Cute Thai Phrases for Dating: What to Say to Her and When

Contents · 11 sections

Common Thai phrases for dating: the first ones to learnHow to say I love you in ThaiWhat does ka mean in Thai? Khrap, kha and the polite endingsHow to say girlfriend in Thai, and when to use faenThai pet names for your girlfriend: what Thai couples call each otherHow to say beautiful in Thai and flirt with a Thai girl: suay, na rak and pick-up linesSlang in her Thai messages: 555, jing jing and joob joobQuestion words in Thai for getting to know herMaking a date in Thai: telling time and setting a timeOrdering food in Thai on a dateLearning Thai from zero: is it worth it if she speaks English?

Every phrase here comes in Thai script, then one plain spelling you can read aloud, then who says it and when. In the spellings, ph, th and kh are p, t and k with a small puff of air (so “thee” starts like “tea”, never like “the”); p, t and k without the h have no puff, and g is a hard g with no puff either. Ee and oo are long vowels. Apps spell the same word three different ways (sawasdee, sawatdee, sawadee); pick one and stick to it, and when in doubt, check the Thai script.

Which words fit depends on how far along the two of you are. The same phrase that is sweet from a boyfriend can sound too fast from a man she met last week:

Where you are	Say	Wait on
Just met	สวัสดีครับ (sawatdee khrap), คุณ (khun) and her name, khrap at the end	pet names, faen, rak
Talking most days	กินข้าวยัง (gin khao yang), น่ารักจัง (na rak jang), once	ที่รัก (thee rak) until she uses a sweet word first
Dating	คิดถึงนะ (khit thueng na), after real time together	calling her your faen in front of others
A couple	ที่รัก (thee rak) or ตัวเอง (tua eng) if she started them; drop khun	going back to khun, which can sound cold
Serious	แฟนผม (faen phom) to others; ผมรักคุณ (phom rak khun), then รักนะ (rak na)	nothing: copy how she talks to you

Common Thai phrases for dating: the first ones to learn

The common Thai phrases worth learning first are a greeting, your name, a thank you and an apology, each ending in khrap. They carry you through meeting her, meeting her friends and the first dinner, and none of them claims more closeness than you have.

Thai	Say it	Means	When
สวัสดีครับ	sawatdee khrap	hello, goodbye	Any time, to anyone. With her parents, add a wai (palms together, small bow).
ผมชื่อ … ครับ	phom chue … khrap	my name is …	Introducing yourself. Phom is “I” for a man.
คุณชื่ออะไรครับ	khun chue arai khrap	what’s your name?	Meeting her or her friends. Expect a nickname back, not the name on her ID.
ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักครับ	yin dee thee dai roo jak khrap	nice to meet you	After the names. Polite, a little formal, never wrong.
สบายดีไหมครับ	sabai dee mai khrap	how are you?	Someone you’ve met before.
ขอบคุณครับ	khop khun khrap	thank you	Constantly.
ขอโทษครับ	khor thot khrap	sorry, excuse me	Getting her attention, or apologising.
ไม่เป็นไร	mai pen rai	never mind, no problem	When she apologises, or when something goes wrong and you’d rather it didn’t matter.
กินข้าวยัง	gin khao yang	have you eaten yet?	A message once you’re talking most days. Treat it as a check-in, not an invitation.

Small talk in Thai can start with a remark instead of a question. วันนี้ร้อนจัง (wan nee ron jang) is “so hot today”, รถติด (rot tit) is “traffic jam”, and ฝนตก (fon tok) is “it’s raining”. Any of them, with na khrap on the end, opens a conversation without asking anything of her.

To start talking to someone you don’t know, begin with khor thot khrap, excuse me. Save “you’re beautiful” for later.

A note on khun (คุณ). It’s the polite “you”, and it’s right while you’re getting to know her. Couples drop it once they’re together, and going back to it with a girlfriend can sound cold.

How to say I love you in Thai

“I love you” in Thai, from a man, is ผมรักคุณ (phom rak khun). It’s correct and complete. Between couples you’ll also hear the short รักนะ (rak na, love you), which drops the “I” and the “you” and keeps na, the Thai softener. A woman saying it to a man doesn’t use phom, which is only for men: she’d say ฉันรักคุณ (chan rak khun), or the short rak na with her own polite ending, รักนะคะ (rak na kha).

