Evaluative Verbs: นับว่า and ถือว่า
When discussing formal classifications, milestones, or scientific observations, you will often need to state what something is "considered" or "regarded as". Thai uses two primary evaluative verbs for this: นับว่า and ถือว่า.
นับว่า literally translates to "counts as" or "is considered". It can be placed directly before a stative verb (adjective) to state an evaluation.
If you are evaluating something as a noun phrase, you must add the copular verb เป็น (to be) immediately after นับว่า.
ถือว่า operates identically. It translates to "to hold that" or "is regarded as". Like the previous verb, it can precede a stative verb, a noun phrase (paired with เป็น), or even introduce an entire clause.
Expressing Change: ขึ้น and ลง
To describe changing states, such as the progression of evolution or fluctuating statistics, Thai places directional words immediately after verbs or adjectives. Use ขึ้น (up) to indicate an increase or becoming more of a quality, and ลง (down) to indicate a decrease.
The Unexpected Outcome: กลับ
When a scientific finding or historical event contradicts expectations, you can express "unexpectedly" or "on the contrary" using the auxiliary word กลับ. It is placed directly before the verb in the surprising clause. Because it introduces a contrast, it almost always follows แต่ (but).
You can also add แทน (instead) at the end of the sentence to further emphasize that the unexpected outcome replaced the expected one.
Categorizing with อะไรพวกนี้
When giving examples of periods, animals, or scientific groups, you can neatly summarize the list by adding the colloquial phrase อะไรพวกนี้ ("things like this" or "stuff like this") immediately after the nouns.