More English words that are easy to confuse.
Birth/ berth.
The noun birth refers to how childbearing happens and babies enter the world. It can also mean more generally any beginning or origin of something. A berth may be a place to sleep on a train. In the world of ships and sailing, a berth is a place where there is enough empty room to anchor a ship. The expression keeping a wide berth, meaning staying safely away from something, derives from this sense of the word.
Samitiyei Hospital is currently the only hospital in the Kingdom that offers natural and water birth.
Three days after birth, the Lon Dek Nai Kadon ritual (rock the cradle in which a new born baby is sleeping) is observed.
In Thai trains, first class sleeping-cars are modern and air-conditioned, with lockable 2-berth compartments with washbasin.
In second class Pullman cars, each berth gets its own reading light, pillow, blanket, and a fresh set of sheets.
Most carriers have their vessels berth at the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT), a state corporation responsible for the regulation and governance of the Kingdom’s ports.
Break/ brake.
Break is a verb meaning to separate into pieces. A break can also mean some time off from studies or work. The word brake refers to something that slows or stops something that is moving.
Thai Industrial Brake Co. offers services and products include servicing of brakes, clutches of all kinds for industrial machinery, brake pump parts, brake motor hoists, and cranes of all kinds.
The weak economy in Thailand is putting a brake on used-car sales.
If you’re looking for hotel deals in Chiang Mai for short stays, the short breaks special offers a host of indulgent rewards such as dining and spa discounts.
Old Chiang Mai Cultural Center provides a nice break from the city’s traffic.
The Coffee Break café is located in Aranyaprathet, a town in Sa Kaeo Province in eastern Thailand.
In the video, an Australian Muay Thai fighter breaks his leg after his kick is checked.
Censure/ censor.
To censure is to criticize, blame, or accuse someone of doing something wrong. Another verb, to censor, means to remove something that may be found offensive, indiscreet, or otherwise unacceptable. Censor is also the noun used for the person who does this job of censoring.
In Ayutthaya from 1640 to 1720, Christian proselytization proceeded in Siam in a way that had been censured previously.
In Thai language, dek deuu (เด็กดื้อ) means a stubborn child, a term of censure for young people.
In the Kingdom, censors were especially strict during the World War II and Sarit Thanarat’s rule from 1959 to 1963.
Pridi Banomyong helped shape Thailand’s modern political history, despite attempts in the 1930s to censor his writings.
Cereal/ serial.
A grain eaten as food, cereal has different varieties, including wheat and maize. Cereal is also the noun for the food eaten at breakfast, made from some kind of grain. As an adjective, serial means something that is happening as part of a series one after another. A serials librarian is another term for a periodicals librarian responsible for acquiring, organizing, preserving, and cataloguing periodicals. Generally, a serial publication refers to anything that appears in separate parts, numbered or dated, without a fixed final number having been announced beforehand.
The author’s grief at her husband’s sudden death turned to anger after discovering that he had been a serial adulterer.
In Thailand today, the law upholds the practice of serial monogamy, but the marrying partners must not be insane at the time of marriage.
Charles Sobhraj is a French serial killer of Vietnamese and Indian origin who preyed on Western tourists throughout Southeast Asia during the 1970s.
A friend in Thailand requests that I bring General Mills Plain Wheat Chex cereal when I go, as he can’t find any in Bangkok.
Bacterial, fungal, and aflatoxin contamination of cereals and cereal products in Bangkok is a matter of concern.
Chord/ cord.
A chord is a group of three or more notes which are played at the same time. Cord is a gathering of thin, flexible pieces of string or rope into a thicker strand. For this reason, we call the spinal cord the bundles of nerves that link the brain to the back in the human body.
A prospective study of 83 patients with spinal cord injuries admitted to the Spinal Unit, Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, from January 1997 to December 2000 would measure the effectiveness of inpatients rehabilitation for spinal cord patients.
As a Bangkok traffic policeman, Phichet Wisetchoke carries the usual sheaf of tickets, a mask to repel smog, and a tiny umbilical-cord clamp.
The Thai chef said that food from the older generation is better, stronger. To get the tastes that strike a deep chord rather than superficial tastes that you get with modern food is exciting. Like a complex musical chord, Thai food must have a smooth surface, no matter what is happening underneath.
Course/ coarse.
There are many practical uses for the English word course. As all students and ajarns known, a course is a group of classes. If your English is not good enough, your ajarn may suggest that you take a remedial course. In some restaurants, different parts of the meal are described as courses, such as the appetizer course or dessert course. At hospitals, a course of treatment tries to cure patients of diseases. Course can also describe the path of a race, as when the course of a marathon race passes by your street. People who enjoy betting on horses are often found at the racecourse and avid golfers always wish they were at the golf course. The reason that a golf course has this name has to do with the etymology of the word. It derives from an old French word meaning running, and so it always involves some kind of movement, or getting from one place to another. Although it may seem boring to watch someone play golf on television, in fact people move on the golf course, from one challenge to the next. Although the English word coarse has similar origins, it has a very different meaning.
Coarse means not refined, or of poor quality. If you are trying to sell Thai silk that is coarse in texture, you do not have a good product. It suggests a texture that is rough, blunt, thick, or unpolished. It can even be used for suggesting rudeness or bad behavior as in coarse language or coarse manners. Although coarse is not always a negative word, it can have negative meanings, so it is especially important to remember the difference between it and course.
The Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School offers five fine mouth-watering courses for you to choose from.
Thailand Tattoo School offers outstanding tattoo training courses.
When cooking Thai green curry with chicken, you need a coarse chili paste but don’t worry if it doesn’t look very green.
Gaeng Pah (Jungle Curry) is a truly coarse rustic dish, with red curry spices but none of the smoothness of the coconut milk.
Compliment/ complement.
To give a compliment is a polite way of saying something nice about someone or something.
People like to be commended, congratulated or praised, especially if the compliment is sincere. If someone is complimentary to you, it means they want to praise you. If something is complimentary, that means it is offered free of charge, like a complimentary glass of wine at a restaurant. The word complement can be used as a noun or a verb, meaning something that completes or goes naturally with something else.
Mango salad is a great complement to pad thai.
Luk pra kob (herbal compresses) are often used to complement Thai massage treatments.
Beginning courses in Thai language often teach farang students how to compliment people and things with such words as Suăy-jāng (สวยจัง), Lὸr-jāng (หล่อจัง), and Nâa-rág-jāng (น่ารักจัง).
Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel, Bangkok, provides 24-hour complimentary airport shuttle van service from gate 4 at the terminal.
(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).