Spacing in the Thai Language

by Suphawut (Bryan) Wathabunditkul

[link to original article 9/10/2003]

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It might seem that the Thai language has no fixed rules about how to space words/phrases/sentences, but it has. Little has been written about proper spacing in Thai; Some even said it's a mystery. We therefore can see myriads of inconsistent, incongruent and incorrect spacing of words/phrase/sentences (or the worst, no spacing at all!) from a staggering number of Thai language users, speakers, students, learners and enthusiasts here and there. That's why I wrote this article in the hope that it could be used as a guideline on correct spacing in Thai.

If I'm not mistaken, in Western typographical measure and printed matter, one regular space is measured by the length of an en (i.e. N or the square space needed to contain the letter N). In Thai, it's the square space needed to contain the ก consonant. One tap on the Space Bar of your PC will simply take care of that.

GUIDELINES

• Add one space when you finish a phrase, clause or sentence, and wish to start a new idea:
• One space after "ว่า" that is used in combination with such verbs of speech as กล่าว (including กล่าวไว้ and ได้กล่าว), พูด, เห็น, รายงาน, แถลง, ยืนยัน, etc.:
• One space between a series or set of words or phrases:
Even though Thais don't really use commas or full stops that much, using them in a sensible way is by no means a crime or unconventionality. Those punctuation marks sometimes help clarify your Thai.
• One space after a comma:
• One space before and after a parenthesis or a pair of parentheses:
• One space after a colon:
• One space after a question mark:
• One space before and after a pair of single and double quotation marks:
• One space before and after the repetition mark (ๆ):
• One space after the minor omission mark (ไปยาลน้อย or ฯ):
• One space before and after a major omission mark (ไปยาลใหญ่ or ฯลฯ which reads: "และอื่น ๆ อีกมากมาย"):
• One space before and after ฯพณฯ (which reads: พะ-นะ-ท่าน):
• One space before and after the preposition ณ and the 3rd person pronoun ธ:
• One space between a person's military or social rank and his/her name:
However, leave no space between นาย, นาง, นางสาว, น.ส., คุณ, ครู, อาจารย์ and his/her name. This is a collective mistake lots of Thai users have made.
• One space before and after a person's rank and his/her name:
However, if the person is a professor, associate professor or assistant professor without any military rank or doctorate degree, leave no space between his/her academic rank and name:
If those academic ranks are abbreviated, leave no space, except between the first and last names.
• One space before and after the names of mass media, titles of books, magazines, newspapers:
• One space before and after the official name of a building:
• One space before and after the words บริษัท, company name, จำกัด and (มหาชน):
• One space before and after the basic mathematic signs:
• One space before and after a digit, time and unit of currency:
• One space before and after date, month and year (era):
• One space before and after เช่น, อาทิเช่น, เป็นอาทิ, ได้แก่, เป็นต้น, เป็นต้นว่า and ตัวอย่างเช่น:
• One space before and after any foreign words, phrases or sentences inserted into the Thai and vice versa:


• One space after the pre-determiners นี้, เหล่านี้, นั้น, เหล่านั้น, etc.:
• One space before a long relative clause that is preceded by ที่, ซึ่ง or อัน:
• One space before a clause or phrase preceded by ด้วย, โดย, ตาม, เพราะ and มี:
• One space before the conjunctions และ, หรือ and แต่:
• One space after adverbial phrases ทันใดนั้น, อย่างไรก็ตาม, อย่างไรก็ดี, กระนั้น, ทว่า, โดยส่วนตัวแล้ว, จะว่าไป, ในการนี้, ทั้งนี้, อนึ่ง, etc.:
When writing a long sentence, you should consider spacing after the subject clause, verb clause, modifying clause and object clause to break down the sentence.
• One space after the verbs of definition, for example: หมายถึง, หมายความถึง, แปลว่า, คือ and กล่าวคือ.
• One space before and after a clause modifying a person's name:
• One space before and after an interjection or onomatopoeia:
Though this is a work in progress, I hope I've covered almost everything. I'll come back to append this piece if I can find some more examples. Meanwhile, see also: "หลักเกณฑ์การใช้เครื่องหมายวรรคตอน และเครื่องหมายอื่น ๆ หลักเกณฑ์การเว้นวรรค หลักเกณฑ์การเขียนคำย่อ" by ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน.

Now space away!

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