Signification
Describing a person who is picky or stubborn.
Contexte culturel
In Myanmar, social harmony is prioritized. Being 'let pauk kat' is seen as a breach of this harmony because it forces others to focus on your individual needs over the group's ease. While generally negative, in the context of high-value purchases like gems or gold, being 'let pauk kat' is actually respected as being a 'knowledgeable buyer' (pinyar-shi). Younger employees often use this term privately to describe older managers who are resistant to new technology or insist on old, tedious ways of doing things. Parents often use this to tease children who are picky eaters, though it can turn into a serious scolding if the child is being genuinely difficult.
Use with 'Taa-be'
Adding 'တာပဲ' (taa-be) at the end makes it a perfect natural exclamation: 'လက်ပေါက်ကပ်တာပဲ!' (So difficult!)
Face-saving
Avoid saying this directly to a stranger's face in Myanmar; it can cause a loss of 'face' and lead to an argument.
Signification
Describing a person who is picky or stubborn.
Use with 'Taa-be'
Adding 'တာပဲ' (taa-be) at the end makes it a perfect natural exclamation: 'လက်ပေါက်ကပ်တာပဲ!' (So difficult!)
Face-saving
Avoid saying this directly to a stranger's face in Myanmar; it can cause a loss of 'face' and lead to an argument.
The 'Smart' Twist
If you want to say someone is 'thorough' in a good way, use 'စေ့စပ်တယ်' (say-sat-te) instead of 'let pauk kat'.
Teste-toi
Choose the best situation to use 'လက်ပေါက်ကပ်တယ်'.
Which of these people is being 'လက်ပေါက်ကပ်'?
Being 'let pauk kat' involves making many small demands and being difficult to satisfy.
Fill in the blank with the correct particle.
သူက အရမ်းလက်ပေါက်ကပ်_______။
The sentence-ending particle 'တယ်' is used for present tense descriptions.
Match the response to the situation.
Situation: Your friend is complaining that the restaurant's water is 'too cold' and the chairs are 'too soft'.
Complaining about minor details like water temperature or chair softness is classic 'let pauk kat' behavior.
Complete the dialogue.
A: ဒီဖောက်သည်က ဈေးလျှော့ခိုင်းနေတာ နာရီဝက်ရှိပြီ။ B: အေးလေ၊ သူက တော်တော် _________။
Bargaining for half an hour is a sign of being difficult/stubborn.
🎉 Score : /4
Aides visuelles
Banque d exercices
4 exercicesWhich of these people is being 'လက်ပေါက်ကပ်'?
Being 'let pauk kat' involves making many small demands and being difficult to satisfy.
သူက အရမ်းလက်ပေါက်ကပ်_______။
The sentence-ending particle 'တယ်' is used for present tense descriptions.
Situation: Your friend is complaining that the restaurant's water is 'too cold' and the chairs are 'too soft'.
Complaining about minor details like water temperature or chair softness is classic 'let pauk kat' behavior.
A: ဒီဖောက်သည်က ဈေးလျှော့ခိုင်းနေတာ နာရီဝက်ရှိပြီ။ B: အေးလေ၊ သူက တော်တော် _________။
Bargaining for half an hour is a sign of being difficult/stubborn.
🎉 Score : /4
Questions fréquentes
10 questionsNo, it's not a swear word, but it is a negative descriptor. It's like calling someone 'picky' or 'annoying' in English.
Only if you are talking to your coworkers in private. Saying it to your boss would be very disrespectful.
The opposite is 'သဘောကောင်းတယ်' (tha-baw-kaung-te), which means easy-going or good-natured.
Yes, it is almost exclusively used to describe human behavior and personality traits.
Rarely. In formal contexts, more literal terms like 'အခက်အခဲပြုခြင်း' (creating difficulty) are preferred.
You use it to describe the *person* eating the food, not the food itself. 'He is let pauk kat about food.'
You can say 'အသေးစိတ်လွန်းတယ်' (too detailed), which sounds slightly more neutral.
You say 'လက်ပေါက်မကပ်ပါနဲ့' (Let pauk ma kat par ne).
Yes, it's a very common trope for comedic characters or 'villainous' mother-in-laws.
Yes, parents often use it for children who are being fussy or stubborn.
Expressions liées
ဂျဂျီဂျဂျောင်
synonymFussy or making a fuss about nothing.
ခေါင်းမာတယ်
similarStubborn / Hard-headed.
အသေးစိတ်တယ်
similarMeticulous / Detailed.
သဘောကောင်းတယ်
contrastGood-natured / Easy-going.
