To 'WANT' - เอา 'ao' is NOT interchangeable with อยาก 'yàak'

In a Thai language specimen from a learner I received recently for a Speech Analysis, one of the sentences that jumped out at me that he used a couple of times was:

ผมเอาเรียนภาษาไทย
pǒm ao rian paa sǎa tai
"I want to learn Thai."

To hear this in an otherwise nicely flowing Thai sentence was a bit jarring as it killed the flow of an otherwise decently delivered sentence.

When a lot of foreigners come to Thailand, one of the first things they learn — usually ordering food or going to a 7-11 — is เอา (ao) followed by the list of things they would ‘like’ to order or that they ‘want’.

In Thai, there are TWO main words that can be used for 'want', but actually, when out on the streets, it may be that NEITHER of them are used when you would usually use 'want' in English.

The two words are:

• อยาก (yàak) – 'to want'
• เอา (ao) – 'to want'

But they have VERY DIFFERENT meta meanings.

If there are any Chinese speakers out there, understanding the connections to 有 ‘yǒu’ (‘to have’) — which is a picture of a hand ‘holding’ a piece of flesh (so 'having' something unto them or to 'take' or 'bring' something) — and 要 ‘yào’ (‘to want’) — The THAI modern meaning is somewhere in between those. Where เอา (ao) is a desire or 'want' to have something unto one's self, where อยาก (yàak) is perhaps a DEEPER want or desire to have something.

So when ordering food:

It’s fine to say:

เอาอันนี้ กับอันนี้ (ao an níi gàp an níi)
"I’ll take this one and this one."

You can substitute เอา (ao) with “I'll take” and it works fine:

“I'll take coffee.”
“I'll take Gaprao Moo.”

But you couldn’t say:

“I’ll take learn the Thai language”

– that sounds weird.

This is where อยาก (yàak) comes in:

Yàak is a real ‘desire’ to have something.

If you played that game where you say a word and ask what word follows, when a Thai hears อยาก (yàak), the next thing to usually follow would perhaps be ได้ — อยากได้ ('I want to have / obtain / get').

Another one may be อยากเป็น — 'to want to be.'

For example:

ผมอยากเป็นคนดี
pǒm yàak bpen khon dii
"I want to be a good person."

But you COULDN'T say:

ผมเอาเป็นคนดี
pǒm ao bpen khon dii

This is a syntax error – it doesn’t make sense.

To really understand เอา (ao) in the context of 'wanting':

Let’s go back to the actual meaning. If you have my CTF book or have done the online stuff, you’ll know that this is one of my 11 Meaning Building Blocks that I actually developed a hand sign for, as it's such a high-frequency verb. To ‘Ao’ is to take on one's being — and it kind of has motion to it too. THAT’S the verb, and THAT’S why we can use it where we would use 'want' in English.

For example:

เอาชาหรือกาแฟ (ao chaa rʉ̌ʉ gaa fɛɛ)
"Would you like tea or coffee?"

The response would be:

เอาชาครับ/ค่ะ
ao chaa kráp/ká
“I’ll take tea.”

Or

เอากาแฟครับ/ค่ะ
ao gaa fɛɛ kráp/ká
“I’ll take coffee.”

Note: Because Thai doesn’t have a word for ‘YES’ (see my other clips on this — ใช่ (châi) does not mean YES), the way to positively affirm something (i.e., YES in English) is to repeat the verb.

Here, the verb is เอา (ao) – to ‘take on one's being.’ So:

• เอา – YES, I want it
• ไม่เอา – NO, I don’t want it – ไม่ negates the verb in the question, which is how to say NO.

So, if you start to ‘feel’ this sentence structure:

You can start to go way beyond just ‘เอา (ao)’ – and Thais often do. You may hear instead:

รับชาหรือกาแฟครับ (ráp chaa rʉ̌ʉ gaa fɛɛ kráp)
"Will you take / receive tea or coffee?"

And the response might be:

รับชาครับ (ráp chaa kráp)
“I want tea” (i.e., I'll receive / take tea).

So here, where many foreigners learn เอา (ao) to mean 'want', it's actually not really that different from other verbs like รับ (ráp) – to receive (this is another one of my Meaning Building Blocks with Hand signs in Cracking Thai Fundamentals).

BUT… เอา (ao) does have ONE OTHER connotation:

In Thai, เอา (ao) can also have the connotation for wanting to ‘have’ sex.

So just:

เอามั้ย (ao mái)
“You wanna get it on?”

without any other context, MAY (for some people) be construed as “You wanna get it on?”.

To confirm:

• เอา = to want it
• ไม่เอา = to negate, “No, I don't want it.”

And the act of getting it on (having sex) with someone can add the reciprocal particle กัน (gan), so:

เอากัน (ao gan)
“To mutually have sex.”

…I guess it also infers, given the กัน (gan) ‘ness’ of it, that it is consensual both ways.

With that, I bring you the Thai 'dad joke' in the image I made above...

Q: How do you tell a male cat from a female cat?
A: The Male cat says "เอาาาา เอาาาา" and the Female cat says "ไม่เอาาาา ไม่เอาาาา"

Badoom boom.🥁