There are no tenses in Thai like in English. Students always ask me: “if there are no equivalent tenses in Thai, how do we express the meaning we want to convey?”.
The answer is that although there are no tenses like in English there are few ways to express the past tense with the help of a few words and context.
First, let’s take a look at the English meaning of Past simple tense.
Completed action in the past
Here the simple past tense is used to express an action that started and finished already in the past. It can be one action or series of actions. In Thai, the “past tense” is indicated thanks to the time words (yesterday, last year, last month, etc).
- Yesterday, I went to school.
เนเธกเธทเนเธญเธงเธฒเธ เธเธฑเธเนเธเนเธฃเธเนเธฃเธตเธขเธ
mรชua waan ยท chฤn bpai rohng rian - Last year, I traveled to Colombia.
เธเธตเธเนเธญเธเธเธฑเธเนเธเนเธเธตเนเธขเธงเธเธฃเธฐเนเธเธจเนเธเธฅเธฑเธกเนเธเธตเธข
bpee gรฒn chฤn bpai tรฎeow bprร -tรขyt koh-lam-bia - Last time I saw you, you were so still young.
เธเธฃเธฑเนเธเธเนเธญเธเธเธตเนเนเธเธญเธเธฑเธเธขเธฑเธเนเธเนเธเนเธญเธขเธนเนเนเธฅเธข
krรกng gรฒn tรชe jer gan yang dรจk dรจk yรฒo loie - Last month I bought a phone, packed it, and sent it to Thailand.
เนเธเธทเธญเธเธเนเธญเธเธเธฑเธเธเธทเนเธญเธกเธทเธญเธเธทเธญ เนเธเนเธเนเธชเนเธเธฅเนเธญเธเนเธฅเนเธงเธเนเธชเนเธเนเธเธเธฃเธฐเนเธเธจเนเธเธข
deuan gรฒn chฤn sรฉu meu tฤu ยท pรฉk sร i glรฒng lรกew gรดr sรฒng bpai bprร -tรขyt tai
In English, even if the speaker doesn’t state the exact time (though he/she has one specific time in mind), we can know that it’s in the past thanks to the tenses. But in Thai, we won’t know unless you use the word เนเธฅเนเธง which mean “already”
- I took a bath
เธญเธฒเธเธเนเธณเนเธฅเนเธง
ร ap nรกam lรกew - I finished my homework
เธเธณเธเธฒเธฃเธเนเธฒเธเนเธชเธฃเนเธเนเธฅเนเธง
tam gaan bรขan sรจt lรกew - I understood what you are saying
เธเธฑเธเนเธเนเธฒเธเธฑเธเธชเธดเนเธเธเธตเนเธเธธเธเธเธนเธเนเธฅเนเธง
chฤn kรขo chฤn sรฌng tรชe kun pรดot lรกew - I already washed the dishes, cleaned the house, and put the kids to bed.
เธเธฑเธเธฅเนเธฒเธเธเธฒเธ เธเธณเธเธงเธฒเธกเธชเธฐเธญเธฒเธเธเนเธฒเธ เนเธฅเนเธงเธเน เธชเนเธเธฅเธนเธเนเนเธเนเธฒเธเธญเธเนเธฅเนเธง
chฤn lรกang jaan ยท tam kwaam sร -ร at bรขan lรกew gรดr sรฒng lรดok lรดok kรขo non lรกew
Duration in the past
Simple past tense can be used to talk about a duration which started and finished in the past. Here ‘duration’ indicates an event that is longer than an ‘action’. In English, this is often expressed such as for five years, for 10 minutes, all night, all day, all year, etc.
In Thai, we often use the word เนเธเธข (koie) to talk about past experiences. เนเธเธข is often translated to ‘used to’, ‘have been’ etc. By adding the word like …เธเธตเนเนเธฅเนเธง tee lรกew (…ago, …before) and เนเธฅเนเธง lรกew (already) we can express the past tense.
- I lived in Brazil for two years.
เธเธฑเธเนเธเธขเธญเธขเธนเนเธเธฃเธฐเนเธเธจเธเธฃเธฒเธเธดเธฅ 2 เธเธต
chฤn koie yรฒo bprร -tรขyt braa-sin sลng bpee - I worked for 2 years here 10 years ago.
10 เธเธตเธเธตเนเนเธฅเนเธง เธเธฑเธเนเธเธขเธเธณเธเธฒเธเธเธตเนเธเธตเน 2 เธเธต
sรฌp ยท bpee-tรชe-lรกew ยท chฤn koie tam ngaan tรชe nรชe - I waited for you 10 minutes already.
เธเธฑเธเธฃเธญเนเธเธญ 10 เธเธฒเธเธตเนเธฅเนเธง
chฤn ror ter ยท sรฌp ยท naa-tee lรกew
Past habits
Simple past tense is used when talking about past habits such as “I learned guitar when I was young”. This is an equivalent to “used to”. Therefore you can also say “I used to learn guitar when I was young”.
As mentioned previously in the last section, เนเธเธข (koie) is equivalent to “used to, have been” and can be used when talking about past experiences.
- I used to learn guitar when I was young.
เธเธญเธเนเธเนเธเนเธเธฑเธเนเธเธขเนเธฃเธตเธขเธเธเธตเธเนเธฒ
dton dรจk dรจk chฤn koie rian gee dtรขa - In the past, I used to play piano.
เนเธกเธทเนเธญเธเนเธญเธเนเธเธขเนเธฅเนเธเนเธเธตเธขเนเธ
mรชua gรฒn koie lรขyn bpia noh - I have never been to school (= I never used to go to school).
เธเธฑเธเนเธกเนเนเธเธขเนเธเนเธฃเธเนเธฃเธตเธขเธ
chฤn mรขi koie bpai rohng rian - Sometime ago she used to work in a hospital
เนเธกเธทเนเธญเธเนเธญเธเนเธเธญเนเธเธขเธเธณเธเธฒเธเนเธเนเธฃเธเธเธขเธฒเธเธฒเธฅ
mรชua gรฒn ter koie tam ngaan nai rohng pรก-yaa-baan
To summarize, notice how in English, words have the “ed” at the end (“finished”, “washed”), or change from “go” to “went”, etc to indicate the past.
In Thai, the words never change. You just add words to indicate what you are trying to say. For example, including the date to indicate when it happened in the past, เนเธฅเนเธง lรกew – meaning already, เนเธเธข koie meaning “used to”, “have been”, etc.
I hope you now understand the past tense in Thai language.
To learn about active voice and passive voice, please check out my article.
