Sports and hobbiesto paddle, to row; a paddle verb
- paai mid
- Mid: level, in your normal speaking voice.
You'll hear it in Thai Alphabet Song (ก เอ๋ย ก ไก่).
How to use it
พายpaai is to paddle or row, and พายเรือpaai ruea, paddle a boat, is how vendors get around the floating markets. The paddle itself is a ไม้พายmáai paai, a paddle stick. In the alphabet song, the letter รraw is a boat paddling along: รเรือพายไปraw ruea paai bpai.
The same spelling, with the same flat tone, is also pie, from English: พายสับปะรดpaai sàp-bpà-rót is a pineapple pie.
Other spellings you'll see
There's no single official way to write Thai in English letters. We mark the tone of every syllable; online you'll also find:
- phaai
- pai ruea
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More sports and hobbies in Thai
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Written by the Learn Thai For Free team
Audio: AI voices, quality-checked for tones