Breakdown of นั่น กระเป๋า ของ ใคร ครับ
ครับ
polite particle (male)
นั่น
that
ของ
of (belonging to)
ใคร
who
กระเป๋า
bag
Questions & Answers about นั่น กระเป๋า ของ ใคร ครับ
How do you express "whose" in Thai, since I only see the words for "of" and "who"?
You are spot on! In Thai, "whose" is literally built by saying "of who". You take the possessive marker ของ (of/belonging to) and add the question word ใคร (who) to make ของใคร (whose).
Why isn't there a verb for "is" in this sentence?
Thai frequently leaves out the verb "to be" (like is, am, or are) when connecting a pointing word like นั่น (that) directly to a noun. Instead of saying "That is whose bag?", Thai simply says นั่น (That) กระเป๋า (bag) ของใคร (of who).
In English we say "whose bag", so why does the Thai sentence put the bag first (กระเป๋า ของ ใคร)?
Thai word order is the reverse of English when it comes to descriptions and possession. The main noun always comes first. So you start with กระเป๋า (bag) and then describe whose it is with the possessive phrase ของใคร (of who).
I learned that นั้น means "that". Why is it spelled นั่น in this sentence?
It depends on how the word is used! นั่น (with a falling tone) is a pronoun meaning "that thing" and is used as the subject, like "That is a bag". นั้น (with a high tone) is a modifier that comes after a noun to point out a specific object, like "that bag". Since "That" is the subject here, we use นั่น.
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