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Many Cambodians will tell you that simple means tomudaa.

Tomudaa can be translated as normal, normally, as usual, usually or ordinary.

So these people believe that simple means normal.

It seems that someone taught this some time ago. Those who learnt from this person also taught it, and this understanding has become widespread. It is now in some books.

For some time I have been telling people simple does not mean normal.

However, it is difficult to explain what simple means. You can say it is the opposite of complex, but normally only those who have learnt a lot of English know what complex means. In some situations simple can mean easy, but in many others it does not.

I have now come to the conclusion that they are right. In Cambodia, simple does mean normal.

Can anyone think of a way to explain the meaning of simple, using simple English words, which would be simple for someone learning English to understand?

Srual

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:29 amSrual

That means easy.

In many situations simple does not mean easy.

Explorer give up or get a teacher; you are imposing your language parameters on another language.
Kanhia sruel=easy job. I find only perverse humor in ignorance. In quite a few instances easy and simple are interchangeable.

taabarang wrote: ↑Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:54 am Explorer give up or get a teacher; you are imposing your language parameters on another language.
Kanhia sruel=easy job. I find only perverse humor in ignorance.

tru dat, acknowledged tat years ago, gave up on trying to find a real replacement khmer word for initiative years ago

p.s. n many other words

If you would have followed Jamie's advice from one of your threads I,e. this, "How literate are you in Khmer? if you are literate in Khmer there is no need to write Khmer words into English, you dont need to write Khmer using English letters, you can leave the English behind and start to advance in your Khmer reading and Khmer pronunciation, as i said, sticking with the English it will only hold you back.", you could very easily have discovered the word for simple which is "samagn.". Then you could. be the teacher you pretend to be and not the poseur you really are.

simple
/'sɪmpl/ (adj) 1) សាមញ្ញ 2) ងាយស្រួល 3) ដែលពុំស្មុគស្មាញ 4) ដែលពុំឆ្លាតវាងវៃ (n)

As Taabarang says សាមញ្ញ (samagn) is the word I would use most frequently for simple. But there are other words depending on the context.
What the OP writes is a bit weird assuming it’s inferred from a limited understanding.

ធម្មតា Tomada is used in several different ways but not sure I’d ever use it for simple.

Plus one more reason for you to learn the alphabet is that you are hearing incorrectly. To my knowledge there is no such Khmer word "Tomudaa" or if there is it does not mean the same as "tomada" which is the word you wanted.

not sure ive ever seen the connection between Tomada and Simple, as others have mentioned, "Tomada" means "Common/Ordinary/Regular"

there is a word though, as mentioned above, the word សាមញ្ញ - Samanh, means simple, but i will add that funnily enough this word can also mean "Common/Ordinary/Regular"
eg. មនុស្សសាមញ្ញ - Mnus Samanh - Ordinary/Simple Person, ពាក្យសាមញ្ - Peak Samanh - Common/Colloquial Words

me personally i just keep things simple and use ស្រួល - Srual - Easy/Simple

as ive mentioned before, you need to not just learn words, but what words can accompany that word, you will find that there are a lot of words that are very commonly joined with other words which can completely change the meaning of that word,
the more you learn and the greater understanding of the Khmer language you get, i find that trying to keep linking Khmer and English becomes less and less "simple", as you start to realise that they are actually not similar languages and trying to link Khmer words to English you start to lose the actual Khmer meaning of the word

i do love these language discussions though, need more language threads

(i did make a more detailed response but accidentally closed the tab again before posting

Jamie_Lambo wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 12:25 am i do love these language discussions though, need more language threads

I have learnt from some of the things discussed in language threads.

There are other things I still want to get more information on.

I hope others have learnt too.