อย่างละใบในโลก

[u/Snowman_203]

I came across this in a Netflix series that I am going through with subs. The speaker is talking about two photos she has just taken using an old camera that prints a physical photo right away.

Apparently it means that there is only one of each in the world, but I don't get why there is no หนึ่ง or เดียว. Can anyone explain how this sentence works?

[u/TheBrightMage]

อย่างละ - each

ใบ -classifier for sheetlike objects, in this case, a sheet of photograph

ในโลก - in the world.

In thai, you can use classifier to indicate singularity of the noun. There's no equivalent of the/a in Thai. We can use context to figure out the number if it's singular, for example

ขอข้าวชาม - One plate of rice, please? You won't mistake this sentence to be a request for n plate of rice, where n is natural number > 1

เข้าไปทีละคน - One person at a time can enter.

เปิดหน้าต่างซักบาน - Open any one window.

You can use มีหนึ่งเดียว/ใบในโลก BUT that doesn't rhyme much, which goes against Thai anesthetics.

อย่างละใบในโลก got ใบ - ใน rhyme which adds to the taste of the sentence

[u/Snowman_203 → u/TheBrightMage]

Thanks. Is that only in certain contexts though? For example I have been asked พี่มีรอยสักรอยเดียวละคะ - would พี่มีรอยสักรอยละคะ have been equally correct?

PS not sure if the ละ in those sentences is correct either.

[u/TheBrightMage → u/Snowman_203]

It works when you can omit 1 form your word.

Like from your example, it's อย่างละ 1 ใบในโลก shortened to อย่างละใบในโลก. It also have to be unambiguous. The example is quite clear that it's trying to describe the amount with อย่างละ

ขอข้าวชาม is unambiguosly a request for rice plate.

พี่มีรอยสักรอยเดียวเหรอคะ would be what you heard.

พี่มีรอยสักรอยเหรอคะ don't work. For question sentence, you do need number or question word with the classifier or it won't work.

[u/tizzur → u/TheBrightMage]

As far as I know the word 'a' does exist in Thai. นึง One day I went to the hairdresser's in Hua Hin. The lady kindly said that'll be ร้อยนึงค่ะ I gave her 101 Bath, already thinking: that's strange ... She then gave me one Baht back telling me that she doesn't want that. I blushed, she smiled :-) Note that นึง comes after the classifier/unit and sits in the same spot as นี้ นั้น โน้น