တယ်

Burmese

Etymology 1

Colloquial form of သည် (sany).

Alternative forms

  • (sa.) (used before other particles)
  • သည် (sany) (literary)

Pronunciation

  • Phonetic respellings: တယ်, ဒယ်
  • IPA(key): /tɛ̀/, /dɛ̀/
  • Romanization: MLCTS: tai • ALA-LC: tayʻ • BGN/PCGN: tè/dè • Okell: te/te
  • Audio:(file)

Particle

တယ် • (tai)

  1. (colloquial) marks a realis verb in the present or past tense
    ဒီနေ့ ကျွန်တော် လာပါတယ်
    dine. kywantau lapatai||
    I came today.
Usage notes

The voiceless variant /tɛ̀/ occurs after /ʔ/; the voiced variant /dɛ̀/ after a vowel or /ɴ/.

Synonyms
  • သည် (sany) (formal, literary)
  • (e) (formal, literary)

Interjection

တယ် • (tai)

  1. word expressing indignation, threat, frustration, etc.

Etymology 2

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *taj (big). Cognate with Old Chinese (OC *daːds, *daːds, “great, big”) (whence Korean (dae, big), which is particularly close to the modern Burmese pronunciation), though Hill (2019) prefers comparing (OC *ʔl'aːl, “many, more”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tɛ̀/
  • Romanization: MLCTS: tai • ALA-LC: tayʻ • BGN/PCGN: tè • Okell: te

Adverb

တယ် • (tai)

  1. (literary) very, exceedingly
Synonyms
Derived terms
  • တင့်တယ် (tang.tai)
  • တင့်တောင့်တင့်တယ် (tang.taung.tang.tai)

Further reading