Questions & Answers about พวก มัน กิน นก ครับ
The translation says 'They', but I thought we used เขา for 'they'. Why is it พวกมัน here?
มัน means 'it' and is used for animals and things. The word พวก is a prefix that makes pronouns plural. So พวกมัน means 'they' but specifically for animals or objects, whereas พวกเขา would be 'they' for people.
How do we know นก means 'birds' and not just 'a bird'?
Thai nouns don't change to become plural. The word นก can mean 'a bird' or 'birds' depending on the context. Since this sentence states a general fact about an animal's diet, we translate it as the plural 'birds' in English.
If we were already talking about these animals, would we still need to say พวกมัน?
Not necessarily! Thai is a 'zero-pronoun' language, meaning you can drop the subject entirely if the context is clear. If you were already discussing the animals, you could simply say กินนกครับ.
Why is the polite word ครับ used if we are talking about animals?
Polite particles like ครับ (for male speakers) or ค่ะ (for female speakers) reflect your relationship with the listener, not the subject of the sentence. You add it to be polite to whoever you are speaking to, even if you are talking about animals.