เสีย

Explanation

At its core, เสีย suggests that something has left its proper state, has been depleted, or is no longer possessed. This accounts for its wide range: รถเสีย means a car is out of order, อาหารเสีย means food has spoiled, เสียโอกาส means to lose an opportunity, and เสียเงิน can mean either to spend money or to lose it. Frequent combinations such as เสียใจ, เสียเวลา, and เสียหน้า are best learned as complete expressions. After a noun, เสีย can also describe something defective or unwanted, as in ของเสีย “waste” and น้ำเสีย “wastewater.” When เสีย follows another verb as a particle, its literal sense of loss largely disappears. Patterns such as เสียที, เสียด้วย, and เสียอีก function as set expressions. In casual speech, the command or emphasis particle เสีย is often pronounced and written ซะ.

Usage

เสีย is common in everyday situations involving broken machines, spoiled food, lost time or opportunities, damaged reputation, and the payment of fees or taxes. When discussing a person's death, เสียแล้ว may be used in a context where the meaning is already clear, while เสียชีวิต is common in news reports and explicit statements. As a particle, it appears in commands, encouragement, completion, and emphatic additions.

Caution

เสียเงิน can mean either paying money or losing money, depending on context. Use จ่ายเงิน when you simply mean “pay,” or เสียค่า– followed by the type of fee when naming a specific charge. เสีย is not normally a straightforward transitive verb meaning “break something.” โทรศัพท์เสีย means “the phone is broken,” while “I broke the phone” requires a causative construction such as ทำโทรศัพท์เสีย or ทำโทรศัพท์พัง. The particle เสีย does not correspond mechanically to a single English word such as “completely.” Its meaning depends on word order and fixed patterns, so expressions such as เสียที and เสียอีก should be learned as units.

1 break down synonyms

• บูด

  bùut (of food) go bad

  บูด specifically describes food, especially liquids or prepared food, turning sour or spoiled. เสีย has a wider range and also applies to broken equipment and general deterioration.

• พัง

  phaŋ break

  พัง means that something is broken or ruined and often sounds stronger and more conversational. เสีย is broader and is commonly used for malfunctioning equipment as well as spoiled food.

2 lose synonyms

• ขาดทุน

  khàatthun lose money

  ขาดทุน specifically means to make a financial loss in business or a transaction. เสีย can involve money but also covers losing time, opportunities, reputation, and much more.

• สูญเสีย

  สูญเสีย explicitly means to lose something significant and is more formal. เสีย is more common in everyday speech and appears in many fixed combinations such as เสียเวลา and เสียโอกาส.

3 pay synonyms

• จ่าย

  càay pay

  จ่าย neutrally refers to the act of paying, including bills, prices, and wages. เสีย presents the payment as a cost or burden incurred by the payer and commonly appears in the pattern เสียค่า–.

• ใช้

  cháy spend (money, time)

  ใช้ is the general verb for using resources such as money, time, or objects for a purpose. เสีย focuses more on the resource being spent, incurred as a cost, or lost.

4 pass away synonyms

• ตาย

  taay die

  ตาย is the basic, direct word for dying and can sound blunt when used about a person. เสีย is euphemistic; เสียชีวิต is the clearest and safest full expression.

• ถึงแก่กรรม

  ถึงแก่กรรม is a highly formal expression used in obituaries and official announcements. เสีย and especially เสียชีวิต are suitable across a broader range of conversation and news contexts.

5 completely; decisively [emphasis or completion] synonyms

• ซะ

  sá go ahead and do

  ซะ is the casual spoken form of this particle use of เสีย. It is very common in conversation, while เสีย is more likely in writing, careful speech, and fixed expressions such as เสียที and เสียด้วย.