Breakdown of ด้อยค่า คน อื่น แย่ มาก ครับ
ครับ
polite particle (male)
มาก
very / much, more
คน
person
แย่
bad / terrible
อื่น
other, another
ด้อยค่า
to belittle
Questions & Answers about ด้อยค่า คน อื่น แย่ มาก ครับ
Why doesn't the sentence start with การ (kan) to make "belittling" a noun?
This sentence uses zero-nominalization, which is exactly what you are learning! In formal written Thai, you would use การ to create การด้อยค่าคนอื่น (the act of belittling others). However, in spoken and casual Thai, we often drop การ entirely and use the bare action verb phrase directly as the subject.
What is the literal breakdown of the word ด้อยค่า (to belittle)?
It is a compound made of ด้อย (to be inferior, lesser) and ค่า (value, worth). Put together, it literally means "to lessen the value." It has become a very common and useful word in modern Thai to describe devaluing or disparaging someone.
Could I add the word มัน (it) into this sentence to say "Belittling others, it is very bad"?
Yes! It is extremely common in spoken Thai to say ด้อยค่าคนอื่น มันแย่มาก. This uses a topic-comment structure. The action (belittling others) is stated as the topic, and then มัน (it) acts as the subject for the adjective แย่มาก. Both versions are perfectly natural.
Why isn't there a word for "is" before แย่มาก?
As a quick refresher from earlier levels, Thai adjectives like แย่ (bad) act as stative verbs. They already contain the meaning of "to be." Even though the subject is a complex action phrase here, you still don't need to insert เป็น or คือ (to be) before the adjective.
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