So you have just arrived and you are struck by the resplendent beauty of its geography and people. However you are probably wondering how to communicate when you are in Laos. You want to to ask questions and speak with everyone to find out as much about the culture as possible. However as usual, the language barrier has raised its annoying barricade and blocked you out from finding out anything or even knowing what is going on.
You want to push past this barrier and interact with people to understand Laos a bit more. You may have just finished a long boat journey and be desperate to use the toilet but no one speaks a word of English and so you you suffer in silence. They are also many other more important reasons for wanting to speak a bit of the lingo, such as being allergic to certain foods.
For example, MSG is used in almost everything that is cooked here (except for some Western and exclusive Lao restaurants), and pretty much all street food. If you are allergic to this, it can make your life and holiday somewhat more difficult which in turn can ruin an experience of a lifetime.
So we here at Elephant Village have decided to give you a run through of some basic phrases that you can use in everyday situations. I will start by giving some of the more commonly used phrases such as directions and locations etc and break it down into other situations like food, travel, numbers, money, shops etc.
Bare in mind that this will be a long list so I will break it down into 2 parts, the other to come soon! If you want to find out a bit more about about this wonderful country, we recommend checking out this article about the Lao language.
Here we will just describe some basic phrases to help your trip here a bit easier, so check out that link and find out all kinds of interesting information.
Also it should be said that this list is for everyone to use, not just people coming to visit us or booking a tour, so please share it to everyone that you know is coming to Laos so it can help to make life a bit easier!
Note: It is very difficult to romanticize Asian languages because of their tonal nature and use of certain sounds that we do not use so often. However this will be as close as possible to how I think they sound, and I will also include examples of English words so that you can get an idea of how they are pronounced.
How to communicate in Laos…
Numbers
1 (one) – neung pronounced nuhng, the ng at the end sounds like the end of the word SONG
2 (two) – song pronounced as in English
3 (three) – sam pronounced as in English
4 (four) – sii pronounced as sea
5 (five) – ha like ha ha ha or laughing. (Actually if you ever get a text sms from a Lao person, instead of the Western LOL, they will use 555 because it sounds like laughing!)
6 (six) – hok
7 (seven) – jet
8 (eight) – bpaed
9 (nine) – gao pronounced like Chairman Mao, but with a G
10 (ten) – sip
11 (eleven) – sip ett
12 (twelve) – sip song
13 (thirteen) – sip sam
…
20 (twenty) – sao
21 (twenty one) – sao ett
22 (twenty two) – sao song
…
30 (thirty) – sam sip
31 (thirty one) – sam sip ett
…
40 (forty) – sii sip
50 (fifty) – ha sip
60 – hok sip
70 – jet sip
80 – bpaed sip
90 – gao sip
100 – loi
1000 – pan
10,000 – sip pan
100,000 – saen
The pattern is essentially when you get to the 10’s of units, you are saying 60 as six tens and the teens like 16 as 10 and 6. There is a pattern and you will really pick the numbers up fairly quickly if you remember it.
Greetings
Hello
Goodbye
Thank you
How are you?
I am well, how about you?
What is your name?
My name is ...
How old are you?
I am ... years old
Sabaidii
Bpai gon
Khop chai
Sabaidii baw?
Sabaidii, jao day?
Jao suu nyang?
Khoi suu ...
Jao jak pii?
Khoi...pii
Shopping
What is this?
How much is this?
Do you have this in ... colour?
Red
Blue
White
Black
Orange
Brown
Purple
Yellow
Green
Are you open / closed?
An ni mean nyang?
An ni tao dai?
Mii sii...baw?
Deng
Faa
Khao
Dam
Somme
Nam-taan
Muang
Leuang
Khiaw
Han jao burt / bit baw?
Accommodation
How much per / for...?
Night
Week
Month
Three nights
That is too expensive!
Can you lower the price?
Can I / we look at the room?
I / we will stay ... night/s, thank you
...tao dai? (The amount of time comes before the question)
Kheun-la
Aa-thit-la
Duen-la
Sam kheun
Pheng pawd!
Lut laa-khaa dai baw?
Khaw boeng hawng dai baw?
Sii phak ... kheun, khop chai
Emergencies (Hopefully you will not need these!)
I need a ...
Dentist
Doctor
Where is the nearest...?
Pharmacy
Hospital
I'm sick
My friend is sick
Could I see a female doctor?
that hurts
khoi tawng-khaan
Maw pua khaew
Thaan maw
...yu sai (The question comes after the noun)
Khom bung yaa
Hong maw
Khoi baw sa-bai
Pheuan khoi baw sa-bai
Khoi khaw phop thaan maw phuu nying dai baw?
Jebp
Days of the week
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Week
Weekend
Wan aa-thit
Wan jan
Wan ang-khaan
Wan phut
Wan pha-hat
Wan suk
Wan sao
Aa-thit
Sao aa-thit
months
There are the official names for the months of the year, but many people just go on number based identity. So if Deuan is month, the months are:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Deuan nueng
Deuan song
Deuan sam
Deuan sii
Deuan ha
Deuan hok
Deuan jet
Deuan bpaed
Deuan gao
Deuan sip
Deuan sip ett
Deuan sip song
So that is the end of part 1, stayed tuned for the next list of phrases 🙂