Hâi and its six jobs

A landlord answers your message about a broken air conditioner: เดี๋ยวผมให้ช่างมาซ่อมให้นะครับ (dǐao phǒm hâi châang maa sâwm hâi ná khráp). ให้ turns up twice in nine syllables and neither one is anybody giving anything. The first ให้ puts a technician in motion, "I'll get a repairman to come". The second says the repair is for you. If your dictionary told you ให้ means give, this sentence reads like nonsense, and sentences like it are everywhere: at the shop, at the clinic, at the immigration counter. Nothing has gone wrong with the dictionary. English simply uses six different words where Thai uses one: give, for, to, let, make, and so that. Thai keeps the single word ให้ (hâi, falling tone) and changes its position in the sentence instead. The word never changes shape, there is no tense on it and no agreement, so every clue about which job it is doing comes from what sits immediately before it and what sits immediately after it. That is the whole trick, and it is why the six jobs are easier than they look: it is one word in six slots, not six words. Two questions, in this order. First, look at what comes straight after ให้. A person followed by a verb means ให้ is handing over an action: let, make, or tell someone to. A word describing a state rather than naming a person or a thing (หมด, เสร็จ, ช้าลง) means "do it until it reaches that state". Second, if only a noun follows, or nothing at all, look at what comes before. Another verb before ให้ means ให้ is pointing at a person, so it is "for" or "to". No other verb before it means ให้ is itself the main action, and it means give. Try it on the landlord: the first ให้ has ช่างมาซ่อม (person plus verb) after it, so it is "get someone to do"; the second has nothing after it and ซ่อม before it, so it is "for you". Job one, give. ให้ is the main verb and only nouns follow it: ผมให้เงินมัดจำเจ้าของห้องไปแล้วครับ (phǒm hâi ngoen mát-jam jâo-khǎwng hâwng bpai láew khráp), I already gave the deposit to the owner of the room. Two things can follow, what is given and who gets it. The default order is the thing first: แม่ให้เงินผม. The recipient comes first when the thing is counted or when it is not said at all, which is why ให้ผมสองอันครับ at a stall sounds right and ให้ผมเงิน does not. If you are unsure, put the thing first. This job also builds two compounds you will meet constantly: ให้ยืม (hâi yeum) is how Thai says lend, literally give-to-borrow, and ให้เช่า (hâi châo) is the wording you will see most often on rental signs and listings, alongside บ้านเช่า and ห้องว่าง. One limit on this job. ให้ is for equals and for people below you in age or rank. You do not use it for monks or for royalty. Offering food, money or anything else to a monk is ถวาย (thà-wǎai): เอาไปถวายพระ (ao bpai thà-wǎai phrá). Putting food in the bowl at dawn is ใส่บาตร (sài bàat). ให้พระ will be understood, but it is noticed. In formal speech and writing, มอบ (mâwp) replaces ให้ for presentations and handovers. Job two, marking the recipient. Put ให้ after a verb of moving or telling something to a person, and it marks where that thing ends up: ส่งรูปมาให้ผมด้วยนะครับ (sòng rûup maa hâi phǒm dûay ná khráp). The verbs that behave this way are the transfer and communication ones. The ones you will use most here: โอน (transfer money), ส่ง (send), เอา (bring, take), ฝาก (leave with, pass on), บอก (tell), ขาย (sell), คืน (return), จ่าย (pay). The direction word sitting before ให้ is not decoration and it is not free: มา says the thing is coming towards you, ไป says it is going away. So ส่งรูปมาให้ผม, but ส่งไปให้เขาแล้วครับ (sòng bpai hâi khǎo láew khráp). Choose มา or ไป by where you are standing, then add ให้ plus the person. Here ให้ is doing the work English does with to, and plain ให้ is the everyday choice. You will also hear ให้กับ (hâi gàp) in the same slot, which is just as ordinary in speech and means the same thing, so treat the กับ there as optional padding. แก่ (gàe) can stand in the slot too but sounds formal or written, so leave it for documents. กับ on its own works with communication verbs only: บอกกับผม and พูดกับเขา are normal speech, but ส่งกับผม is not Thai. ถึง is a different thing again, and it marks a destination reached, as in ส่งถึงบ้าน, not the person you hand something to. Job three, on behalf of. Put ให้ after any other verb and it marks who benefits from the action: ช่วยถ่ายรูปให้หน่อยได้ไหมครับ (chûay thàai rûup hâi nàwy dâi mǎi khráp). If the beneficiary is the person you are talking to, you can leave them out entirely, and this is extremely common: เดี๋ยวผมจ่ายให้ครับ means "I'll pay, my treat", with the "for you" carried by ให้ alone. Be aware that Thai does not separate "bought it and handed it to him" from "bought it in his place", so ผมซื้อของฝากให้เพื่อน covers both. When you really must say "instead of, in place of", the word is แทน (thaen), not ให้. Job four, let and allow. Now ให้ comes first and a person plus a verb follow: เขาไม่ให้ผมเข้าไป (khǎo mâi hâi phǒm khâo bpai). Reporting somebody else's rule, you will nearly always hear the negative, because ไม่ให้ is how ordinary people say a rule out loud: ที่นี่เขาไม่ให้จอดรถ. The written and official word for a prohibition is