Similar to other languages, Thai language also has many prefixes and suffixes to create new words. Many of them come from Pali-Sanskrit or Khmer. To understand the meaning of prefixes and suffixes will help you to guess the meaning of new words easily.
Today we will talk about a few of them that refer to a person or people.
นัก /nág/: prefix
– A person who does it regularly, used with nouns or verbs.
Example:
- นักเรียน /nág-rian/ = person+study => student
- นักท่องเที่ยว /nág-tôrng-tiâw/ = person+travel => tourist, traveler
- นักคิด /nág-kíd/ = person+think => thinker
– A person who is good at doing this or do it as his/her job.
Example:
- นักข่าว /nág-kàaw/ = person+news => news reports, journalist
- นักดนตรี /nág-don-dtree/ = person+music => musician
- นักกีฬา /nág-gee-laa/ = person+sport => athlete, sportsman
- นักเขียน /nág-kiăn/ = person+write => writer, author
- นักบิน /nág-bin/ = person+fly => pilot
ผู้ /pôo/: prefix
– A person, used with nouns, verbs or adjectives, to create a new noun.
Example:
- ผู้หญิง /pôo-yĭng/ = person+female => lady, woman
- ผู้ป่วย /pôo-bpuày/ = person+sick => patient
- ผู้ชาย /pôo-chaay/ = person+male => man
- ผู้ใหญ่ /pôo-yài/ = person+big => adult, chief
- ผู้จัดการ /pôo-jàd-gaan/ = person+manager => manager
Sometimes you might even hear people say นักเรียน /nág-rian/ and ผู้เรียน /pôo-rian/. What’s the different?
When we say นักเรียน /nág-rian/, we are talking about students in general. We say ผู้เรียน /pôo-rian/ to specify a group of students.
If you see the word in the introduction of a textbook, it refers to students who use this book particularly. If you see the word in a leaflet of a school, it refers to students who study there.
Although we use ‘นัก’ /nág/ more often when talking about occupations, some words might created by the prefix ‘ผู้’ /pôo/, such as ผู้จัดการ /pôo-jàd-gaan/ manager, ผู้กำกับการแสดงภาพยนตร์ /pôo-gam-gàb-gaan-sà-daeng pàab-pà-yon/ film director, ผู้พิพากษา /pôo-pí-pàag-săa/ judge, etc.
กร /gorn/: suffix
– A doer used as a suffix of Pali-Sanskrit compound words.
- กรรมกร /gam-ma-gorn/ = work+doer => worker, laborer
- เกษตรกร /gà-sèd-dtrà-gorn/ = field/land/farm+doer => farmer
- วิศวกร /wíd-sà-wà-gorn/ = whole+doer/creator => engineer
These three words can mean something else as well but they commonly refer to ‘a person’ when we use them as a prefix or a suffix.
Do you know any other words with นัก /nág/, ผู้ /pôo/ or กร /gorn/?
Thai Lessons: บทเรียนภาษาไทย 