Breakdown of แม่ค้า มี ลูกค้า หลาย คน ค่ะ
ค่ะ
polite particle (female)
มี
to have / there is / there are
คน
person
ลูกค้า
customer
แม่ค้า
female seller
หลาย
many / several
Questions & Answers about แม่ค้า มี ลูกค้า หลาย คน ค่ะ
How does the word order for "many customers" work here?
This sentence uses the pattern for plural quantifiers: Noun + หลาย (many/several) + Classifier. To say "many customers", you say ลูกค้า (customer) + หลาย + คน (classifier for people). In Thai, you cannot just put the word for "many" directly next to the noun.
Both แม่ค้า (seller) and ลูกค้า (customer) end in ค้า. What does this mean?
ค้า means "to trade" or "to do business". แม่ค้า pairs it with แม่ (mother/woman) to mean a female merchant. ลูกค้า pairs it with ลูก (child), which is also used as a prefix for people receiving a service or belonging to a group, giving us "customer".
If the translation is "customers", why doesn't the word ลูกค้า change to show it's plural?
Thai nouns never change their form to become plural. The plural meaning is entirely handled by the context—in this case, by adding หลาย คน (many + classifier for people) right after the noun.
Is the polite particle ค่ะ used at the end because the seller is a woman?
No, polite particles like ค่ะ always match the gender of the speaker, not the subject of the sentence. The ค่ะ here simply tells us that the person saying this sentence is female, regardless of the fact that the seller (แม่ค้า) is also female.
Learn แม่ค้า มี ลูกค้า หลาย คน ค่ะ and more in Thai
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free