How to say ‘I’ in Thai

ฉัน, ดิฉัน

The most common is ฉัน, which sounds like ‘chan’ with a rising tone. This is the default way for women to refer to themselves, and it’s also fairly polite. This is similar to ดิฉัน (de chan), which is much more polite.

ผม

The next most common is the word ผม, which sounds like ‘pom’ with a rising tone. This is the default way for guys to refer to themselves, and it’s fairly polite too. Also, just like the word ‘krap’ ครับ, women occasionally use this word to refer to themselves.

หนู

This word technically means ‘mouse’. But it’s also a word that Thai girls like to use to refer to themselves when trying to sound a little cute, such as when talking to their mother/father or boyfriend.

ข้อย

Koy (falling tone) means ‘I’ in the regional dialect of Isaan. It’s fairly common, and not rude or too polite.

อตมา

Adtama, meaning ‘I’, is only used by monks. If you are a monk, you just use this word.

ข้าพเจ้า, ข้า

‘Kaa pa jao’ isn’t used very often. It’s a fancy polite old-fashioned way of referring to yourself. You’ll also sometimes just hear ข้า. In the old days ข้า was a polite way to refer to yourself, so you’ll hear it often in the Thai historical movies – but spoken today it’s actually quite rude. The meaning changed over time.