Thai Toolkit Betav2

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008
Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at 1
http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com
A THAI TOOLKIT by PHILIP STOKES

(A WORK IN PROGRESS PUBLICATION)
© Philip Stokes 2008
0. Before you start

This book is based on my experiences as a language teacher and a
language learner. It is different from other books on the Thai language
available to foreigners, and a word needs to be said about the
methodology.
One of the earliest things that struck me as I first set out to learn Thai
was the vast difference in style and methodology of the books available
to foreigners learning Thai compared to the books available to anyone
learning English. The former are, generally, full of vocabulary lists,
sample sentences and common phrases with few theoretical explanations
or practical exercises. Audio materials are somewhat similar: hundreds of
expressions for the learner to listen to and repeat. There is nothing
wrong with this per se; indeed, the present book contains, in part, all of
these characteristics. However, if you look at a typical English language
learning textbook you will see something quite different. Yes, there are
vocabulary lists, sentence patterns and audio tracks to listen to and
repeat. But there is also a whole lot more. There are grammar points,
theoretical explanations, and always – the only true way to acquire a
foreign language – a plethora of practical exercises in each unit, coupled
with consolidation exercises in later units. A good textbook needs to
provide a variety of graded activities that one can perform with the
language to test and stretch the cognitive and conceptual connections
learners need to create in order to internalise a new language.
Learning a language is rather like learning any other skill – it requires

exposure (something you get from vocabulary and sentence lists), but
more than that it requires repetition and reinforcement through a variety
of practical exercises of gradually increasing difficulty. Like driving a car,
a language learner needs to first learn the ‘movements’ of their new skill
mechanically and deliberately until they become internalised through
repetition and experience to be accessed without conscious thought. I
have yet to see any book on the market for foreigners learning Thai that
pays attention to these points about the way that learners learn. I have
tried to address this lack as far as possible in the present work.
Thinking about how learners learn determines not only the kind of
exercises one should include in a language learning book, but also the
content. The current crop of Thai language self-study books are
situational – that is, chapters and language points are themed around
common situations that people visiting Thailand might find themselves in
such as booking a room in a hotel, ordering a meal in a restaurant or
sending a postcard in the post office. Despite their modern appearance
such books are behind the times. Thailand is a country that is well-used
to dealing with foreigners that cannot speak Thai, and anyone who has
visited the country before will know that you won’t find much chance to
practice your new-found Thai language skills in hotels, restaurants and
post offices, where staff are not only able to speak English, but prefer
too. A country that has developed such a successful tourist industry such
as Thailand has come far from the point where they expect foreigners to
order their beer in the local lingua franca.
Not that there is anything wrong with practicing your Thai at every
available opportunity,but readers who spend time and money on
expensive learning materials that, frankly, will only teach them to say
things in Thai that will rarely be necessary in practice are not, in the
present author’s view, the best use of either of those resources. A simple
phrase book is the recommended resources for that kind of goal. The
present work is written on the premise that the reader would like to learn
enough of the language to be able to speak for themselves no matter
what situation they should find themselves in.
Naturally, no book can contain the whole of a language within its pages;
language teachers have to select material based on what will be most
effective to give students a springboard into acquiring enough of the
language to make them independent learners. This means giving them
enough of the language to be able to use it for further study, rather than
using their native language as an intermediary. Almost all the current
books on learning Thai focus on short term ability and not long-term
proficiency; they do little to allow the learner to progress beyond the
book’s content itself. In order to do this, students must buy another
book, go to a language school or find a private teacher.
For these reasons, the content and organization of the material in this
book have been chosen to build proficiency with the long-term aim of
independent fluency in mind. The corollary to this is that the going may
be slower or tougher at first with this book than the typical ‘quick guide’
or phrasebook, but that is only as it should be. A student who learns their
ABCs before their sentences will, in the end, learn how to make their own
sentences much more easily and fluently. A student who memorises
sentences spoon-fed from a teacher or book will only have to go back
and learn their ABCs at some later date if they ever want the freedom to
express their own thoughts. The first student may begin slower, but his
progress will soon become far more rapid and complete than the second
student’s.
Finally I have endeavoured to give as wide a variety of both formal and

