ဝံသးစူၤ
we th’ soo
The English word 'please' is translated into Karen as ဝံသးစူၤ (we th’ soo).
ဝံသးစူၤ is used as an interjection to make a polite request.
Meaning: interjection to make a polite request (intj)
How do you pronounce it?
we th’ soo
Did you know?
- In S'gaw Karen, the phrase ဝံသးစူၤ carries a sense of 'softening the heart' rather than just being a polite marker.
- The Karen script used to write ဝံသးစူၤ is derived from the Burmese alphabet but was modified to better fit the unique sounds of the Karen language.
- In many Karen contexts, a polite facial expression is considered just as important as saying ဝံသးစူၤ to ensure the request is received well.
Example conversation
Saw Kay is asking Nu Nu for a drink of water.
- စောကေ Saw Kayနုနု၊ ဝံသးစူၤ ပားထံတချီ။Nu Nu, wan thah soo pah htee ta khyeeNu Nu, please give me a glass of water.
- နုနု Nu Nuတပန်တမ့ၢ်၊ စောကေ။ta pan ta hmee, Saw KayOf course, Saw Kay.
- စောကေ Saw Kayတဘျးစူာ်ဒီး။ta byah soo deeThank you very much.
- နုနု Nu Nuဘၣ်နီၣ်နီၣ်။bah nee neeYou are welcome.
