Breakdown of พ่อ ขยัน แต่ ลูก ขี้เกียจ ค่ะ
ค่ะ
polite particle (female)
พ่อ
father
แต่
but
ลูก
child (offspring)
ขยัน
hardworking
ขี้เกียจ
lazy
Questions & Answers about พ่อ ขยัน แต่ ลูก ขี้เกียจ ค่ะ
Why is there no Thai word for "is" in this sentence?
In Thai, adjectives like ขยัน (hardworking) and ขี้เกียจ (lazy) act as verbs themselves. You don't need a word for "to be" (like เป็น or คือ) before them. You simply say "Father hardworking" instead of "Father is hardworking".
How exactly does แต่ work to connect these phrases?
แต่ (but) works just like it does in English! It connects two contrasting statements. You simply put it right between the two complete ideas: [Statement 1] + แต่ + [Statement 2].
The translation says "child". Could I use เด็ก instead of ลูก here?
Not in this context! เด็ก refers to a child by age (a young person in general). ลูก means "offspring" or someone's son/daughter. Because we are talking about a father (พ่อ) and his child, ลูก is the right word to show their family relationship.
The word for lazy is ขี้เกียจ. Does the ขี้ part mean something on its own?
Yes, on its own ขี้ literally means poop or waste! However, it is very commonly used as a prefix to describe negative habits, personality traits, or tendencies. Here, it creates a word meaning "having the habit of being lazy".
If the sentence has two parts connected by แต่, why is the polite particle ค่ะ only at the very end?
You only need to use a polite particle once per spoken sentence, right at the end. Placing ค่ะ at the very end makes the entire statement polite, covering both the part before แต่ and the part after it.
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