บอกให้

Reporting Instructions

Level 3

Use บอกให้ to report telling someone to do an action, as in the doctor, mother, waiting, and workplace examples here.

How It Works

Reporting Instructions With บอกให้
The examples use บอกให้ to report that someone told another person to do an action. They do not establish that the recipient obeyed. Learn ให้ as the directive link here rather than translating it as a transfer of something.

1. The Pattern in These Examples
Subject + บอกให้ + Recipient + Action.
In เขาบอกให้ผมรอที่นี่, เขา is the person giving the instruction, ผม its recipient, and รอที่นี่ the requested action. แม่บอกให้ลูกทำการบ้าน reports a mother's instruction to her child. No English infinitive ending is added to the Thai action word.

2. Compare a Reported Statement
บอกว่า can introduce what was said. For the exercise requesting a บอกให้ instruction to go, use เขาบอกให้ผมไป. เขาบอกว่าผมไป instead reports a statement about my going; it is not universally an ungrammatical sentence. ว่า can also introduce a report containing a directive, so do not treat it as forbidden before every reported command.

3. Include the Requested Marker
The dishwashing exercise specifically requests บอกให้: แม่บอกให้ผมล้างจาน. แม่บอกผมล้างจาน omits the requested ให้. This comparison teaches the stated pattern rather than declaring every abbreviated or contextually understood report grammatically incomplete.

4. What Is Negated?
Compare บอกไม่ให้ทำ, a report telling someone not to do an action, with ไม่ได้บอกให้ทำ, where the telling itself is negated. A report can also contain a negative directive with อย่า. Read the scope of the negative in the full sentence; these are comparisons, not a ranking of every possible negative-command form.

5. Force and Politeness
บังคับให้ expresses compulsion. บอกให้ reports an instruction without by itself specifying how harshly it was delivered. Particles such as นะ, ครับ, and ค่ะ contribute to how an utterance addresses its listener; their effect depends on the speaker and context, not a guarantee that an instruction is polite.

6. Other ให้ Contexts
In บอกให้รู้, telling is directed toward someone knowing. ช่วยบอกให้หน่อย can request telling on someone's behalf when the people involved are understood from context. These readings differ from the explicit recipient-plus-action instructions here; do not assume every occurrence of บอกให้ reports an order.

Examples (4)

  1. หมอบอกให้เขาเลิกสูบบุหรี่

    The doctor told him to stop smoking.

    Word by Word: doctor tell [to] him stop smoke cigarette

    The doctor tells him to stop smoking; the sentence reports the instruction rather than saying that he followed it.

  2. แม่บอกให้ลูกทำการบ้าน

    Mom told the child to do homework.

    Word by Word: mom tell [to] child do homework

    The reported instruction is directed to the child, with ทำการบ้าน as the action to do.

  3. เขาบอกให้ผมรอที่นี่

    He told me to wait here.

    Word by Word: he tell [to] me wait at here

    This shows the recipient (ผม) placed between the directive marker and the action.

  4. เจ้านายบอกให้พนักงานมาเช้าๆ

    The boss told the employees to come early.

    Word by Word: boss tell [to] employee come early early

    The boss’s instruction concerns coming early. The form does not itself specify the harshness of the instruction or whether employees obeyed.

Common Mistakes

  • Not using the requested บอกให้ form for the instruction to go.

    เขาบอกว่าผมไป
    เขาบอกให้ผมไป

    For the exercise requesting a report that he told me to go, use เขาบอกให้ผมไป. เขาบอกว่าผมไป reports a statement about my going instead; it is not universally ungrammatical.

  • Omitting ให้ from the specifically requested dishwashing pattern.

    แม่บอกผมล้างจาน
    แม่บอกให้ผมล้างจาน

    For the requested บอกให้ construction, use แม่บอกให้ผมล้างจาน. แม่บอกผมล้างจาน omits the requested marker; the exercise does not declare every abbreviated or contextually understood command report impossible.

How It Connects

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

บอกให้Level 3Reporting Instructions

Learn This First

To understand 'บอกให้', you need to know how to use the verb 'บอก' (to tell) and the causative function of 'ให้' (to make/let/have someone do something). This pattern combines these to report a command or request given to someone else.

Words in This Pattern

บอกให้