How to Say “Happy New Year” in Thai

สวัสดีปีใหม่

sa-wàt-dii pii mày

Happy New Year

สวัสดีปีใหม่ค่ะsa-wàt-dii pii mày khâfemale speakerสวัสดีปีใหม่ครับsa-wàt-dii pii mày khrápmale speaker

ค่ะ (khâ) and ครับ (khráp) are polite particles — they depend on the speaker's gender, not the listener's.

Word by word

Tone colors:midlowfallinghighrising

สวัสดีsa-wàt-diiINThello; goodbye

ปีpiiNyear

ใหม่màyADJnew

When to use it

Used for both the Western New Year (January 1st) and the traditional Thai New Year, Songkran, in April. While สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sa-wàt-dii pii mày) perfectly covers both occasions, during Songkran you'll also hear more specific festive variations such as สวัสดีปีใหม่ไทย (sa-wàt-dii pii mày thay) — Happy Thai New Year; สวัสดีวันสงกรานต์ (sa-wàt-dii wan sǒng-kraan) — Happy Songkran Day; and สุขสันต์วันสงกรานต์ (sùk-sǎn wan sǒng-kraan) — also Happy Songkran Day.

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 →

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