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Learn to read Thai alphabet is unavoidable for a learner who wants to be fluent in speaking, reading and writing Thai. It takes you to a higher step of learning the language. Learning Thai through transcription is fine for someone who just wants to speak Thai.
This page will help you to be able to read the Thai script by yourself step by step. There are all the necessary information you need to know to read Thai word, together with the audio tracks to listen to the Thai consonant sound, vowel sound, tones, final consonant sound, etc.
Get yourself familiar with all these 5 core elements in reading Thai script before you learn Thai alphabet. It helps you to have an overall idea of how to read Thai and it might become your cheat sheet during the time you spend time practicing and learning Thai script.
There are 2 types of syllable in the Thai Language. One is called open syllable and another is called closed syllable. It is a characteristic of the way the word is pronounced. When you pronounce an open syllable, you can prolong the ending sound, while you cannot do the same thing when pronounce a closed syllable.
Knowing which syllable is open and which is close is important because it effects the tone of each syllable. Therefore, to differentiate between open and closed syllables, you can follow the following rules.
1. Consider the final consonant of the syllable
For example:
2. Consider the type of vowel when the syllable or word do not have a final consonant
For example:
3. Look for the 4 special vowels
For example:
When you start reading about the tone rules, you will see how these two different types of syllables play an important role on the tone.
There are 44 Thai consonants and they are divided into 3 different classes including high class, middle class and low class. Each class of the Thai consonant has its own tone’s rules.
Note: The letter ฃ (kh) and ฅ (kh) are no longer used but they are still counted as members of the Thai consonant.
Classes | number of letters | members | Note |
---|---|---|---|
High | 11 | ข, ฉ, ถ, ฐ, ผ, ฝ, ศ, ษ, ส, ห | ฃ is no longer used |
Middle | 9 | ก, จ, ด, ต, ฎ, ฏ, บ, ป, อ, | - |
Low | 24 | ค, ฆ, ช, ฌ, ฑ, ฒ, ท, ธ, พ, ภ, ฟ, ซ, ฮ, ง, น, ณ, ม, ย, ญ, ร, ล, ฬ, ว | ฅ is no longer used |
For example:
Moreover, the length of the vowel sound is also important because it can change the meaning of the word.
Single Vowel | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Short Vowel | Long Vowel | ||||
Thai Script | Symbols | Sounds | Thai Script | Symbols | Sounds |
- ิ | i | - ี | ii | ||
เ - ะ / เ- ็ | e | เ - | ee | ||
เเ - ะ / แ- ็ | æ | แ - | ææ | ||
- ึ | ɨ | - ือ / - ื | ɨɨ | ||
เ - อะ | ə | เ - อ / เ- ิ | əə | ||
- ะ / - ั | a | - า | aa | ||
- ุ | u | - ู | uu | ||
โ - ะ / disappear | o | โ - | oo | ||
เ - าะ / - ็อ | ɔ | -อ | ɔɔ |
MIXED VOWELS (DIPHTHONGS) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Short Vowels | Long Vowels | ||||
Thai Script | Symbols | Sounds | Thai Script | Symbols | Sounds |
เ- ียะ | iaʔ | เ- ีย | ia | ||
เ- ือะ | ɨaʔ | เ- ือ | ɨa | ||
- ัวะ | uaʔ | - ัว / -ว | ua |
VOWELS WITH FINAL SOUNDS | ||
---|---|---|
Short Vowel | ||
Thai Script | Symbols | Sounds |
- ำ | am | |
ไ - / ใ - | ay | |
เ - า | aw |
Note: The vowel form after the / (slash) is the changed form of the vowels.
There are 44 consonants in Thai but only 35 of them are used as the final consonants. The letters ฃ (kh), ฅ (kh), ฉ (ch), ฌ (ch), ผ (ph), ฝ (f), อ (ʔ), ห (h) and ฮ (h) are not used as a final consonant. However, there are only 8 final consonant sounds out of these 35 consonants, which means some of the final consonants share the same sound.
