Negation of identity (ไม่ใช่)

Negating Identity

In Thai, the verb เป็น means "to be" when linking a subject to a noun, such as a profession, a nationality, or a relationship. However, when you want to say that someone is not something, you cannot simply place ไม่ in front of เป็น.

Instead, negating an identity requires a completely different word: ไม่ใช่. The sentence structure is simply Subject + ไม่ใช่ + Noun.

Correcting Misunderstandings (แต่)

When you want to correct a misunderstanding, you will often state what someone is not, followed by what they actually are. You can connect these two ideas using the conjunction แต่ (but).

Because the second half of the sentence is a positive statement of identity, it goes back to using the standard verb เป็น. The structure becomes Subject + ไม่ใช่ + Noun + แต่ + เป็น + Noun.