Breakdown of ผม อยาก จดจำ คำศัพท์ ทีละ คำ ครับ
ครับ
polite particle (male)
ผม
I (male)
อยาก
to want to
คำ
the word
จดจำ
to memorize (to remember, commit to memory)
คำศัพท์
vocabulary
ทีละ
at a time / by (e.g., one by one)
Questions & Answers about ผม อยาก จดจำ คำศัพท์ ทีละ คำ ครับ
How exactly does ทีละ work in this sentence to mean "word by word"?
The word ทีละ means "at a time" or "by". It is used to show a step-by-step action and is placed directly before a classifier, noun, or quantity. In this sentence, it sits before คำ, which is the classifier for words. Together, ทีละ คำ literally means "a word at a time" or "word by word".
I already know the word จำ for "to remember". Why use จดจำ here?
While จำ simply means "to remember", จดจำ implies a more deliberate, active effort to commit something to memory. จด on its own means "to take notes" or "to jot down". Combining them into จดจำ gives the feeling of actively studying and absorbing information, which is perfect for memorizing vocabulary.
Why do we have both คำศัพท์ and คำ in the same sentence? Aren't they the same thing?
They are related but serve different grammatical roles here. คำศัพท์ is the general noun meaning "vocabulary" or "glossary". The second คำ acts as the classifier (measure word) for words. When using ทีละ, you must follow it with the specific classifier for the noun you are breaking down, which is why คำ is used after ทีละ.
Doesn't ทีละ mean "one at a time"? Why isn't the number one (หนึ่ง) in the sentence?
When you mean "one [item] at a time", the number หนึ่ง (one) is naturally implied and almost always dropped in everyday Thai. You only need to add a number if the step is larger than one, such as ทีละ สอง คำ (two words at a time). Because there is no number here, ทีละ คำ automatically means exactly one word at a time.
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