How to Order Food in Thai: Phrases That Actually Work

The two words that do most of the work

Thai has no single word that does what please does in English. The job is done by a particle at the end of the sentence, and which one you use depends on your own gender, not on who you are talking to. A man ordering for his wife still says ครับ. A woman ordering for her husband still says ค่ะ or คะ.

Most travel pages write both ค่ะ and คะ as "ka", which hides the difference. This guide writes khâ for a statement and khá for a question, because the Thai spelling and the tone both change. The practical result: a woman closes an order with ค่ะ, as in เอาผัดไทยค่ะ, and the waitress's question รับอะไรดีคะ closes with คะ.

If you mix them up, you are in good company. ThaiPod101 calls it "the most common mistake in Thai, for both native Thai people and foreigners". Women have a softer ending, นะคะ, and it always takes คะ, so "นะค่ะ" is a spelling mistake. For men there is only ครับ, which makes this one rule easier.

Because the particle carries the politeness, adding it is what turns a bare request into a courteous one. Of everything in this guide, this is the thing worth getting right first, since it is a rule you can learn once rather than a skill you have to practise.

Asking for things: ขอ and เอา

To get a table's attention, say ขอโทษ khaw thot, excuse me, followed by your particle: ขอโทษครับ or ขอโทษค่ะ. If you want a steer from the staff, ask มีเมนูแนะนำมั้ย mii menu naenam mái, do you have a recommendation?

To order, use เอา ao, then the thing you want, then your particle. A Thai teacher whose lessons are cited throughout this guide calls เอา the basic word for placing an order, which must be followed by a noun. In the teacher's recorded lessons the waiter asks รับอะไรดีคะ and the diner answers เอาผัดไทยค่ะ.

You may have read that ขอ is the more polite way to order. Some people do say so, but the same teacher adds "I don't think it matters", so do not worry about it when you are ordering food. There is a more useful rule. ขอ is a verb meaning ask for, or may I have, and the teacher's rule of thumb is to use ขอ for things you do not pay for and เอา for the food and drink you are buying.

หน่อย noi is a softener, and the full polite form adds ได้มั้ย dâi mái, can I, at the end: ขอแก้วเปล่าหน่อยได้มั้ย. In informal speech the teacher says you can use either หน่อย or ได้มั้ย on its own. Staff, for their part, sometimes use the more formal รับ rap in place of เอา, so you will hear it even though you never have to say it.

Pointing, and how many

Pointing at a menu line, or at a dish on another table, is normal and not rude. Put เอา in front of อันนี้ an nii, this one, and you have a complete order: เอาอันนี้ค่ะ. If you would rather know what the line says before you point at it, decoding a Thai menu covers how the dish names are built.

To say how many, put the number and a counting word after the dish. Thai counts plates, bowls and cups with different words, and three are enough to start with.

The pattern is the dish, then the number, then the counting word. A customer naturally says ผัดไทยหนึ่งจาน nueng jaan, one plate of pad thai, or ผัดไทยสองจาน song jaan for two.

For another portion, add อีก eek, another, and ask with ขอ: ขอผัดไทยอีกจานค่ะ, or อีกชาม for something served in a bowl. This is the one place where the free-item rule bends. A second helping is still food you pay for, but ขอ means may I have, and asking politely for more reads naturally. You may also hear staff use ที่ thii as a counting word for portions. The teacher describes it as the more formal word waiters use, so it is something to recognise rather than to copy.

Changing a dish

Three short frames cover most changes, and each does a slightly different job. The first is the standard instruction to a kitchen.

The difference between the first two and the third is who the sentence is about. ไม่ใส่ and ไม่เอา tell the kitchen what to do with this plate. ไม่กิน tells the kitchen about you and leaves it to work out what follows, which works for a preference and fails for anything that matters more.

For heat, two phrases start the conversation: ไม่เผ็ด mâi phet, not spicy, and เผ็ดน้อย phet noi, a little spicy. How kitchens read them, and everything else about chilli, is in our guide to Thai food spice levels. Requests built around jay, vegetarian or vegan eating need their own vocabulary, which our guide to vegetarian and vegan Thai food sets out.

