Breakdown of ผม ยังไม่ เชิญ แขก ครับ
ครับ
polite particle (male)
ผม
I (male)
ยังไม่
not yet (used before verbs)
เชิญ
to invite
Questions & Answers about ผม ยังไม่ เชิญ แขก ครับ
Why is ยังไม่ placed before the verb เชิญ?
In Thai, ยังไม่ (yang mai - not yet) acts as a helper verb. It must go directly before the main action verb เชิญ (choen - to invite) to show that the action hasn't happened yet, but is expected to happen later.
Does the sentence have a word for "have"? The English translation says "have not yet invited."
No, Thai doesn't use a verb like "have" to create perfect tenses. The phrase ยังไม่ (yang mai) completely covers the meaning of "have not yet" all by itself. Adding the Thai word for "have" (มี) here would be grammatically incorrect.
Could I use ชวน instead of เชิญ for "invite" here?
You could, but เชิญ (choen) is much better here because it is a formal word used for officially inviting people to events. ชวน (chuan) is casual, like asking a buddy to grab lunch. Since you are talking about แขก (guests), the formal word fits best.
How do we know แขก means "guests" (plural) and not just one guest?
Thai nouns like แขก (khaek) don't have separate plural forms, so it can mean one guest or many depending on the situation. If you needed to specifically say "one guest", you would have to add the number and classifier after the noun: แขกหนึ่งคน (khaek nueng khon).