When you have a strong feeling you just want to say “I don’t care anymore”, “let it go!”, or “F*** it”. How would you say it in Thai?
Here we will learn 3 different intensity in expressing just that.
#1 ช่าง! (châang)
This is a one-word expression which means ‘let it go’, ‘don’t bother caring’, ‘don’t care about it’. Depending on the context you can be talking about your emotion or you can use this word as a piece of advice or command for other people to ‘forget it’. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Example:
- Let it go, don’t care
ช่าง! อย่าไปแคร์
châang · yàa bpai kae
#2 ช่างมัน! (châang man)
มัน means ‘it’. We usually use the word ‘it’ with animals or things. Therefore, when used with people it will always give a bad connotation. So in this context. You can be trying to fix your phone but after it still doesn’t work. If your friend wants to tell you to just let it go and buy another one he would say
- เฮ้ย ไม่ต้องซ่อมแล้ว ช่างมัน ค่อยไปซื้อใหม่เอา
hóie · mâi dtông sôm láew · châang man · kôi bpai séu mài ao
Hey, don’t fix it anymore. Let it go, later go buy a new one
Let’s say there’s a taxi driver that is overcharging you since you are a foreigner. It’s been 10 minutes talking and it’s just a 3 dollars extra he is charging you. Your friend doesn’t want to waste time with that stupid driver anymore. He would probably say:
- เออ จ่ายไป ช่างมัน ให้มันไป
er · jàai bpai · châang man · hâi man bpai
Just pay, forget it, give it to him
#3 ช่างหัวมัน! (châang hŭa man)
Are you ready for “I don’t give a f***”? lol. This truly is a bad word so make sure you are well trained in Muay Thai since you might get into a fight.
The word หัว hŭa means head. Thai people really respect the head. What does that mean? You should be extremely careful when you touch Thai people’s heads because it can be considered very rude and they might get offended. Instead of showing how much you like that person (by touching head in some culture), you risk offending other people.
Looking at this context. ช่างหัวมัน (châang hŭa man) literally means ‘don’t give a s*** about his head’ leads to very negative meaning. Let’s take a look at some examples.
Examples:
- Screw him, whether he is living, dead, bad or good, I don’t care anymore.
ช่างหัวมันเหอะ มันจะเป็นตายร้ายดียังไง ก็ช่างมัน
châang hŭa man hùh · man jà bpen dtaai ráai dee yang ngai · gôr châang man - The rabbit that I raise is sick. It’s about to die. What should I do? Should I just not care about it?
กระต่ายที่เลี้ยงป่วย จะตายแล้ว ทำไงดี ช่างหัวมันดีปะ
grà-dtàai têe líang bpùay · jà dtaai láew · tam ngai dee · châang hŭa man dee bpà
I hope you now know how to express that you don’t care about something anymore in Thai or F**k it in Thai. Be careful when using these phrases!