How do you say "how are you?" in Thai?

สบายดีไหม (sà-baai dii mǎi). To make it polite, add a particle at the end. A man says สบายดีไหมครับ sà-baai dii mǎi khráp. A woman says สบายดีไหมคะ sà-baai dii mǎi khá. In questions a woman uses คะ khá (high tone), not ค่ะ khâ, which is for statements.

How to say "how are you?" in Thai (with phonetics)

สบายดีไหม

sà-baai dii mǎi

How are you? (literally: Are you well?)

When you are meeting a friend, this is the everyday way to say "how are you?" in Thai.

Tips

To make it polite, add a particle at the end. A man says สบายดีไหมครับ sà-baai dii mǎi khráp. A woman says สบายดีไหมคะ sà-baai dii mǎi khá. In questions a woman uses คะ khá (high tone), not ค่ะ khâ, which is for statements.
Tone tip: sà-baai-dii is low-mid-mid, so keep it fairly flat and calm. Let your voice rise only on mǎi at the end, as it does in an English question.
The usual answer is สบายดี sà-baai dii (I'm well). Then ask back with แล้วคุณล่ะ lɛ́ɛo khun lâ (and you?).

Word by word

สบาย sà-baai: comfortable, well (Low tone on sà, mid tone on baai.)
ดี dii: good (Mid tone, said long and flat.)
ไหม mǎi: question particle (yes/no question) (Rising tone. It turns the sentence into a question.)

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Romanisation and tones are written by the Thinglish tutor. Generated 2026-10-24.