How to Say “Happy New Year” in Thai
สวัสดีปีใหม่
sa-wàt-dii pii-mày
Happy New Year
ค่ะ (khâ) and ครับ (khráp) are polite particles — they depend on the speaker's gender, not the listener's.
Word by word
When to use it
Used for the Western New Year (January 1st). Thai New Year (Songkran, April) uses สุขสันต์ วัน สงกรานต์ (sùk-sǎn wan sǒng-kraan). Both are widely celebrated, but the Western greeting appears on virtually every New Year card.
Why you've seen it spelled differently
You may have seen สวัสดีปีใหม่ written as: sawatdee pi mai, sawadee pee mai, sawatdii bpii mai.
There is no single standard for writing Thai in the Roman alphabet — phrasebooks, road signs, and tourist guides each follow a different system, and many just invent their own spellings. The romanization on this page uses a consistent IPA-based system that marks all five tones and distinguishes short from long vowels. The same word always gets the same spelling. Paste any Thai to see it romanized →
Related phrases
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