Group | Members | Examples |
---|---|---|
- ก (k) | ก (k), ข (kh), ค (kh), ฆ (kh) | มาก (mâak) สุข (sùk), โชค (chôok), เมฆ (mêek) |
- ด (t) | ด (d), ฎ (d), ต (t), ฏ (t) จ (c), ช (ch) ฐ (th), ฑ (th), ฒ (th), ถ (th), ท (th), ธ (th) ศ (s), ษ (s), ส (s), ซ (s) | บาด (bàat), กฎ (kòt), จิต (cìt), นาฏ (nâat) กาจ (kàat), เวช (wêet) รัฐ (rát), ษัฑ (sàt), วัฒ (wát), รถ (rót), บาท (bàat), โกรธ (kròot) กาศ (kàat), โทษ (thôot), รส (rót), ก๊าซ (káat) |
- บ (p) | บ (b), ป (p), พ (ph), ภ (ph), ฟ (f) | จับ (càp) บาป (bàap) ภาพ (phâap), โลภ (lôop) กราฟ (kráap) |
- น (n) | น (n), ณ (n) ญ (y) ร (r) ล (l), ฬ (l) | กิน (kin), ญาณ (yaan) ปัญ (pan) หาร (hǎan) ผล (phǒn), วาฬ (waan) |
- ง (ŋ) | - | ลุง (luŋ) |
- ม (m) | - | ยาม (yaam) |
- ย (y) | - | โดย (dooy) |
- ว (w) | - | แก้ว (kæ̂æw) |
Note:
1. Although these letters produce different sounds when they are used as the initial sound, they give exactly the same sound when they are used as a final consonant.
2. The letter ญ (y) has a unique rule. When it’s used as the initial consonant, it produces ‘y’ sound, but when it’s used as a final consonant, it gives ‘n’ sound.
There are 5 tonal sounds in the Thai language but there are 4 tone marks. The tone is another essential part in learning Thai because when the tone of the word changes, the meaning of the word changes as well. (Click here to listen to the 5 tonal sounds in the Thai language.)
The tone mark is always put above the initial consonant of the word. If the word has a top-position vowel, it is placed above the vowel.
Name | Tone Marks | How to Use It |
---|---|---|
ไม้เอก (máay ʔèek) | - ่ | ก่า กี่ |
ไม้โท (máay thoo) | - ้ | ก้า กี้ |
ไม้ตรี (máay trii) | - ๊ | ก๊า กี๊ |
ไม้จัตวา (máay càttawaa) | - ๋ | ก๋า กี๋ |
The following table shows the tone rule of each class of the consonant including high class, middle class and low class consonants. You will also see that the type of syllable plays a part in the tone system as well.
Tonal Sounds | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Class | Syllable | Middle Tone | Low Tone | Falling Tone | High Tone | Rising Tone |
High | Open | - | ข่า | ข้า | - | ขา |
Closed | - | ขะ | ข้ะ | - | - | |
Middle | Open | กา | ก่า | ก้า | ก๊า | ก๋า |
Closed | - | กะ | ก้ะ | ก๊ะ | ก๋ะ | |
Low | Open | คา | - | ค่า | ค้า | - |
Closed (Long Vowel) | - | - | คาบ | ค้าบ | - | |
Closed (Short Vowel) | - | - | ค่ะ | คะ | - |
In summary of the tone system, you can see that there are three factors which effect the one of a syllable or word including:
1. The class of consonant
2. The type of syllable
3. The tone mark
Note: The low class consonant has an additional rule for its closed syllable. You can see from the table that the length of the vowel also has an effect on the tone.
This section contains 24 small lessons to help you read Thai. Here you will learn Thai alphabet and start to read your first Thai word. Start from lesson 1 if you are totally new to reading the Thai script. However, you can select only the lesson you want to learn according to its topic.
1. Tone rules of the middle class consonant in open syllable
2. The rest of middle class consonant
4. Tone rules of the middle class consonant in closed syllable
6. Tone rules of high class consonant in open and closed syllables
7. Learn 3 more high class consonants and 2 new vowels
8. Last 4 high class consonants and 4 more vowels
10. Learn how to read the clustered words
11. Thai words with the silent อ-
13. Tone rules of low class consonant in open syllable
14. Learn the rule of low class consonant in closed syllable
15. Get to know 7 more consonants from the low class group
16. The rest of the low class consonants
23. The exceptions of the clusters
24. Special symbols in Thai script