Meaning
Indicating a short duration of time.
Cultural Background
The phrase is a key part of 'Ar-nar-de', a cultural trait where people try to avoid making others feel uncomfortable. By saying 'it won't be long', you are being kind to the listener's feelings. In Myanmar tea shops, time is social. This phrase is used by waiters to keep the flow of the shop feeling relaxed and efficient. In meetings, using this phrase shows you value the other person's time, even if there is a slight delay. Patience is a virtue in Buddhism. This phrase encourages patience in a gentle way.
The 'Taw' Trick
If you are running late, say 'မကြာတော့ပါဘူး' (Ma kya taw par buu). It sounds more certain that you are almost there.
Don't Overuse
If you say this and then take an hour, people will lose trust. Use it for delays of 5-15 minutes.
Meaning
Indicating a short duration of time.
The 'Taw' Trick
If you are running late, say 'မကြာတော့ပါဘူး' (Ma kya taw par buu). It sounds more certain that you are almost there.
Don't Overuse
If you say this and then take an hour, people will lose trust. Use it for delays of 5-15 minutes.
Test Yourself
Fill in the missing part to make the sentence polite.
ခဏစောင့်ပါ၊ သိပ်မကြာ___။
The phrase 'သိပ်မကြာပါဘူး' is the standard polite negative form.
Which sentence means 'It won't be long anymore'?
Choose the correct variation:
'Taw' (တော့) adds the meaning of 'anymore' or 'from now on'.
Complete the dialogue between a waiter and a customer.
Customer: 'ဟင်းက ကြာဦးမလား။' (Will the curry take longer?) Waiter: '_______'
This is the most natural and polite way to answer a customer's concern about time.
Match the phrase to the situation.
You just arrived at a party and want to say you haven't been there long.
Using 'theik ma kya thay par buu' indicates that the action (arriving) happened recently.
🎉 Score: /4
Visual Learning Aids
Practice Bank
4 exercisesခဏစောင့်ပါ၊ သိပ်မကြာ___။
The phrase 'သိပ်မကြာပါဘူး' is the standard polite negative form.
Choose the correct variation:
'Taw' (တော့) adds the meaning of 'anymore' or 'from now on'.
Customer: 'ဟင်းက ကြာဦးမလား။' (Will the curry take longer?) Waiter: '_______'
This is the most natural and polite way to answer a customer's concern about time.
You just arrived at a party and want to say you haven't been there long.
Using 'theik ma kya thay par buu' indicates that the action (arriving) happened recently.
🎉 Score: /4
Frequently Asked Questions
10 questionsIt is neutral-polite. It's safe to use with anyone if you include 'par'.
Yes, but usually you add 'thay' (သေး) to mean 'not long yet'.
'Ma kya buu' refers to the duration, while 'khana lay' refers to the moment of time.
You say 'အကြာကြီး စောင့်ရမယ်' (A-kya-gyi saunt ya mal).
No, but it makes the reassurance stronger, like 'not *very* long'.
Yes, it's very common in texting. You can shorten it to 'မကြာဘူး' for friends.
With strangers, yes. With friends, it's perfectly fine.
Ask 'အကြာကြီး စောင့်ရမလား။' (Will I have to wait a long time?)
Yes, very frequently to manage project timelines politely.
It means 'to be long' (in time).
Related Phrases
ခဏလေးပါ
similarJust a moment.
ချက်ချင်း
specialized formImmediately.
အကြာကြီး
contrastA very long time.
မကြာခင်
similarSoon / Before long.
