Are you a TikToker? If yes, have you ever seen a famous hashtag called คนไทยเป็นคนตลก [pronounced as kon tai bpen kon dtlòk in Thai]? Does this hashtag reflect the idea that Thai people have a sense of humor? It’s a surprisingly recognized Tiktok hashtag with over 500 million views. How crazy is that! You can easily find this phrase on other social media platforms as well, where people collect funny videos for you to relish after surviving a stressful week at work.
However, we have one question for you. Do you know how to laugh online in Thai? Unlike other languages, you can simply say “haha” or “lol” and be easily understood by the netizens. In Thailand, the locals use “555.” Are you interested to learn the meaning behind that?
This post will cover the many ways to express laughter online like a Thai speaker. By the end of this post, you will learn the essential Thai slang and the best expressions related to laughing. Curious to know more about how to text them naturally? Keep reading below!
Thai People Have A Good Sense Of Humor
One of the reasons Thai Tiktokers have successfully created funny videos is that they’re naturally humorous. Generally, Thai people are easy-going and can easily relax in a serious situation. They love to tell jokes, which we can confirm from many comedy movies they have produced.
How To Laugh Online In Thai?
People laugh in several ways, depending on their personality. If you want to sound like a native, we urge you to consider using the expressions we will cover below.
1. 555 [hâa hâa hâa]
We can say this is the most common dead wild laugh online for Thai people. You will realize one familiar sound if you can count Thai numbers from 1 to 10. So when you laugh out loud and can barely hold your breath but don’t want to miss a fun moment on a group chat, then you quickly type in the Thai slang term ‘555’.
Instead of typing in the Thai alphabet, they type a number ‘5’, pronounced as [hâa]. And you can type them as much length as you can, depending on you. This term represents laughter in both “hahaha” and “lol.”
While “555” represents laughing out loud in Thai, it means crying in Chinese. Because “5” in Chinese is pronounced as 五 [wǔ], that sounds close to 哭 [kū], which means cry.
2. ฮ่าๆ [hâa hâa]
It has the same sound as above but is written in correct Thai spelling along with the actual sounds. So this is the right way to write, and you should see this in fiction novels, comics, and social media posts. Anyway, you have two options to type this, whether repeat it as ฮ่าฮ่า [hâa hâa] or use the repeat symbol of the Thai writing system as seen ‘ๆ’ [mái yá mók].
3. ห้าห้าห้า [hâa hâa hâa]
It’s the correct way to spell the number five, ห้า [hâa] in Thai. However, fewer people type this way, so you may hardly see this.
4. อิอิ [ì ì]
Thai people write short vowels that represent a quick pronunciation. So you text this when you giggle with someone but not a burst of intense laughter. You may be reserved to laugh softly, or you don’t even feel anything funny, so you fake it behind your phone screen with these words.
5. ขำ [kǎm]
It means laughter but in the way of quietly laughing.
6. ตลก [dtà lòk]
Instead of laughing online using the classic “haha,” many Thais type ตลก [dtà lòk]. This one is meant to refer to something as humorous or funny. Generally, people type it one time, and they don’t type it repeatedly like other laughter. And another thing you should bear in mind, people sometimes sarcastically type this when they find it ridiculous, and it’s not funny.
Expressing Laughter In Other Languages
While Thais laugh online in many different ways, there is various enjoyable laughter around the world. For instance, don’t mistake the Japanese www for the world wide web. On the other hand, “www” is a short form of 笑い [warai], meaning laughter or smile.
While Portuguese and Korean type “kkkkk” to represent laughter. For Portuguese, it sounds close to “kja,” while it’s similar to hangul, “ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ” in the Korean language. At the same time, the English language has “lol” and “Imao,” French people text “MDR,” which is mort de rire, meaning dying of laughter.
If you can’t find a way to laugh online in that specific culture, you merely type random letters. And tell them that you just fell on the keyboard because laughing so hard. This way is universal, so everyone surely understands this joke.
Summary
It’s so fascinating to see the diversity of laughter from Thailand and around the globe. So next time you surf the internet and find “555”, you can now understand Thai people much better. And you can even surprise your Thai friends with various ways of laughing online in Thai that you have learned from this blog. So we hope you find more enjoyable ways to write online with locals.
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