Thai swear words and slang should be used very carefully only with close friends, or in other cases Thai slang should even be avoided altogether. Really, the most useful reason to know some Thai slang words is if you just want to understand what other people are saying. By all means though, the slang words given below for ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’ are positive words and harmless to use in everyday situations in Thailand.
Thai Slang
Wat dee – Hey
Bpen ngai – How’s it?
Arai wa – What the hell?
Mong arai wa – What the f*** are you looking at?
Sentence + wa – Particle (Among (male) friends – kind of adds laid back, cool vibe like ‘dude’ or ‘man’. Very rude to use with strangers though)
Raeng – Strong (Kind of like, ‘Harsh!’ or ‘Burn’ after an insult or brutal comment)
Chiw chiw – Chill out, take it easy, ‘it’s easy’
Jaab (High tone) – Awesome
Jeng (Rising tone) – Cool (Usually jeng jeng)
Jaew (Rising tone) – Cool (about people)
Rêrt – Cool, amazing (used by females)
Fin – Orgasmic, sexy (Lit. Finale) e.g. This cake is orgasmic ‘kaek fin’
Wôoe – Way too, very
Sut dtaen (Falling, mid tone) – Extremely, f***ing (E.g. Rawn sut dtaen – extremely/f***ing hot)
Koht (Falling tone) – Extremely (Same as above but not quite as offensive)
Hia (Falling tone) – F***ing, Bad (E.g. Aroi hia – f***ing tasty! Aai hia – bad person)
Cha nee – Pronoun for females (used by gay people kinda like ‘Hey bitch’, ‘Hey girl’ – lit. gibbon)
Poo ching – ‘Tranny’ or camp gay guy
Gig (High tone) – Secret lover, mistress
Dek naew (Low, mid tone) – Trendy kids (In a negative sense – troublesome, anti-social e.g. chav)
Dtao hua ngoo (Falling, rising, mid tone) – Dirty old man (Dtao = gae – old, ngoo – snake)
Jaao paw (Falling, falling tone) – Gangsta, mafia
Sip bpaet mong gut – Someone who decieves/ rips people off/ scams others for money
Neua hawm (High, rising tone) – Hot/ attractive person, popular
Jao choo (Falling, high tone) – Butterfly, Womaniser
Dtao lan bpee (Low, falling, mid tone) – Old fashioned, out of date
Som lon (Falling, low tone) – Unexpected fortune/ luck
Kee ngok (Falling, low tone) = Kee neeiw – Stingy
Bpon jai – To be unfaithful, disloyal
Nam Khan (Falling, mid tone) – Annoying (Farang nam khan is used to describe ‘ill-mannered’ or inconsiderate foreigners)
Mot dtoot (Low tone) – To be skint, broke
Aai kwai – Idiot, up yours
Dtaw lae (Mid, high tone) – Bullshit, liar (Usually repeated with ‘lae’ first being pronounced with a high tone, then rising tone second time)
Hee-ak (Low tone) – Bad, shit, terrible
Heng suay – Bad, shit
Loi toi (Rising, falling tone) – To suck, be rubbish