เมื่อไหร่

When

Level 1

เมื่อไหร่ (muea-rai) asks 'When?' in the questions practiced here. An answer can give a time, a day, or a period, according to the question and context.

How It Works

1. Usage and Meaning
เมื่อไหร่ is an interrogative adverb used to ask about time. It is broader than กี่โมง (what time), which specifically asks for a clock reading. You can use เมื่อไหร่ to ask about the past, present, or future.

2. Sentence Placement

  • After the predicate: This placement is illustrated by the example here. Example: Khun ja pai muea-rai? (You will go when?)
  • Before the predicate: This is also possible. Position alone does not establish impatience or a fixed interpersonal meaning. Example: Muea-rai ja set? (When will it be finished?)

3. Future Contexts
When asking about a future event, you can include the future marker จะ before the verb. It helps make future intention clear. Without it, context can still supply a future reading, or the question may concern a general habit or the past.

4. Written Forms

  • เมื่อไหร่: The headword spelling used in this entry.
  • เมื่อไร: An interrogative spelling also used in the NIU question examples.
  • เมื่อใด: A form used in formal or literary contexts; suitability depends on the surrounding text.

Examples (4)

  1. คุณจะไปเมืองไทยเมื่อไหร่?

    When will you go to Thailand?

    Word by Word: You [will] go country Thai when?

    Notice the use of จะ to indicate the future and the placement of เมื่อไหร่ at the end.

  2. เมื่อไหร่เขาจะมาถึง?

    When will he arrive?

    Word by Word: When he [will] come arrive?

    This example places เมื่อไหร่ before the subject and predicate. That position does not by itself make the question impatient or impose a single emphasis reading.

  3. คุณเริ่มเรียนภาษาไทยตั้งแต่เมื่อไหร่?

    Since when did you start learning Thai?

    Word by Word: You start learn language Thai since when?

    Here, เมื่อไหร่ is used with ตั้งแต่ (since) to ask about a point in the past.

  4. เขากลับบ้านเมื่อไหร่?

    When did he go home?

    Word by Word: He return home when?

    The English gloss reads this question in a past context. The unmarked Thai predicate does not encode past tense by itself; context supplies the time reference.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the conjunction 'muea' (เมื่อ) alone where the exercise calls for the time-question expression 'muea-rai' (เมื่อไหร่).

    คุณไปเมื่อ?
    คุณไปเมื่อไหร่?

    เมื่อ can link a time clause in a statement ('When I was young...'). The intended standalone time question in this exercise uses เมื่อไหร่ ('When?'); this contrast does not claim that time-question expressions can never occur inside a larger sentence.

How It Connects

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เมื่อไหร่Level 1When

Learn This First

To use เมื่อไหร่ (when) correctly, you need to understand that Thai question words stay in their natural grammatical position within the sentence rather than being fronted like in English. A basic grasp of Thai sentence structure is also required to know where to place the time interrogative.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

เมื่อไหร่เมื่อไหร่