22. 'Though many Thai consonants have similar—sounding counterparts in English, there are differences in the details of pronunciation.' For details, see Noss, pp. 10-14.
II. Problems of Sentence Structure
23. In the way they are put together, even the simplest Thai sentences bear little resemblance to their English counterparts. True, the subject does ordinarily come before the predicate, as in English, and the verb does stand before its object, but almost everything else is different. The following are nine of the differences that cause English speakers the most trouble.
24. (a) Every English statement must have a subject, even if the subject is only a personal pronoun (I, etc.)
In Thai, the subject may be omitted if no ambiguity would result:
| jùu | (He)'s in. |
| rɔ́ɔn mɑ̂ɑk | (It)'s very hot. |
| dii máj | Is it good? |
| chɔ̂ɔp mɑ̂j | Do (you) like it? |
| mâj sâɑp | (I) don't know. |
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