Thai	Say it	Means	When
ผมรักคุณ	phom rak khun	I love you	The first time, said properly.
รักนะ	rak na	love you	Once it’s been said; end of calls and messages.
รักเหมือนกัน	rak muean gan	love you too	Her answer, or yours.
คิดถึงนะ	khit thueng na	miss you	After real time together, or when you’re apart.
ฝันดีนะ	fan dee na	sweet dreams, good night	Last message of the night.
เป็นห่วงนะ	pen huang na	I worry about you, take care	When she’s travelling, ill or working late.

Treat it as the same step in Thai that it would be in English. Learning the line in Thai makes it sweet; it doesn’t make it smaller.

Saying it in Thai makes “I love you” sweeter, not smaller. Treat it as the same moment it would be in English.

Learn it before the big night. A Thai woman on Pantip remembers her foreign boyfriend trying to say “I love you” in Thai on Valentine’s Day: he brought one rose and produced “phom chan ther”, three words for I, I and you, in a row. She wondered who had taught him, and she still laughs about it. She also thought saying it in each other’s language was the more moving choice ¹. If yours comes out wrong, a laugh isn’t a verdict on the effort. Ask her to say it back, slowly, and try again.

A kiss in Thai is จูบ (joop). In messages you’ll see จุ๊บ (jup, spelled joob online), a quick kiss, the Thai “xx”. The Thai cheek kiss is หอม (hom), a kiss with the nose, and a polite way to ask for one is ขอหอมแก้มหน่อยได้ไหมครับ (khor hom gaem noi dai mai khrap), may I kiss your cheek? Ask in private; a kiss in front of her family or in the street is a different matter from a kiss on the sofa.

A Thai love poem you can quote with confidence is Sunthorn Phu’s, from Phra Aphai Mani. Its best-known lines are ถึงม้วยดินสิ้นฟ้ามหาสมุทร ไม่สิ้นสุดความรักสมัครสมาน (thueng muay din sin fa maha samut, mai sin sut khwam rak samak saman): even if the earth, the sky and the great ocean come to an end, the love we share will not ². It’s taught in Thai school literature lessons, so there’s a fair chance she knows how it goes on.

For a message, the short lines in the table do the job: khit thueng na, fan dee na, rak muean gan. A song lyric sent as a serious declaration on the third date is a lot, in any language.

What does ka mean in Thai? Khrap, kha and the polite endings

Ka (ค่ะ or คะ, said “kha”) is the polite ending women put on sentences, and khrap (ครับ) is the one men use. When she ends a message with kha, she’s being polite and friendly, not saying anything special about you. Women use the falling kha (ค่ะ) on statements and the high kha (คะ) on questions; you’ll see both in her messages.

In Thai, the ending belongs to the speaker, not the listener, so you say khrap to her even when she says kha to you.

The polite ending belongs to the speaker: you say khrap to her even when she says kha to you.

It’s easy to copy her kha, because it’s the ending you hear most. Thai men who say kha get mixed reviews from Thai women. Asked on Pantip in 2014 whether such a man is gentle or a player, women answered both ways: cute and respectful, or a smooth talker working on women, and one who had dated two men who talked like that said both played around ³.

A second thread that December got the same split: player, a bit camp, or simply sweet, with one woman saying it’s cute if he only says it to his girlfriend ⁴. Those threads are about Thai men; nobody in them says how a foreigner’s kha lands, and it may just sound like he learned his Thai from her. Either way, say khrap. Ask her what sounds natural between you, and if a playful kha becomes your private joke later, keep it.

Two more endings soften things:

Thai	Say it	What it does
นะ	na	Softens almost anything: khit thueng na (miss you), fan dee na (sweet dreams).
นะครับ	na khrap	Soft and polite together; good for requests.
จ้ะ	ja	Friendly and casual; anyone can use it, man or woman.

Khrap is a good beginner’s polite ending for a man, not a promise to sound formal with his girlfriend forever. Thai couples change how they talk once they’re together. One woman described her boyfriend saying khrap and the formal khrap phom when they first met, moving to softer endings and pet names once they were a couple, and still saying khrap to everyone else ³. Another said her husband talked to her exactly as he talked to anyone, khrap and phom, until they were a couple ³.

The woman whose boyfriend moved to pet names also reads his switches back. He normally calls her thee rak and tua eng; when he goes back to phom, khun and khrap with her, she says, she knows a fight is coming. Nothing in those words is rude, which is why they sting: they’re the words for people you aren’t close to. Drop back to khun with a girlfriend you’ve called by her nickname for months, and it can sound cold.

