Thai royal words or คำราชาศัพท์ (raa-chaa sàp) can be difficult even for Thais themselves because it is not used in everyday conversation.
There are 3 cases in which we use royal words:
- We use it when talking about the royal family
- When talking about Jesus as written in the bible or Buddha as written in Tripitaka.
- When sarcastically implying that someone behaves like a royal family (aka. a rich and spoiled person)
I remember that I had to memorize these words when I was in grade 2. After a test, I forgot all of them but thanks to the 8 pm royal news that cuts right in between Thai’s night-time movies, I started remembering the more used words. There are movies that use royal vocabs such as พระนเรศวร (prá ná-ray-sŭan) and a few movies on Netflix that can help you learn these words.
I have filtered out the most common words that I hear in the news and that I have read because I believe that the one that I don’t know, you don’t really need to know :P.
Let’s get started!!!
Common Royal Verbs
| ทอดพระเนตร (tôt prá nâyt) | to see |
| พระราชทาน (prá rât cha taan) | to give |
| เสด็จ (sà-dèt) | to go |
| ประทับ (bprà-táp) | to sit |
| โปรด (bpròht) | to like |
| ประชวร (bprà-chuan) | to be sick |
| เสวย (sà-wŏie) | to eat |
| บรรทม (ban-tom) | to sleep |
| สรงน้ำ (sŏng náam) | to take a shower |
| เสด็จประพาส (sà-dèt bprà-pâat) | to travel |
| พระราชปุจฉา (prá râat bpùt-chăa) | to ask |
| ทรงเครื่อง (song krêuang) | to dress up |
| ทรงพระครรภ์ (song prá kan) | to be pregnant |
| บรรทม (ban-tom) | to sleep |
| ต้องพระราชประสงค์ (dtông prá râat-chá-bprà-sŏng) | to want to get |
| ทรงพระสรวล (song prá sŭan) | to laugh |
Royal words for body parts
| พระเกศา (prá gay-săa) | hair |
| พระอุทร (prá ù-ton) | stomach |
| พระนาสิก (prá naa-sìk) | nose |
| พระทนต์ (prá ton) | tooth |
| พระทรวง (prá suang) | chest |
| พระกรรณ (prá gan) | ear |
| พระชิวหา (prá chiw-hăa) | tongue |
| พระบาท (prá-bàat) | foot |
| พระโอษฐ์ (prá òht) | mouth |
| พระพักตร์ (prá pák) | face |
| พระเนตร (prá nâyt) | eye |
Nouns
The are many royal words that are nouns. Here I will only give you the few that are important. The full list is too big and useless. Even for Thais, it’s totally acceptable to use the normal word instead of the royal word if you don’t know.
| ฉลองพระบาท (chà-lŏng prá-bàat) | shoe |
| ฉลองพระองค์ (chà-lŏng prá ong) | tops |
| พระกระยาหาร (prá grà-yaa-hăan) | rice |
| พระแท่นบรรทม (prá tâen ban-tom) | bed |
As long as kings and royalties continue to exist in Thailand, the Thai language will continue to have these royal vocabularies as an important part of the Thai language.
I encourage you to learn them to recognize them so that when you hear someone say these honorifics or vocabs you will understand. And if you hear them, don’t be shy to ask people around you for the meaning.