Water, ice and another round

Drinks follow the same pattern as food: เอา, then the drink, then your particle. Plain water is น้ำเปล่า naam bplao, and ice is น้ำแข็ง naam khaeng. To ask for less ice, add น้อย noi, a little: น้ำแข็งน้อย naam khaeng noi.

Whether plain water arrives at no charge or is billed like any other drink varies from place to place, so check with the staff when you order rather than assuming either way. Asking for ice falls under the ขอ pattern from earlier in this guide.

For another round, the อีก from the last section works for drinks as well as plates. If the grammar slips, pointing at your empty glass while you say the drink does the rest.

What the staff will say to you

Phrasebooks rarely cover this half, which is why a perfectly good order can be followed by a blank stare at the reply. Staff have a small set of questions, and each one has a short answer you already know.

Three things make these easier to follow. Most of these end in คะ, the question particle from the first section, which helps you hear a question even when you miss the words. Staff add their own particle to the others as they see fit. อะไร arai means what, so รับอะไร and เอาน้ำอะไร are both asking you to fill a gap. And หรือ rue means or, so ทานที่นี่หรือซื้อกลับ offers two choices, and you answer by repeating the half you want.

The staff's รับ is the formal twin of your เอา, as covered above. Answer with เอา, as in the table, and your reply works either way.

The bill, and taking it away

There are three common ways to ask for the bill, and a Thai teacher who names all of them says there is no right or wrong word to use. Pick whichever one you can remember.

เช็คบิล is a hybrid of English and Thai that Thai speakers use commonly, and ThaiPod101 lists all three. Finish with ด้วย duai, which makes a request polite, or หน่อย noi, which softens it, and then your particle: เช็คบิลด้วยค่ะ, or เก็บเงินหน่อยครับ.

Taking food away uses different words depending on when you decide. If you are ordering to go, add กลับบ้าน klap baan, home, to your order, as เอากลับบ้าน ao klap baan, or say ซื้อกลับ sue klap, buy and take back. You can say it as a second short sentence after the order: เอาผัดไทยค่ะ, then เอากลับบ้านค่ะ.

If you have eaten and want to take the leftovers, the word is ห่อ haw, to wrap. Say ห่อกลับบ้าน haw klap baan, wrap it to take home, and ask for a box with ขอกล่อง khaw klong, or ใส่กล่อง sai klong, put it in a box.

Leaving is the easy part. ขอบคุณ khop khun plus your particle covers thanks, and อร่อย a-roi, delicious, or อร่อยมาก, very delicious, is a short compliment. For what to do once the food actually arrives, our guide to Thai dining etiquette takes over where this one stops.

Phrases to skip, and tones to relax about

A handful of things that circulate on phrase lists will not help you, and one of them can mislead.

Phrases to skip

• ขอ does not mean please. Phrasebooks that list it that way are wrong: ขอ is a verb meaning ask for, or may I have. Please is carried by the particle, by หน่อย and by ด้วย.
• กรุณา is a formal word for signs and public announcements, and is not used in ordinary conversation. Leave it for the signs.
• Swapping ค่ะ and คะ is common, as the first section said, but it is a mistake worth avoiding, and นะค่ะ is not correct Thai at all.
• ไม่กิน is not an allergy phrase. It states a preference. The verb for an allergy is แพ้.

Tones: learn a few words, not the system

It is tempting to read the marks above the letters and trust them. That does not work, because a tone mark alone does not give a word its tone: the class of the consonant, the length of the vowel and the final consonant all decide it as well. Reading the marks is not a shortcut.

The first pair matters most, since ไม่ turns an order into a refusal and ไหม turns it into a question. The rice and white pair is the classic example of two words that differ only in tone, but in a restaurant the context usually settles which one you mean.

• Learn the tone of a handful of words, such as ไม่ and the three particles, rather than the whole system.
• Say the name of the dish and point at it. The menu does the rest of the work.
• Get the particle right. It is a rule, not a skill, so it is the one thing you can fix before you arrive.