What does noo mean in Thai? หนู as I, you and mouse

Your mum calls you “noo”. Your cousin calls herself “noo” when she talks to Yai. And then someone points at a small grey animal in the garden and says it too. Same word, three jobs. Here is how one little word does all of them.

What does noo mean in Thai?

หนู (nuu) means “mouse” or “rat”, and in everyday family Thai it is also a word a child, or some girls and women, use for “I” with someone older, and a word an older person uses for “you” with a child.

You’ll see it spelled noo, nu, nuu or nhoo in English. They are all the same word. Wikipedia transcribes it with a rising tone, a little like the end of a question in English.

Literally: a mouse

The first meaning is the animal. หนู covers both mouse and rat, and Wiktionary traces it back to the old Proto-Tai word for the same creature, with relatives in Lao, Shan and other Tai languages.

So how did a mouse become a person? Wiktionary lists a figurative sense, “a young person or child”, and from there it’s a short step to a term of address. Think of English “my little mouse”. Small, soft, a bit precious: that’s the feeling.

Who says noo for “I”?

This is the use heritage speakers hear most. A child talking to an adult says หนู instead of “I”. The SEAsite guide from Northern Illinois University describes it as a humble, semi-formal pronoun: a student uses it for “I” with teachers and elders.

It doesn’t stop at childhood. Wikipedia’s pronoun table describes it as an informal “I” used by women talking to people much older than themselves. Thai teacher Mod puts it this way: children use it with adults, and some girls and young women use it with a superior, like a female student with her teacher or a secretary with her boss. SEAsite adds that some women use it with their husbands or a senior person.

What about boys? Mod’s guide says children in general use it with adults, but every source we read describes grown-up use for “I” only by women. The common masculine “I” is ผม (phom).

A picture from Reply Thai: in one reply to Yai, a granddaughter says something like “I miss you too, Yai”, and the “I” in that line is หนู, softened with นะ (na) and คะ (kha) at the end. A grandson saying the same line uses ผม and ครับ. To your grandmother, either is exactly right.

Who says noo for “you”?

Turn it around and หนู becomes “you”. SEAsite gives the example of a teacher calling a student หนู, and Wiktionary describes it as a way of addressing anyone younger. Parents do it too. Here’s a line a parent might say on a big day:

พ่อภูมิใจในตัวหนูนะ

phor phuum jai nai tua nuu na

พ่อภูมิใจในตัวหนูนะ

phor phuum jai nai tua nuu na

แม่ภูมิใจในตัวหนูนะ

mae phuum jai nai tua nuu na

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

Word by word, that’s “dad proud in self little-one na”: the หนู is the “you”, the little one. Mum says it with แม่ instead of พ่อ, because Thai parents call themselves by their family word too. There’s more on that in family words in Thai.

That’s also why your mum may still call you หนู at thirty. Wiktionary defines the “you” use by age (a younger person), not by size, so you’re still the little one to her.

Does noo sound childish?

It depends on who you’re talking to, and that’s the useful part to know.

• To elders and teachers: this is what the word is for. Wiktionary labels the “I” use humble, and SEAsite describes it as a sign of humbleness with teachers and elders.
• To friends your own age: that’s a different register, covered in why my Thai sounds like my mum.

Calling an adult หนู needs care too. Wiktionary marks the “you” use toward a younger or lower-status person as colloquial and sometimes taken as offensive. From your aunt, it’s love. From a stranger behind a counter, it can feel like being talked down to. Wiktionary also lists a slang use for an older man’s young mistress, which is another reason context does all the work with this word.

None of this is a trap. If your Thai came from home, you probably already say หนู in the right places without thinking about it. That’s a skill, not a habit to fix.

Is Noo also a nickname?

Yes, Noo is a Thai nickname too: see Thai nicknames explained.

Putting it together on a call

The easiest place to use หนู is a call home. Use it for “I”, end with ค่ะ or ครับ, and call Yai by her family word for “you”. If you want the whole call mapped out, start with our video call with Yai phrases, and for the endings themselves, see what ka and khrap mean.

In Reply Thai, you choose ครับ or ค่ะ once, and every reply follows, down to whether you say ผม or หนู to Yai.

Reply Thai for iPhoneComing soon

Thai words on this page are a draft until a native speaker has reviewed them.