ห้าม (hâam), which is what the sign says, but the person telling you about the sign will say ไม่ให้. Note that เขา here is often nobody in particular, closer to English "they" or "you're not allowed". The positive belongs to a different situation, asking permission or offering to take something on yourself: ให้ผมดูหน่อยได้ไหมครับ (hâi phǒm duu nàwy dâi mǎi khráp), could you let me have a look, and ให้ผมช่วยไหมครับ (hâi phǒm chûay mǎi khráp), shall I help. Learn both as fixed phrases; they are softer than the direct alternatives. One more thing about the negative: where the ไม่ goes is not optional, and it is not where English puts it. ไม่ sits in front of ให้, never in front of the second verb, so เขาไม่ให้ผมเข้าไป, never เขาให้ผมไม่เข้าไป. The reason is that ให้ is the verb being negated: what is refused is the granting, not the entering. Job five, make or have someone do something. The shape is identical to job four, ให้ plus person plus verb, and Thai genuinely does not distinguish them: หมอให้ผมกินยาวันละสามครั้ง is "the doctor has me take it", while the same shape with a parent and a child could be "lets". Context and who holds the authority decide, and Thai has no way to force the distinction even when a speaker wants to. If you must be explicit, ยอมให้ (yawm hâi) leans towards permission and บังคับให้ (bang-kháp hâi) towards compulsion. You will also constantly hear ให้ plus a bare verb with nobody named, because when the person is obvious or is people in general, Thai leaves them out. ให้รอสักครู่นะคะ (hâi raw sák-khrûu ná khá) is a receptionist telling you to wait. เขาให้กลับมาใหม่พรุ่งนี้ (khǎo hâi glàp maa mài phrûng-níi) is how you report what immigration told you. ให้ยื่นเอกสารที่ช่องสาม (hâi yêun èek-gà-sǎan thîi châwng sǎam) is a counter notice. Read these as job five with the person left out, not as a different rule. Separately, when the cause is not a person and has no intention, Thai uses the fixed pair ทำให้ (tham-hâi): ฝนตกทำให้รถติด. Use ทำให้ for rain, news, medicine and food; use plain ให้ when a person arranges something. ทำให้ also negates the other way round from job four, because there the cause is a fact and only the result can fail: ฝนตกทำให้ผมไปไม่ได้ (fǒn dtòk tham-hâi phǒm bpai mâi dâi), the rain meant I could not go. Job six, so that. Put ให้ between two whole events and it links them as cause and intended result: พูดดังๆ ให้เขาได้ยิน (phûut dang dang hâi khǎo dâi-yin), speak up so he can hear. The negative is even more common, because ไม่ให้ is how Thai says so that something does not happen: ปิดประตูด้วยนะครับ ไม่ให้ยุงเข้ามา (bpìt bprà-dtuu dûay ná khráp, mâi hâi yung khâo maa), close the door so the mosquitoes do not get in. ใส่ตู้เย็นไว้ ไม่ให้เสีย (sài dtûu-yen wái, mâi hâi sǐa) is the same shape. This looks exactly like job four and job five, so add one check to the tree: if what sits before ให้ is already a complete action with its own doer, and what follows is a second complete event rather than an instruction handed to a person, ให้ means so that. เขาไม่ให้ยุงเข้ามา would be refusing permission, ปิดประตูไม่ให้ยุงเข้ามา is purpose, and the difference is whether there is a first event doing the causing. Beyond the six jobs, ให้ has one more everyday use worth learning at the same time, because it follows the same "verb after ให้" logic: it introduces a whole clause after verbs of wanting, asking and instructing. อยากให้ (want someone to), บอกให้ (tell someone to), ขอให้ (ask that, and also the opener for every wish and blessing), สั่งให้ (order someone to), and the more formal เพื่อให้ (phêua-hâi, so that), which is the written cousin of job six. ขอให้โชคดีครับ is the same grammar as บอกให้เขาโทรมาหาผมหน่อย, just aimed at fortune instead of a person. Finally, a use that fits none of the six and confuses people who have only learned "give": a verb, then ให้, then a quality word rather than a person. This means "do it until it reaches that state". กินให้หมด is eat it until it is gone, ทำให้เสร็จ (tham-hâi sèt) is get it finished, พูดให้ช้าลง is speak until it is slower. If what follows ให้ describes a condition rather than naming a person or a thing, you are in this pattern. It is how Thai adds the force English puts in "up", "off" and "properly". The practical habit to build is small: whenever you hear ให้, do not reach for "give", reach for the next word. A thing after it means give. A person at the end of the clause means for or to. A person followed by a verb means let, make, or told to. A quality word after it means do it until it reaches that state. A whole second event after it means so that. And two shapes you can recognise on sight: ทำให้ when the cause is rain, traffic, news or food rather than a person, and อยากให้, บอกให้, ขอให้, สั่งให้ when the sentence carries an instruction or a wish across to somebody else. Listening for the next word instead of reaching for give is the habit that makes the difference, and it gets easier with practice at the market and in your own building. There is a bonus at the end of it, which is that fixed expressions like ให้อภัย (hâi à-phai, forgive) and ให้กำลังใจ (hâi gam-lang-jai, encourage) then read as exactly what they are, giving forgiveness and giving strength of heart.