How to say girlfriend in Thai, and when to use faen

Girlfriend in Thai is แฟน (faen), and it’s the same word for boyfriend. “My girlfriend” is แฟนผม (faen phom). Thai borrowed it from the English “fan” and has used it for a partner since the late 1940s; the Royal Institute dictionary gives it as a fan, a beloved, a lover, and a husband or wife ⁵.

That last part is the one to remember. Faen covers everything from new girlfriend to wife of twenty years, so when you call her your faen in front of her friends, you’re telling them what the two of you are. Ask her first, in private, what she calls it. “Will you be my girlfriend?” is เป็นแฟนกันไหม (pen faen gan mai, shall we be a couple?); how to ask it, and when, has its own page: asking her to be your girlfriend.

Faen covers everything from a new girlfriend to a wife of twenty years, so calling her your faen in front of her friends tells them what you are. Ask her first.

What you call her and what you call the relationship are different things. A pet name is between the two of you. Faen is for everyone else. A Thammasat University study of the words couples use, based on 300 questionnaire answers, found couples use plainer forms of address when someone else is there, and keep the affectionate ones for when they’re alone ⁶. In front of her friends, her name is never wrong.

Thai pet names for your girlfriend: what Thai couples call each other

A Thammasat University study of what 300 dating Thais call their partners found names used most, then pronouns, then nicknames, out of 1,244 terms ⁶. The sweet words are real, and they’re used, but in that study the everyday one is the name.

Thai	Say it	Means	Who says it, and when
ที่รัก	thee rak	darling (you’ll see it spelled tee rak)	Either of you, once you’re a couple.
ตัวเอง	tua eng	you (literally “yourself”)	Either of you; couples’ talk, cute and a little childish.
เค้า	khao	I, me	Goes with tua eng: khao khit thueng tua eng, I miss you.
หวานใจ	wan jai	sweetheart	Either of you, once you’re a couple.
พี่ / น้อง	phi / nong	older one / younger one	The younger partner can call the older one phi, and the older one says nong.
her nickname			Always fine, from the first day she tells you.

A sweet word tells you less than it seems to. One woman two months into a relationship asked on Pantip whether her boyfriend’s thee rak meant something or was just a habit; she didn’t use words like that herself, and the answer she got was to watch what he does, not the word ⁷.

Let her use the sweet word first. Thee rak from a man she met last week is hard to tell from a habit. If she starts it, say it back, or stay with her nickname until it feels natural. For the bigger question behind the word, see how to tell if she really loves you.

Let her start the pet names. Thee rak from a man she met last week is hard to tell from a habit, and from a scam.

One case is simple. If someone you have never met calls you thee rak within days and then needs help with a flight, a bill or a sick parent, stop: that is how romance scams run, and you never send money to someone you haven’t met in person. The warning signs are on our dating safety page.

Thai couples also invent names, and some sound like insults. A 2014 Pantip list of what couples call each other ran from thee rak and tua eng to fatty, piggy and shorty, with the note that names like that sound bad but feel sweet from the person you love ⁸. Those are hers to start. Don’t open with one.

Even Thai couples find the switch awkward. In 2023, a woman who had just started dating a friend she’d known since childhood asked what to call him, because sweet pronouns felt strange after years of rough friends’ talk. The replies: use names, make up a nickname, mix thee rak and tua eng, or add a soft ending to his name; one couple said the sweet words felt odd at first and cute later ⁹.

How to say beautiful in Thai and flirt with a Thai girl: suay, na rak and pick-up lines

Beautiful in Thai is สวย (suay), and “you’re very beautiful” is คุณสวยมากครับ (khun suay mak khrap). The one thing to get right is the tone. Suay for beautiful rises, like a question. Said flat, the same sounds make ซวย, a rude word for unlucky ¹⁰. On Pantip, one Thai woman recalls a boyfriend whose “you’re beautiful” came out as “you’re unlucky”. Ask her to record the word and copy her.

Suay for beautiful rises like a question. Said flat, it’s the word for unlucky, so ask her to record it and copy her.

