The words you learn in this Unit can also be used for bicycle trishaws, and for pony carts in Mandalay and Maymyo and other towns.       

New Words       

beh  ဘယ်  where to   

teq-teh  တက်တယ်  to mount, go up, get into   

  Sentences     

S1  Beh thwà-mǎlèh?  ဘယ် သွားမလဲ။  Where are you going to? 

or  Beh thwà-jin-dhǎlèh?  ဘယ် သွားချင်သလဲ။  Where do you want to go to? 

or  Beh-go-lèh?  ဘယ်ကိုလဲ။  Where to? 

S2  Sǎt’ǎrìn Ho-teh thwà-meh.  စထရင်းဟိုတယ် သွားမယ်။  I’m going to the Strand Hotel. 

S1  Yá-ba-deh.  ရပါတယ်။  All right. 

or  Kaùn-ba-bi.  ကောင်းပါပြီ။  Fine. 

  Teq-pa.  တက်ပါ။  Get in. 

or  Teq  တက်။  Get in (less courteous). 

Notes 

Beh thwà-mǎlèh? “Where are you going to?” and Sǎt’ǎrìn Ho-teh thwà-meh “I’m going to the Strand Hotel.” Notice that in Burmese you say “Where are you going to go to?” and Sǎt’ǎrìn Ho-teh thwà-meh “I’m going to go to the Strand Hotel.” You use thwà-meh not thwà-deh. 

Sǎt’ǎrìn Ho-teh thwà-meh “I’m going to the Strand Hotel.” “The Strand Hotel” comes before “I’m going to” the opposite order to English. See also Lesson 1.9: Èh-da caiq-pa-deh “I like that one”, literally “That one I like”. 

Note also that Burmese does not need to use a word corresponding to the English “to”. There is a suffix (-go/-ko ) that can be used to avoid ambiguity, but it is normal to use no suffix at all.