informal uses of the language as space allows in order to represent the
most common speech patterns learners will need as they discover the
richness of the Thai language for themselves.
Transliteration
There are many different conventions for representing the sounds of Thai
phonetically in the Roman alpahabet, and no single one is perfect; for this
reason, I make no apology for cherry-picking the best transliterations
from different systems and for introducing my own variations where I feel
it may render the intended sound more accurately. Due to the
imperfections of transliteration, and for many other reasons that will be
outlined later, the serious learner would be wise to move beyond
transliteration as soon as possible and learn to read Thai script for
themselves. To this end the book takes an early approach to teaching
reading and writing, starting in section 1.
In this book, transliterated consonants have the same sound as in

ordinary English. A few special cases are noted in the text. The following
conventions are used for vowels:
Transliteration English Equivalent

ao = as in ‘cow’
ai = as in ‘eye’
ay = as in ‘play’
ehr = as in ‘air’
ee = as in ‘bee’
ih = as in ‘it’
oi = as in ‘oil’
oiy = as in ‘oil’ but with a short /ee/ or /iy/ sound at

the end
a = as in ‘cat’
a: = (see note*)
ah = as in ‘car’
ir = as in ‘dirt’
ia = as in ‘ear’
uh = as in ‘cook’
uu = as in ‘dew’
ua = as in ‘sewer’
euh: = see note**
euah = see note**
* In Thai, some words have a very short vowel sound that comes to a
guttural stop (try saying the word ‘at’ without the ‘t’). This abbreviated
vowel sound is represented in the text by using a colon : so that the
sound ‘a’ (‘at’ without the ‘t’) would be transliterated as /a:/. Other
conventions are introduced as needed.
** The closest sound in English might be something like the noise you
might make when seeing something distasteful, ‘eurgh!’ The vowel sound
/euh:/ is shorter than /euah/, which has a more pronounced /a:/ sound
at the end.
Politeness
Even informally, Thais often use the particle words ‘krap’ ครับ for males
and ‘ka:’ คะ for females at the end of sentences to express politeness.
They can also be used alone as single words in response to a command
or question to indicate ‘yes’, much the same as people might nod assent
or say ‘uhuh’, ‘OK’, ‘right’ or, ‘yes’. For males, ‘krap’ ครับ is spoken with a
short and high tone in either case. For females, the polite particle ‘ka:’ คะ
is spoken short and high, whereas ‘ka:’ ค่ะ for assent is spoken with a
falling tone (tones are discussed in detail in section 1).
To aid the beginner, the polite particles are omitted in the early sections
of this book. However, you should employ them from time to time in
every conversation with Thai people. Exactly when you should use the
polite particle and when it can be omitted cannot be stated in a rule. The
best way to learn their use is to observe and copy native speakers
whenever you have the opportunity.
0.1 Getting Started

In this section, some basic phrases are introduced as a means of
familiarising the new student to the different style, sound and pattern of
their new language.
Fortunately for the beginner, informal Thai is very learner-friendly as it

often makes use of short phrases or ‘chunks’ to express otherwise
complex ideas, leaving out words or ideas that can be understood from
context. For example, pronouns (I, Me, You, He, She) are used far less
than in English in everyday conversation. Look at the following examples
and compare them with their English equivalents. Notice how the literal
translation of Thai lacks a pronoun.
(The meaning of the supercript numbers used below will be explained

shortly; for now you can ignore them).
Are you well? Sabai1 dee mai4 (Lit: “well?”)

สบายดีไหม
Yes, I’m fine. Sabai1 dee (Lit: Well.)
สบายดี
Where are you going? bai nai4 (Lit: go where?)
ไปไหน
I’m going to get something to eat. bai gin khao2 (Lit: go eat rice)
ไปกินข้าว
Is the food good? aroi1 mai4 (Lit: tasty?)

อร่อยไหม
It’s fine. aroi (tasty)
อร่อย1
Do you want this? ow mai4 (Lit: take?)
เอาไหม
No, I don’t want it. mai2 ow (Lit: not take)
ไม่เอา
Yes, I do want it. ow (Lit. take)
เอา
I think it’s going to rain fon4 ja:1 dtok1 (Lit: rain will fall)
ฝนจะตก
I think you’re right. hen4 duay2 (Lit: see also)
เห็นด้วย
Use the notes above to complete the following conversation between two
close friends:
Ploy: Hi
sa1wat2 dee สวัสดี
Jack: Hello
sa1wat2 dee สวัสกี
Ploy: Where are you going?

