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Questions & Answers about นี่ หนังสือ ค่ะ
Why isn't there a word for 'is' in this sentence?
In spoken Thai, you can often drop the verb 'to be' when pointing something out. Saying นี่ หนังสือ literally translates to 'This [is a] book'. You could also use the verb คือ and say นี่คือหนังสือ to explicitly include the word for 'is', but leaving it out is very natural and common in everyday speech.
Could I use นี้ instead of นี่ for 'this'?
Not in this exact structure. นี่ acts as a pronoun meaning 'this thing' or 'this is'. The other word, นี้, is a descriptive word and must come directly after a noun, like in หนังสือนี้ (this book). Because we are saying 'This is...', we must use the pronoun นี่.
I've seen the female particle spelled as both คะ and ค่ะ. Why is it ค่ะ here?
The spelling and tone change based on the type of sentence! ค่ะ is used for statements and answers, just like this sentence. The other spelling, คะ, is used when asking questions.
If a man wanted to say this sentence, what would he change?
A male speaker would simply swap the female polite particle ค่ะ for the male polite particle ครับ, making the sentence นี่ หนังสือ ครับ.