Up to you, you've had two Cambodians and two foreigners who speak and read Khmer tell you that you are wrong on this one though.

Here's a simple test. Next time anyone tells you to get something point at it and say "មួយ​ហ្នឹង​មែន?" (Moy nung mayne?) If they look at you with confusion, you are right, if they reply yes/no you're wrong.

You are also wrong about it​ being used to soften a sentence, if I had a dollar for every time my wife has yelled​​​ នៅ​ណា​ហ្នឹង? down the phone when I'm out past curfew, I'd be a rich man.

In case there are still any doubts here's a screenshot from the dictionary:



​

Also if you want to soften a statement in spoken Khmer you can add "da" to the end.

taabarang wrote:Baik knia yu haoii. Bat taa naa neung? It is clear to a Cambodian thinker that the action is in the past ((even if the verbs aren't} hence, it would be utterly absurd to translate "neung" as right now.
Translation

The translation of that would be. "We split up a long time ago. Where have you been?"

The neung here is referring to the time period that you already referred to the first part of the sentence​ (in English been is performing the same role, just more implicitly).

Think of neung as always meaning this/that regardless of whether it's being used relation to an object or time. If no time reference has been set already it means "this time" as in now.

A good phrase that emphasises the point is ពេលណា​ពេល​ហ្នឹង​

"da"? You must be joking! It is generally part of a child's name as in sreyda or used as a noun it means a small underground rock. The correct word is "dai" which frequently appears in the question "Wie yang meuch dai?" which means how is(or was)it? You are not ready for colloquial Cambodian; keep hitting those books you love and you never will be. After your hopeless "da" injection you have zilch credibility. And as for those famous four people who disagree not only with me but scores of villagers and a few new ones polled in Kampong Cham, the general reaction is "kee kawp yobawl, sombai srey khmer dai."

I didn't learn from a book, I learned from living in a household for ten years where Khmer is the prominent language.

Write in Khmer, it will make it much easier to communicate. You are referring to ដែរ,​​ I'm referring to a sound that you add to the end of sentences, it's not a word, it's not in the dictionary and it's about as colloquial as you can get as I've never seen it in written Khmer, but if I were to take stab at spelling it, it would be តាស​. It's only used with people you are close with.

Anyway there's no point in trying to help you as you obviously know it all already.

.

Good, I hope you can keep your promise.

យ៉ាប់​​​ម៉ង់​! អញ​​ឆ្ងល់​​ថា​វា​ឈ្លើយឬ​​​គ្រាន់តែ​អត់​គ្រប់ទឹក​?​ បើ​អត់​យល់​ហ្អែង​​​ហៅ​អ្នកស្រុក​បកប្រែ​​ក៏បាន

I knew of course, you wouldn't keep your promise. The fact that I choose to believe scores of local native speakers opinion over yours is too much for your ego. I've no desire to return the insults, which are far more devastating than your commonplace ones. Suffice it to say that your mentality is better suited to
K440. OK you've vented your spleen and doubtlessly consider your ego redeemed.

អញ្ចឹង!​ ល្អអញចូលចិត្តរៀន​ពាក្យ​​ជេរ​ថ្មី​​សុំ​បន្តទៅ​