a. ___________________________________
Jack: I’m going to get something to eat.

b. ___________________________________
Ploy: I think it’s going to rain.

c. ___________________________________
Jack: I think you’re right.

d. ___________________________________
Ploy: Do you want to take my umbrella?

e. ow rom2 plao1 เอาร่มเปล่า
Jack: Yes, I do.

f. ___________________________________
Ploy: Goodbye
sa1wat2 dee สวัสดี
Jack: Goodbye
g. _________________________________
0.2
In the above conversation you were introduced to three new words:
sa1wat2 dee = hello/goodbye rom2 = umbrella plao1 = ‘or not’
สวัสดี ร่ม เปล่า
The same expression, sa1wat2 dee, is used both for hello and goodbye.
The word plao1 is a shortened or slang version of reuah4plao1 หรือเปล่า.
You will hear both in ordinary conversation. If you study the examples
above, you will notice that many Thai questions are made by adding the
particle mai4 ไหม at the end of the sentence, which can be thought of as a
verbal “question mark”.
As we have seen, the verb ‘to want (to have something)’ is ‘ow’ เอา.
The verb ‘to want (to do something)’ is ‘yarg1’ อยาก, as in
Do you want to play a game? yarg1 len2 gaym mai4? (Lit: want play
game?)
อยากเล่นเกมไหม
‘ow’ is also part of the phrasal verb ‘to take (something) away’ which is
ow + __(object) __ + bai
as in
Take this chair away. ow gao2-ee2 bai (Lit: take chair this
away)
เอาเก้าอี้ไป
and ‘to bring (something) here’ which is
ow + __(object) __ + mar
as in:
Bring me the telephone. ow torasap1 mar

เอาโทรศัพท์มา
Bring me the computer. ow com mar (lit: take computer

here)
เอาคอมมา
Do you want to play a game? yarg1 len2 gaym mai4 (lit: want play
game?)
อยากเล่นเกมไหม
No, I need to do some work. mai2 yarg1 len2, dtong2 tam ngarn (Lit: not
play, need do work)
ไม่อยากเล่นต้องทำงาน
What work have you got to do? tam ngarn alai? (Lit: do work what?)
ทำงานอะไร
Let’s go out instead. bai tee2-yo dee gwa1 (Lit: go trip good
more)
ไปเที่ยวดีกว่า
Shall I phone for a taxi? toh taxi dai2 mai4? (Lit: telephone taxi can?)
โทรแท็กซี่ได้ไหม
Use the notes from 1 and 1.1 to complete the following conversations between
two close friends:
Jack: Hello, how are you?

a. _________________________________________________
Ploy: I’m fine.
b. _________________________________________________
Jack: Where are you going?
c. _________________________________________________
Ploy: I’m going to work.
d. _________________________________________________
Jack: What work do you do?
mee ngarn tam alai?
มีงานทำอะไร
Ploy: I teach English.
sorn4 pasaa4 angrit1
สอนภาษาอังกฤษ
Jack: Shall I call a taxi for you?
e. _________________________________________________
Ploy: No, thanks.
mai2 pben rai
ไม่เป็นไร
0.3
Note that ‘toh’ โทร is the shortened form of ‘torasap’ โทรศัพท์. It is usually used
as a verb and means ‘to telephone’. The longer word ‘torasap’ is usually used
for the noun ‘a telephone’.
‘mai2 pben rai’ ไม่เป็นไร is probably the most ubiquitous phrase in the Thai
language. It has countless uses and connotations according to context. It is
often translated as ‘never mind’. The sound /pb/ at the beginning of ‘pben’ เป็น
is perhaps best represented by the sound of the same letters in the middle of
the word ‘raspberry’.
‘tam ngarn’ ทำงาน means ‘to do work’; ‘mee ngarn tam’ มีงานทำ means ‘to have
work to do’
‘sorn4’ สอน is a verb that means ‘to teach’
‘pasaa4’ ภาษา means ‘language’ and always precedes the name of the language
being spoken of, as in ‘English language’ = ‘pasaa4 angrit1’, ‘Thai language’ =
‘pasaa4 thai’.
Complete the following conversation:
Jack: Do you want to play a game?