We read 22 Thai women’s Pantip accounts of a foreign partner’s Thai, from 2009 to 2020. What landed and what grated came apart clearly. A slip, usually a tone that turned an everyday word into a different one, was remembered with a laugh: 12 of the 22 laughed, and tone was the reason women gave most often. A crude word was different: of the 8 who mention one, 5 were uneasy or annoyed at a word he had picked up and chose to use, and only 3 laughed, at a slip or at teasing. Fifteen of the 22 come from one thread that asked for funny stories, so laughter is over-represented; read it as which moments women remember, not how often a word lands.

A slip in tone usually gets a laugh. What the women in our count minded was a crude word he had picked up and chose to use.

Thai	Say it	Means
สวย	suay (rising)	beautiful, pretty
สวยมาก ๆ	suay mak mak	really, really beautiful
สวยที่สุด	suay thee sut	the most beautiful
น่ารัก	na rak	cute, lovely
น่ารักจัง	na rak jang	so cute
ยิ้มสวย	yim suay	a beautiful smile
ใจดี	jai dee	kind

Suay mak mak is just “very, very beautiful”, the doubled mak making it stronger. Na rak means cute or lovely; it’s warm, and less about looks than suay. Jai dee is the compliment people forget: telling her she’s kind lands differently from telling her she’s pretty. One compliment, after she has chosen to keep talking to you, does more than a string of them at hello.

Pick-up lines translated from English into Thai land as a joke at best. Thai has its own cheesy pick-up lines, called มุกจีบ (muk jeep, roughly “flirting jokes”), and one of those, said as a joke she can see coming, gets the laugh on purpose. Otherwise, na rak jang, said once and meant, is enough flirting in Thai to start with.

Slang in her Thai messages: 555, jing jing and joob joob

555 in a Thai message means ha ha ha: the Thai number five is ห้า (ha), and the more fives, the bigger the laugh.

You’ll see	Say it	Means
555	ha ha ha	LOL
จริง ๆ	jing jing	really, for real
จริง?	jing?	really?
จุ๊บ ๆ	jup jup (spelled joob joob online)	kiss kiss, like xx
นะ, จ้ะ	na, ja	na softens a message; ja is friendly and casual

In text, tone disappears. Typed in English letters, suay looks the same whether you meant beautiful or unlucky, and she has to guess from the rest of the sentence; typed in Thai script, สวย and ซวย are different words. The endings show up in writing too: when khrap or kha is there, she sees it, so a missing khrap or a borrowed kha is as visible in chat as out loud.

Question words in Thai for getting to know her

Seven Thai question words cover most of what you’ll ask her. In questions like “Where do you work?”, the question word goes where the answer would: “you work where”, คุณทำงานที่ไหน (khun tham ngan thee nai).

Thai	Say it	Means	Try it
ใคร	khrai	who
อะไร	arai	what	ทำอะไรอยู่ (tham arai yoo), what are you doing?
ที่ไหน	thee nai	where	อยู่ที่ไหน (yoo thee nai), where are you?
เมื่อไหร่	muea rai	when
ทำไม	tham mai	why
ยังไง	yang ngai	how	เป็นยังไงบ้าง (pen yang ngai bang), how’s it going?
เท่าไหร่	thao rai	how much

For yes or no questions, add ไหม (mai, rising tone) at the end: ชอบไหม (chop mai), do you like it? In messages she may write มั้ย for the same word.

Two phrases keep an early conversation going: ไม่เข้าใจครับ (mai khao jai khrap), I don’t understand, and พูดช้าลงหน่อยครับ (phoot cha long noi khrap), speak a little slower, please. Neither is embarrassing. Both keep her talking.

Making a date in Thai: telling time and setting a time

To make a date in Thai, ask if she’s free and when to meet: ว่างไหมครับ (wang mai khrap), are you free?, then เจอกันกี่โมงครับ (jer gan gee mohng khrap), what time shall we meet? An appointment or a date you’ve set is นัด (nat); a romantic date out is เดท (det), borrowed from English.

