ပါတယ်

Polite Statements

Level 1

Many set phrases always use it, such as ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ်။ (Thank you.) and တောင်းပန်ပါတယ်။ (I'm sorry.)

How It Works

The polite word ပါ also works inside a statement. It goes right before the ending and makes the sentence sound careful and respectful.

PlainPoliteMeaning
နားလည်တယ်။နားလည်ပါတယ်။I understand.
လာမယ်။လာပါမယ်။I'll come.
မသိဘူး။မသိပါဘူး။I don't know.

The plain forms are fine with friends and family. With anyone else, add ပါ. A man can also finish with ခင်ဗျာ and a woman with ရှင်: ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ်ရှင်။

After a vowel or a nasal, ပါ is said ba, so ပါတယ် sounds like ba-deh.

ပါ makes the sentence more polite and leaves the meaning the same, so you can add it to any statement.

Examples (5)

  1. ကျွန်မ နားလည်ပါတယ်။

    I understand.

    A woman speaks. ပါ comes right before တယ်.

  2. မနက်ဖြန် လာပါမယ်။

    I'll come tomorrow.

    ပါ comes right before the future ending မယ်.

  3. ကျွန်တော် အသား မစားပါဘူး။

    I don't eat meat.

    A man speaks. ပါ sits between the verb and ဘူး.

  4. တောင်းပန်ပါတယ်။

    I'm sorry.

    This set phrase always uses ပါတယ်.

  5. ဒီဟင်း ကောင်းပါတယ်။

    This curry is good.

    ပါတယ် makes a compliment polite.

Common Mistakes

  • Putting ပါ after the negative ending.

    မစားဘူးပါ။
    မစားပါဘူး။

    ပါ goes before ဘူး, so the ending stays last.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

ပါတယ်Level 1Polite Statements

Learn This First

Polite statements put ပါ before တယ်, မယ် or ဘူး, so learners need ပါ and those endings first.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

ပါမယ်ဘူး