Please clarify the differences of these two words :เผา vs ไหม้ Taken from the dictionary , phao means to burn or to set something on fire ; and mai is to burn . If i say , pom jaak mai khawng nee ( i want to burn this thing ), is it correct ? Or phao khaawng nee? With some thai words , i could get the literal meaning in chinese , but not this case - especially they can be joined together as เผาไหม้ which also means to burn . Some simple examples to illustrate the differences will be great . ขอบคุณครับ