Word
เขา มี หมา ดำ ครับ
Meaning
He has a black dog.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of เขา มี หมา ดำ ครับ
ครับ
polite particle (male)
หมา
dog
เขา
he, she, they
มี
to have / there is / there are
Questions & Answers about เขา มี หมา ดำ ครับ
Why is it หมา ดำ (dog black) instead of ดำ หมา (black dog)?
In English, we put the describing word (adjective) before the noun. In Thai, it's the exact opposite! Describing words come after the noun they describe. So "black dog" translates directly to หมา (dog) followed by ดำ (black).
How do we know it means "a black dog" when there's no word for "a" or "one"?
Thai doesn't use articles like "a", "an", or "the". The word หมา just represents the general concept of a dog. Because Thai also doesn't change nouns to make them plural, เขา มี หมา ดำ could actually mean "He has a black dog" or "He has black dogs". We just figure it out from context!
If I want to say "she has a black dog", do I change เขา to a different word?
You don't have to! เขา is a very flexible pronoun that can mean "he", "she", or "they". The translation says "he" here, but if you were already talking about a woman, เขา มี หมา ดำ perfectly translates to "she has a black dog".
I'm a woman. Can I say this exact sentence?
Almost! You would need to change the very last word. ครับ is a polite particle used by male speakers. If you are female, you should swap it to your polite particle, ค่ะ, and say เขา มี หมา ดำ ค่ะ.