ศาลาชุมนุม

[John]

Hi,

In "Thai for Beginners" the following sentences appear:

"ขอข้าวหนึ่งที่" = "Give me a (plate of) rice."
"ขอข้าวผัดห้าจาน" = "Give me five plates of fried rice."

In keeping with the classifiers, should the first sentence be translated "Give me a (bowl of) rice."?

I assume fried rice is served on a plate and steamed rice is served in a bowl.

John

[Nan]

ที่ can be used interchangeably with จาน(plate of) and ชาม(bowl of). Mostly we use ที่ when we order food in fancy restaurant. It's the same as when you ask for seat. If you want two seats you would tell the waiter 2 ที่ครับ and when you order food you would say ขอข้าวผัด 2 ที่ or ขอข้าวต้ม 2 ที่.

[David and Bui]

In a restaurant, when one orders a large bowl of rice for everyone at the table, one often orders a "โถ". (Spelling?) These days, a โถ seems to be a large, aluminum carrier with a round base, two handles, and an aluminum lid. I am not sure of the size, but it might be equal to for or five plates of rice. Lexitron has โถ as:

โถ [N] earthen jar; glass jar

Is this the same thing? Thanks.

[simonbournemouth]

I would just like to add that the use of ที่ in this context is as a classifier for meals.

[John]

Thank you Nan, David and Simon.

The beauty of this forum is that when someone submits a seemingly simple question the respondents return more valuable information than was expected.

John