Rainy Days
How to say “it’s raining cats and dogs” in Thai?
There was so much rain in Chiang Mai lately. So today I would like to talk about different raining phrases.
The phrase “it’s raining” in Thai is…
“fǒn-tòk” (ฝนตก).
“fǒn” (ฝน) means “rain” as a noun and “tòk” means to fall. So when we translate “fǒn-tòk” (ฝนตก) directly it is “rain falls”. That makes sense, doesn’t it?
If the rain is just light rain, drizzle or a shower, in Thai we say…
“fǒn-tòk-proy-proy” (ฝนตกปรอย ๆ).
And when it’s heavy rain, in Thai we say…
“fǒn-tòk-nàk” (ฝนตกหนัก).
The word “nàk” (หนัก) means “heavy”.
Once it has been raining for a while and it won’t stop raining, in Thai we say…
“fǒn-tòk-mâi-yùt” (ฝนตกไม่หยุด).
The word “mâi” (ไม่) means “no or not” and “yùt” (หยุด) means “to stop”.
And if you want to express that it’s raining cats and dogs, you can say…
“fǒn-tòk-mâi-leum-hǔu-leum-taa” (ฝนตกไม่ลืมหูลืมตา).
The pharse “mâi-leum-hǔu-leum-taa” (ไม่ลืมหูลืมตา) means “heavily or blind faith”. It won’t make sense if you translate it directly because it will mean “not forget ears forget eyes”.
Once it sprinkles rain after heavy rain, it is called…
“fǒn-saa” (ฝนซา)
And when the rain stops, we say…
fǒn-yùt-tòk (ฝนหยุดตก)
After the rain, if some place has a drainage flood which in Thai we say
“nám-khǎng” (น้ำขัง)
And if it rains so much that it floods, in Thai we say…
“nám-thûam” (น้ำท่วม).
I hope all those words and phrases will be useful for you. Now, take a guess for me.
Do you know how to say “It isn’t raining.” in Thai?
If you know, please write in the comment below.
