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/?