______________________________
Ploy: No I don’t. Let’s go out instead.

______________________________
0.4
Review the vocabulary you have learned so far by matching the English words
with the correct Thai transliteration.
a. Hello 1.mai2 ben rai

b. how are you? 2. bai tee2-yo
c. Never mind 3. sa1wat2 dee
d. Tasty 4. ngarn
e. To bring 5. ow mar
f. Go and get something to eat 6. sabai1 dee mai4
g. Go out 7. aroi1
h. Work 8. sorn4
i. Teach 9. ow bai
j. Take (away) 10. bai gin khao2
Write the correct transliteration in the space provided for the following words:
k. Umbrella ________________
l. Game ________________
m. It’s going to rain ________________
n. Want to play ________________
o. Where are you going? ________________
p. English language ________________
q. Thai language ________________
r. Chair ________________
s. Telephone ________________
1. Learning your ABCs
Thai is a tonal language. That means words with different meanings can
have the same basic sound, but are differentiated according to how they
are said.
For example, the Thai question word we saw earlier ‘mai’, the Thai word
for ‘no’ ไม่ and the Thaii word for ‘new’ ใหม่, are all transliterated as
‘mai’, and they all have the same basic sound as the English word ‘my’
(as in ‘that’s my car’). However, the word ไม่, which means ‘no’ is
pronounced with a strong emphasis or stress at the beginning, which
falls toward the end of the syllable. It is similar to the way an English
child might pronounce ‘my’ for emphasis in an argument:
Parent: That’s Annie’s book,

Child: No it isn’t, it’s my book.
The ใหม่, which means ‘new’, is pronounced rather like a scolded child
that is sulking or sullen:
Parent: Are you going to be naughty again?

Child: No, mother.
The tone of the word is lower and deeper than normal. These two tones
are called, respectively, falling tone and low tone. There are three others:
middle tone, high tone and rising tone. Middle tone is pronounced in a
normal, even tone without inflection. In rising tone, the tone starts low
and rises at the end, similar to the way ‘really?’ is said after some light-
hearted comment concerning something surprising or unbelievable:
A: I’m going to buy your drinks all night!

B: Really? I don’t believe you!
High tone sounds similar to the stress English speakers put on a word
when they are agitated or excited ‘help!’ ‘run!’ ‘get out!’ etc.
All five of the following words are transliterated as ‘mai’ but differ in
tone. See if you can say each in a discernibly different way:
ใหม่ (mai1) low tone, means ‘new’

ไม่ (mai2) falling tone, short vowel, means ‘no’
ไม้ (mai3) high tone, means ‘wood’
ไหม (mai4) rising tone indicates a question
มาย (mai) middle tone, means ‘ a measure’
Notice that after the transliteration of ‘mai’ a number appears in

superscript, ‘mai1’, ‘mai2’ etc. Throughout this book we will use these
numbers to indicate a word or syllable’s tone in transliteration following
the order above. Remember that where no number is indicated, the tone
is middle tone.
Do not worry about getting the tones right at the beginning, or about
remembering the different meanings of the various ‘mai’ words. For now,
it is enough to understand that there are five tones, and that they have a
big role to play in identifying meaning in spoken Thai.
1.01
You have to learn the tones in order to speak comprehensibly in Thai,
and this can only be done accurately by listening to Thai speakers (audio
files that go with this book available separately through
http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com). Interestingly, however, the easiest
way to learn and remember the tone or tones for each word is to learn
how to read Thai script.
Thai script is fundamental to fluency in a way that learning to read and

write English is not fundamental to the speaking of English. This is so for
several reasons. The first reason is that the tonal system is built into the
spelling of Thai words. This is a great advantage because it means that if
you know how to read a word you also know what tone to use when you
speak it. Secondly, Thai script is generally phonetic, which means not
only do you know the tone of any word new word that you meet, but you
also know reasonably accurately how to say the word correctly. In English,
a word like ‘bow’ can be said as “I tied a bow in my laces’ or ‘At the end
of the show, all the actors took a bow.’ Similarly, the same sound can be
represented in English by either ‘bow’ or ‘bough’. English is not a

phonetic language; second-language learners who can read it often
cannot speak it clearly. Thai, on the other hand, is highly phonetic, and
learning to read Thai will enable you to speak it with a much greater
degree of accuracy.
Learning to read Thai has other advantages too.

