Thai Verb Tenses

📋The 4 Tenses at a Glance

1Present tense — what you do / are doing now

💡 Tip: Thai has no word for "a/the" and no "to be" before an ordinary verb. "chan gin" already means both "I eat" and "I am eating," depending on context. The present tense also covers habits and general facts.

2Continuous tense — verb + -ing

Thai never uses "to be" for the -ing form. Add gam-lang (กำลัง), which means "in the middle of doing," before the verb.

💡 Tip: In everyday speech Thais often add yuu (อยู่) at the end for an even stronger "right now" feeling: "chan gamlang gin sab pa rod yuu." Both versions are correct.

3Past tense — something already done

Thai has no past form like eat / ate / eaten. Put laew (แล้ว), meaning "already / now," at the very end to show the action is finished. So "I ate pineapple" and "I have eaten pineapple" are the same in Thai.

💡 Tip: For a plain past with no "already" feeling, Thais usually just add a time word such as muea waan (เมื่อวาน, "yesterday"): "chan gin sab pa rod muea waan."

4Future tense — what you will do

"Will" is ja (จะ). Place it before the verb. ja also carries the sense of "going to / intend to."

💡 Tip: Add a time word like phrung nee (พรุ่งนี้, "tomorrow") to be specific: "chan ja gin sab pa rod phrung nee."

5Tricks every learner should know

1. Verbs never conjugate. Learn one form of a verb and use it for every person and every tense. No "go / went / gone."
2. Let time words do the work. Words like "yesterday" or "tomorrow" already tell the listener the tense, so Thais often drop the helper word entirely.
3. Add "yuu อยู่" for the -ing feeling. Especially in speech: "gamlang … yuu" = "in the middle of … right now."
4. "laew แล้ว" = a change of state. It means "already / now." im laew (อิ่มแล้ว) = "I'm full now."
5. Drop the subject when it's obvious. gin laew reu yang? (กินแล้วหรือยัง) = "Have you eaten yet?"
6. Be polite with khrap / kha. End a sentence with khrap (ครับ) if you are male, kha (ค่ะ) if you are female.
7. Choose the right "I." Men say phom (ผม); women say chan (ฉัน).
8. Word order is just like English. Subject – Verb – Object. Only the helper words are new.

6Vocabulary — build your own sentences

Mix and match these words to make new sentences. Pronunciation is a simple guide only — Thai is tonal, so listen to your teacher and copy the sounds.

People (subjects)

Verbs (swap these in)

Helper words (the tense markers)

Time words (often replace the helper)

Food & drink (objects)

Polite particles

7Exercises — now you try

Each set gives you two examples, then blank rows. Pick any verb and any food from the vocabulary and write your own sentence — in pronunciation and in Thai script.

Present tense — Subject + Verb + Object

Continuous tense — Subject + gamlang + Verb + Object

Past tense — Subject + Verb + Object + laew

Future tense — Subject + ja + Verb + Object

8Make your own sentences — all four tenses

Use the formula below. Choose one word from each box and write the sentence four ways — one per tense.