When I was young, ‘you deserve it’ was one of my favorite phrases that I used every day with my brother. The word is

สมน้ำหน้า (sŏm nám nâa)

Many times this phrase is shortened to สม (sŏm).

You can memorize the whole phrase as a fixed phrase for ‘you deserve it’. However, here I will break it down for you hoping that you will learn some extra words for this phrase.

สม (sŏm) means “to be suitable”. It came from the word เหมาะสม (mòr sŏm) which is the full word for “to be appropriate”.

น้ำ (nám) means water.

หน้า (nâa) means face.

To be very literal: what happened to you is suitable for water on your face.

Don’t ask me why it’s like that. I think it’s just one of these strange expressions that exist in a language. Just accept as it is and have fun using it.

By the way for those advanced learners or musicians, there’s a song on youtube titled “สมน้ำหน้า“. Have fun listening. You can find the lyrics in the description of the video.

Take care and have fun telling people You deserve it in Thai!