How to Say Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday in Thai

วันนี้ wan-níi today, พรุ่งนี้ phrûng-níi tomorrow, เมื่อวาน mêua-waan yesterday. Add ตอนนี้ dtawn-níi for now, and you can arrange almost anything.

These are the words for laundry, tours, boats, repairs and appointments — every "when will it be ready" conversation you'll have.

The -níi piece means "this"

Notice it stacking up: wan-níi is day-this, dtawn-níi is moment-this, and phrûng-níi — tomorrow, right here on the same card — is morrow-this. You met it before too, back on the taxi page: dtrong-níi, right here, is straight-this. And on the ordering page, an-níi, this one.

That little níi on the end is one of the first patterns in Thai that starts paying you back, because it turns a word you know into "this one, the one right in front of us."

raw and sǎai — the two answers you'll get

รอ raw means wait, and it is a complete answer to almost any question about timing. Said with a hand gesture it means five minutes; said with a shrug it might mean an hour.

สาย sǎai means late, and it's on this card for a specific reason: it is the answer about the boat, the bus and the van. Not canceled, not gone — late. Hearing sǎai tells you to sit down and buy a coffee rather than start panicking about a missed connection.

What does "tomorrow" mean here?

phrûng-níi is a real word with a real meaning, and shops, laundries and repair places use it precisely: bring it today, collect it tomorrow.

Where it loosens up is in informal arrangements — the guy who'll fix the fan tomorrow, the friend who'll come tomorrow. That's not dishonesty, it's a different relationship with scheduling, and getting annoyed about it costs you a good day. Anything you need on a deadline, confirm with a time from the previous page attached.

dtawn-níi — the word for "right now"

dtawn-níi is how you signal urgency without being rude: not later, not tomorrow, now. Useful in a pharmacy, useful when a taxi driver is deciding whether to take you, useful when the laundry is closing and your flight is at six.

Use it sparingly, because it does carry weight — pushing for dtawn-níi about everything reads exactly the way you'd imagine.

Takeaways

• wan-níi today, phrûng-níi tomorrow, mêua-waan yesterday, dtawn-níi now.
• The -níi ending means "this" — the same piece in phrûng-níi, an-níi and dtrong-níi.
• raw = wait, and it's an answer in itself.
• sǎai = late. It's what you'll hear about the boat, the bus and the van.
• For anything with a deadline, pair the day word with an actual time.