No. 159 in Thai
ลาว
The Thai word "ลาว" means "Lao" (related to Laos, its people, or language).
In a sentence
ลาวเป็นประเทศในเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้.
Laos is a country in Southeast Asia.
In this sentence, "ลาว" is used as a proper noun referring to the country "Laos."
เขาบอกว่าเขาเป็นคนลาว.
He said that he is Laotian.
Here, "ลาว" is used to describe nationality, referring to someone who is from Laos.
ในหมู่บ้านนี้ ทุกคนเรียกคนที่มาจากภาคอีสานว่า ลาว.
In this village, everyone calls people from the northeastern region 'Lao.'
In this context, "ลาว" is used colloquially to refer to people from the Isan region of Thailand, often to denote linguistic or cultural ties to Laos.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “ลาว” in actual Thai podcasts.
Find “ลาว” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Thai podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into ไทย, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Thai books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).