Thai Translate

Step 1: Receive and Analyze Content

Accept the user's content (pasted text, file path, or URL). Identify:

• Document type: Blog post, technical doc, business email, legal document, marketing copy, academic paper, casual message, UI text, etc.
• Target audience: General public, business professionals, technical developers, academics, young consumers, government officials
• Register/Formality level: Determine the appropriate Thai register:
  • ทางการ (Formal): Government docs, legal text, official communications, academic papers
  • กึ่งทางการ (Semi-formal): Business emails, professional articles, corporate communications
  • ทั่วไป (General): Blog posts, news articles, general content
  • ไม่เป็นทางการ (Informal): Social media, casual messages, marketing to young audiences
• Domain: Tech, business, medical, legal, marketing, lifestyle, academic, etc.

Step 2: Load Style Guide

Read the Thai style reference at references/thai-style-guide.md (relative to this skill's directory). Internalize the patterns — especially the English retention rules — before translating.

Step 3: Plan Translation Approach

Before translating, briefly assess:

Translation Plan:
- Document type: [type]
- Register: [ทางการ / กึ่งทางการ / ทั่วไป / ไม่เป็นทางการ]
- Domain: [domain]
- English retention level: [High / Medium / Low]
  (High = tech docs, Medium = business/general, Low = formal/literary)
- Key English terms to retain: [list notable terms]
- Tone target: [description]

Present this to the user for confirmation if the document is long or the register is ambiguous. For short/clear content, proceed directly.

Step 4: Translate

Apply translation following these principles in order:

Principle 1: Meaning Over Words

• Translate the meaning and intent, not word-for-word
• Restructure sentences to follow natural Thai flow
• Thai often puts context/time first, then subject, then action
• It's fine to split one English sentence into two Thai sentences, or merge two into one

Principle 2: Retain English Where Natural

• Keep English terms that Thai speakers actually use in daily speech (see style guide for categories)
• When in doubt, ask: "Would a Thai professional in this field say this word in English or Thai?"
• For terms where both Thai and English are common, prefer whichever sounds more natural in context
• English terms in Thai text do NOT need quotation marks unless they're unusual or being introduced for the first time

Principle 3: Match the Register

• Use appropriate particles (ครับ/ค่ะ for formal, นะ/น่ะ for friendly, etc.) based on register
• Choose pronouns appropriate to the formality level
• Formal: avoid colloquialisms; Informal: avoid stiff bureaucratic language
• Technical: be precise; Marketing: be engaging and natural

Principle 4: Thai Readability

• Use appropriate Thai sentence connectors (แต่, อย่างไรก็ตาม, ดังนั้น, เพราะ, etc.)
• Break long complex English sentences into shorter Thai segments
• Maintain paragraph structure but adjust sentence count as needed
• Use Thai punctuation conventions (spaces between clauses instead of commas in many cases)

Step 5: Quality Check

Review the translation against this checklist:

1. Naturalness: Read it aloud — does it sound like a Thai person wrote this?
2. English retention: Are the right words kept in English? Not too many, not too few?
3. Meaning preservation: Does it convey the same meaning as the original? No information lost?
4. Register consistency: Is the formality level consistent throughout?
5. Flow: Do sentences connect naturally? No awkward transitions?
6. Terminology: Are domain-specific terms handled correctly and consistently?
7. No robot Thai: Zero instances of unnatural literal translation (see "Red Flags" in style guide)

Step 6: Present Translation

Present the translated document. For longer documents, include a brief note:

Translation Notes:
- Register: [level used]
- English terms retained: [key terms and why]
- Any meaning adaptations: [where the translation adapted rather than literal-translated, and why]

Ask: "Does the tone feel right? Any terms you'd prefer in Thai or English?"

Important Notes

• Never force-translate brand names, product names, or proper nouns unless they have an established Thai name
• Technical accuracy over linguistic purity: If using the Thai word for a technical term would cause confusion, keep it in English
• Consistency: Once you decide to keep a term in English or translate it to Thai, be consistent throughout the document
• Cultural adaptation: Some concepts need cultural bridging, not just translation. Adapt metaphors, examples, and references where needed
• Ask when uncertain: If a term's translation could go either way and it matters, ask the user
• Preserve formatting: Keep headers, bullet points, numbered lists, bold/italic, and other structural elements