อะไร
what
A native Thai recording for this word is on the way. Please check back soon.
- 1 what
- 2 something、anything、whatever
This basic word refers to an unidentified thing, action, or piece of information. It commonly asks “what,” and in certain patterns it can mean “something,” “anything,” or “whatever.”
what
Asks for the identity, content, kind, or nature of an unknown thing or action.
-
ทำอะไรอยู่ tham aray yùu What are you doing? ทำอะไรอยู่ details
-
คุณชื่ออะไร khun chʉ̂ʉ aray What is your name? คุณชื่ออะไร details
Show more (1)
-
คุณอยากกินอะไร khun yàak kin aray What do you want to eat? คุณอยากกินอะไร details
something、anything、whatever
Refers to an unspecified thing when used with words such as negatives, ก็ได้, or ไหม.
-
อยากกินอะไรไหม yàak kin aray mǎy Would you like something to eat? อยากกินอะไรไหม details
-
ไม่เห็นอะไร mây hěn aray I can't see anything. ไม่เห็นอะไร details
Show more (1)
-
อะไรก็ได้ aray kɔ̂ɔ dâay Anything is fine. อะไรก็ได้ details
Learning notes
Explanation
The core idea of อะไร is an object, action, identity, kind, or piece of information that has not yet been identified. Thai question words do not normally have to move to the beginning of a sentence. อะไร usually stays where the answer would appear. For example, กินข้าว means “eat rice/a meal,” while กินอะไร asks “eat what?” After a noun, it can ask about a kind or category, as in อาหารอะไร “what kind of food” and ภาษาอะไร “what language.” Meanings such as “something,” “anything,” and “whatever” come from the full construction rather than from อะไร alone. อะไรก็ได้ means “anything is fine,” ไม่มีอะไร means “there is nothing,” อะไรไหม can refer to “something,” and อะไรบ้าง asks for one or more items or kinds. The repeated form อะไร ๆ broadly refers to various things or “this and that.”
Usage
อะไร is extremely common in everyday questions about an object's identity, a person's actions, preferences, names, categories, and choices. It is useful when asking about an unfamiliar item, what someone wants to eat, what someone is doing, or what language is being used. It also occurs frequently in standard patterns such as อะไรก็ได้ “anything is fine,” ไม่มีอะไร “nothing” or “it's nothing,” and มีอะไรบ้าง “what is available?”
Caution
Do not automatically place อะไร at the beginning of a question; normally put it where the missing information belongs. To ask “why,” use ทำไม rather than อะไร. “Anything is fine” is อะไรก็ได้, not อะไรได้. A sharply spoken อะไร? or the casual อะไรเนี่ย can sound annoyed or confrontational. For a polite request to repeat something, use อะไรนะครับ or อะไรนะคะ.
Differences from similar words
1 what synonyms
-
ไหน asks “which one” from an understood set of choices. อะไร asks what something is or what its content is.