean they are in the beginning phase). I also have Thai sentences whenever I think that they are more useful for others who are advanced than “green horses” of Thai language

Whenever you want to tell anyone that you used to do anything, we normally put “koey” (เคย, used to) after the subject of a sentence (for this case, I is the subject, it is like in English, I believe) or put “ laew” (แล้ว, already) at the end of a sentence, this is not like in English somehow, right? Because in English, there are verbs for present, past, present perfect, past perfect and so on (like other western languages, such as German/Deutsch, I am a beginner of Deutsch). But in Thai, we do not have present, past and so-on verbs. We just put a period of time in a sentence (mostly at the end) to specify an event of what we did, are doing, will, or have done and so on, so that our listeners can know when it happens (happened).

Back to your cases, you suppose to say:
“ผมเคยเรียนภาษาไทยที่มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่เป็นเวลา 3 ปีครับ (ค่ะ for female speakers)
(Pom Koey Rian Pasa Thai Tee Mahawittayalai Chiang Mai Phen Wala Sam Pee Krub (Ka for female speakers)).
(I used to study Thai language at Chiang Mai University for 3 years).

“ในอีก 2 เดือนข้างหน้า (สิงหาคม) ผมจะอยู่ในอุดรธานี เป็นเวลา 3 ปีแล้วครับ”
(In next 2 months, August, I will have been living in UTH for 3 years)
(Nai Eek Song Duean Khang Na (Singhakom), Pom Cha Yu Ni Udonthani Pen Wala Sam Pee Laew Krub)

“ผมเคยมีคนรัก (แฟน) เป็นเวลา 2 ปีครับ” = I had a girlfriend for 2 years.
(Pom Koey Mee KonRak Pen Wala Song Pee)
For this case, you had a girlfriend and dated or lived together for 2 years.
“ผมเคยมีคนรัก(แฟน) เมื่อ 2 ปีที่แล้ว” = I had a girlfriend 2 years ago.
(Pom Koey Mee KonRak Mua Song Pee Tee Laew).
For this case, you had a girlfriend and dated with her last 2 years.

Note: for many Thai people, they use แฟน (Fan) for our girl/boyfriends. Not as same as in English. For this word, แฟน, Thai people have borrowed from the English word, fan, but we mis-understood the real meaning from the first time, that’s why we have said “fan” (แฟน) for boy/girlfriend since then. Another word for boy/girlfriend and formally used is คนรัก (Konrak, kon = people, rak = love).
From 3 examples above, we can say that we do not have verbs/helping verbs to specify manners of time of what we do, did, will do or so on in Thai language, we just use adverbs (verbs are same in timing) in identify a time of an event.

Cha (จะ) is used for what we will do in the future.
Koey (เคย) or Laew (แล้ว) is used for what we did in the past.
Kamlang (กำลัง) is used for what we are doing. For example, Pom (Chan) Kamlang Aan NangSue Yu (ผมกำลังอ่านหนังสืออยู่ครับ, I am reading a book).
Aan = read
NangSue = book
Yu is used to identify more clearly, we do not need to say this word if we are doing something, we just say Kamlang, that’s enough.

PS. I will go to CMU (Chiang Mai Univ.) again this coming August to join the freshmen welcoming ceremony, the ceremony that older students take freshmen to Doi Suthep praying worship there. Yes, I am a CMU alumnus, graduated from engineering school there. We normally run and walk up from the university to Doi Suthep. You can probably join us if you have a chance.

Thanks, very clear explanations. I am a qualified TEFL teacher and we are told in our training that it is not necessary to speak a foreign language. This is quite wrong, of course, as any tools available for teaching should be used and if a teacher can use another language, so much the better.

I have had the misfortune to meet many Thai teachers of English who were very poor at the job. I think you should consider teaching both English and Thai professionally even if you are only able to work part time. Alternatively, and much easier, consider running a translation service.

Again, thank you. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

ขอบคุณมาก Khun Patrick, for a very clear, easy to understand answer on how to describe a time or period in Thai. CMU to Doi Suthep? I cycled up there once and I think that was more than enough for me! โชคดีครับ