Learn Thai – Cheers!

Sawatdee ka,

I posted a question on my Facebook page asking ” Do you know what “cheers!” is in Thai?”, and I got many different answers as showed below:

– ชน [chon] literally means crash against, bump against, knock against. It is also commonly used for “cheers!”.  Many times we say the word เอ้า! [âo!] before ชน [chon] which is an encouraging sound meaning like ‘alright!’ or ‘Hey!’.

– ชนแก้ว [chon gâew] แก้ว [gâew] means ‘glass’, so sometimes Thai also say ‘crash the glass’ for ‘cheers!’

– โชคดี [chôke-dii] means ‘good luck’. I never heard anyone said this word for ‘cheers!’. I was surprised to see many foreigners in my Facebook page answered my question with this word. I asked my friends and my brother if they ever heard or used this word, and they said ‘no’.  I am not sure if this word is really used in a certain part of Thailand.

– ไชโย/ ชโย [chai-yoe/chá-yoe] is an expression for ‘hurrah ; hurray ; bravo’. We use this word for “cheers!” in the weddings only.

I hope this short lesson helps you to understand this small word:)

ชน! Chon!

Mod