I find that sometimes it's not always a straightforward translation of a word.
The word เพื่อน. everyone thinks it means friend in the English sense.
My wife's nephew (aged 9) is at school is in a class of 30-40 kids. He came hone with a plaster stuck across his forehead about two centimetres above his eye.
It turned out one of the other kids in the class had cut him with a 'knife' - the type that has a retractable blade, used as a cutter.
When I was talking talking to my wife, she used the word 'เพื่อน' to describe the kid that had cut him. I tried to ask about this 'เพื่อน' and why he would do that if he was really a friend. I said that two centimetres lower, and her nephew could have been blinded.
My wife said that they use 'เพื่อน' to describe all the students in the class, irrespective of whether they are close friends or just classmates in the same room.
I'm keen to find out regarding the use of เพื่อน, as we have an appointment with the teacher to discuss this.
Is there a way to differentiate in Thai between friends and classmates in the English sense of those two words?