Thai	Say it	Means
ว่างไหมครับ	wang mai khrap	are you free?
ไปกินข้าวกันไหมครับ	pai gin khao gan mai khrap	shall we go and eat?
เจอกันกี่โมงครับ	jer gan gee mohng khrap	what time shall we meet?
เจอกันพรุ่งนี้นะ	jer gan phrung nee na	see you tomorrow

The answer may come in the Thai six-hour clock, which is why “two o’clock” can mean 8 in the morning. In the traditional form, the day runs in blocks ¹¹:

Time	Thai	Say it
7 to 11 am	โมงเช้า to ห้าโมงเช้า	mohng chao to ha mohng chao
noon	เที่ยง	thiang
1 to 5 pm	บ่ายโมง to บ่ายห้าโมง	bai mohng to bai ha mohng
6 pm	หกโมงเย็น	hok mohng yen
7 pm to midnight	หนึ่งทุ่ม to หกทุ่ม	nueng thum to hok thum
1 to 6 am	ตีหนึ่ง to ตีหก	tee nueng to tee hok

So 8 am is สองโมงเช้า (song mohng chao, “two o’clock morning”) and 8 pm is สองทุ่ม (song thum). Many people count the morning the plain way instead, สิบโมง (sip mohng) for 10 am, which is not the traditional สี่โมงเช้า (see mohng chao) but is the form you’ll more often hear. If she says a time and you’re not sure, say it back with the number on your fingers, or type it as 20:00.

Ordering food in Thai on a date

On a date, the Thai that matters at the table is the spice and the bill: เผ็ดน้อย (phet noi) is a little spicy, เผ็ดมาก (phet mak) is very spicy, อร่อยมาก (aroi mak) is really delicious, and เช็กบิลด้วยครับ (chek bin duay khrap) asks for the bill.

Thai	Say it	Means
เผ็ดน้อย	phet noi	a little spicy
เผ็ดมาก	phet mak	very spicy
อร่อยมาก	aroi mak	really delicious
เช็กบิลด้วยครับ	chek bin duay khrap	the bill, please

On the first dates, plan to be the one who asks for the bill and pays; if she offers to split, take her lead, and a simple mai pen rai khrap covers it if you’d rather not.

Ordering phet mak to impress her is a classic. Say phet noi, taste, and say aroi mak if it is. If she offers to order for both of you, let her; you’ll probably eat better. Gin khao (eat rice) is how Thais say “eat”, whatever is on the plate, which is why pai gin khao gan mai means “shall we eat?” rather than anything about rice.

Learning Thai from zero: is it worth it if she speaks English?

Basic Thai is worth learning even if she speaks good English, because she isn’t the only person you’ll talk to. Her friends, her family and the woman at the market will meet you in Thai, and a sawatdee khrap with a wai at her parents’ door says more than a perfect English speech.

It also says something to her. Thai women on Pantip trade stories of their partners’ Thai slips, and one woman who teaches Thai to foreigners said the attempts make her laugh and please her at the same time.

Where to start, from nothing:

1. Learn the phrases in the first table, with khrap, before anything else.
2. Learn tones by ear, one word at a time. Thai has five tones (mid, low, falling, high and rising) ¹², and English letters can’t show them. Suay (beautiful) is the one to get right first.
3. Pick one spelling system and keep it. When a word looks different in another app, check the Thai script, not the letters.
4. Ask her to record the phrases you use most. Voice notes are the cheapest Thai lessons there are.
5. Learn to read the script when you’re ready; it ends the spelling guesswork.

For what to actually talk about once you have the words, see the parent guide: the essentials of communicating with your Thai girlfriend.

References

1. 1
   Pantip, February 2017(opens in a new tab)

   pantip.com
2. 2
   Office of the Royal Society(opens in a new tab)

   orst.go.th
3. 3
   Pantip, August 2014(opens in a new tab)

   pantip.com
4. 4
   Pantip, December 2014(opens in a new tab)

   pantip.com
5. 5
   Silpa Watthanatham, February 2026(opens in a new tab)

   silpa-mag.com
6. 6
   Thammasat University thesis, 2016(opens in a new tab)

   ethesisarchive.library.tu.ac.th
7. 7
   Pantip, February 2014(opens in a new tab)

   pantip.com
8. 8
   Pantip, January 2014(opens in a new tab)

   pantip.com
9. 9
   Pantip, October 2023(opens in a new tab)

   pantip.com
10. 10
    Wiktionary, ซวย(opens in a new tab)

    en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    Wikipedia, Thai six-hour clock(opens in a new tab)

    en.wikipedia.org
12. 12
    Wikipedia, Thai language(opens in a new tab)

    en.wikipedia.org

How this article was made

Researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources cited below, then reviewed, edited and fact-checked by a human editor before publishing. Every factual claim is tracked in our verification ledger.

Read our full editorial policy →