Sooner or later during your time in Thailand, you will sit in a bar talking to a sexy Thai lady.

Yeah, that sounds pretty blunt, but that’s just how it is – while everyone likes to relax on beautiful beaches, cruise along scenic roads with the motorbike or do other tourist stuff, as a guy you also like to sit down here and then and have your beer – and if that means you are surrounded by lovely bar girls, then even better.

In that situation you better have a small repertoire of practical and useful Thai words or phrases when talking to the girls – for two reasons:

First, you will show the girl that you care about Thai culture and make an effort to have a good communication with her, speaking Thai works like ice breakers that make them smile and feel good with you, which only increases your chances that she will eventually be ready to join you to your hotel for some fun under the blanket (yes, bar girls are technically prostitutes, but if they don’t like a particular customer, of course they don’t have to sleep with him if they don’t want to, unlike in the massage parlors – but even there they can reject some ethnicities, like “no Indians” or “no Asians”).

And second, some Thai bar girls simply don’t speak much English at all. This may not be so much of an issue in places like Bangkok or Pattaya (though even there you can meet “fresh” girls who just got here from their village up in Isaan a week ago), but if you go to some of the not so touristic parts of Thailand you may have not much to talk with the girls if you can’t speak any Thai.

To help you get started, I have put together this quick list with 25 of the most useful Thai phrases that are extremely useful when talking to bar ladies:

Note: To make your question or statement more polite or soft, you can add the particle “kráp” (ครับ) at the end of each sentence.

For example: aa-yú tâo-rài kráp. (How old are you?)

6 Bonus Words

There are some very important English words, which are regularly used in the bar, that you should know:

• Bar Fine: The money you pay to the bar so you can take out the girl (e.g. to your hotel). Usually 500 Baht in beer bars and 1,000 Baht in go go bars.
• Short Time / Long Time: Short Time (from 1,000 Baht) means the girl will stay with you for 2 hours or so, Long Time (about 1,500-2,000 Baht) means she will spend the whole night with you.
• Lady Drink: A drink you buy the girl in the bar, which is more expensive than your own drink (about 120-200 Baht).
• Bar Bell: A big bell in the bar – if you ring it, you will buy everyone in the bar a drink (in some bars only for the staff though and for a fixed price, like 2,000 Baht).
• Butterfly: That’s how Thais call casanovas or playboys: “You have many girl, you butterfly?” The Thai word for that is jâo-chúu – เจ้าชู้.
• Mamasan: The female manager (usually well above the age of 40) who looks after the girls – and receives a cut of the bar fine.

Remarks about Tone Marks in Transliteration:

If you found this post useful, then check out my Thai Love Course, where I teach you on the topic of talking, flirting and making love with Thai girls in much more detail.