တယ်

Burmese

Etymology 1

Colloquial form of သည် (sany).

Alternative forms

• သ (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 大 (OC *daːds, *daːds, “great, big”) (whence Korean 대 (dae, “big”), which is particularly close to the modern Burmese pronunciation), though Hill (2019) prefers comparing 多 (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

• သိပ် (sip)
• အရမ်း (a.ram:)
• အလွန် (a.lwan)

Derived terms

• တင့်တယ် (tang.tai)
• တင့်တောင့်တင့်တယ် (tang.taung.tang.tai)

Further reading

• “တယ်” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.