a. It is the fastest way to pick up new vocabulary. Understanding
simple street signs is something you will be able to do very quickly,
and this will help you acquire new vocabulary almost immediately.
b. Learners who rely on transliteration do themselves a great
disservice. Transliteration cannot accurately capture the sound of
many Thai words, with the result that foreigners’ pronunciation is
often unclear to native Thais.
c. Transliteration limits the learner to a small amount of learning
materials. In fact, the best learning material is to read authentic
Thai. Children’s books and schoolbooks aimed at teaching Thai to
Thais are also a valuable resource, which you cannot access unless
you can read some basic Thai.
d. Finally, if all this were not enough, imagine someone walking
around New York or London, able to speak English but unable to
read it or write it. We call such people ‘illiterate’ and tend to think
of them as poorly educated and disadvantaged. Presumably, this is
not the view you want others to have of you in Thailand.
No matter what some ‘quick fix’ language books may say, if your aim is
to be fluent in Thai, learning the Thai script is both essential and the
most effective way to learn the language accurately and quickly.
1.02
The Thai alphabet contains 44 consonants and around 17 vowels, which
is somewhat greater than the English alphabet of 21 consonants and 5
vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Despite the large number of consonants, many of
them have the same sound, and the alphabet is ordered and classified in
such a way that makes remembering it relatively easy after very little
study.
Here are seven Thai letters. The transliterated capital letter before the
slash (/) indicates the sound of the consonant when it appears at the
beginning of a word. In Thai, many consonants change sound when they
appear at the end of a word. Where this is the case, the final consonant
sound is represented by the lower case letter after the slash.
บ ท ก ช น อ า
B/p T/t G/k Ch/t N/n -or -ah
(as in ‘law’) (as in ‘car’)
For example, the word บอก is pronounced /bork /, with the letter บ
having a /b/ sound and the letter ก having a /k/ sound. On the other
hand, the word กอบ is pronounced /gorp/, with the letter ก having a hard
/g/ sound and the letter บ having a /p/ sound.
บอก /bork1 / to tell กอบ /gorp1 / to scoop up
When two consonants appear together with no written vowel between

them, an /oh/ (as in ‘lot’) sound is assumed between the consonant
sounds. For example,
บก = /bok1 / land กบ = /gop1/ frog
Using the guide above, transcribe these Thai words into transliterated
English (the tone numbers are provided for you). The first has been done
as an example.
1. บก / bok1 / land
2. ชอบ / 2/ to like
3. บาท / 1/ baht (the Thai currency)
4. ทา / / to paint
5. กก / 1/ to embrace
6. ชา / / tea
7. ชก / 3/ to hit
8. บอก / 1/ to tell
9. นาน / / a long time
10. นอน / / to lie down
1.03
Write the following English words in Thai script:
1. embrace ______กก________
2. hit ________________
3. lie down ________________
4. tea ________________
5. like ________________
6. tell ________________
7. a long time ________________
8. paint ________________
9. land ________________
10. baht ________________
1.04
All Thai vowels (with one exception that we shall meet in section 5) are
‘classless’, which means they can be used with any consonant. However,
depending on which vowel is being used, it can appear before, between,
above, below or after the consonant it modifies.
Here are three vowels that can appear above a consonant:
ั ี ิ
/a / /ee/ /ih/
(as in ‘hat’) (as in ‘free’) (as in ‘hit’)
Write the following Thai words in transliteration.
1. ที /tee / a time/occasion
2. นาที /________/ minute
3. ทับ /________3/ to cover
4. บิน /________/ to fly
5. กิน /________ / to eat
6. กับ /________1/ with
7. นับ /________3/ count
8. ชิน /________/ to be used to
9. ชี /________/ to point
10. กีบ /________/ hoof
Now that you can read some Thai words, you need to learn how to tell a word’s
tone. In truth, tones apply to each syllable in a word, so a word of more than
one syllable will have more than one tone. However, to begin with, we will only
look at single syllable – and therefore single tone – words.
There are three things that you have to ask yourself in order to determine a
word’s (or syllable’s) tone:
1. What consonant does it begin with?

2. Is the final syllable ‘live’ or ‘dead’
3. Is there a tone mark?
We will deal with each of these in turn.
1.05
Initial Consonants.
There are 44 consonants in the Thai alphabet, split into three groups called
High class
Middle class
Low class
(Do not confuse the three class names with the five tone names – low class does
not mean low tone, for example.)
Learning which class each consonant belongs to requires a short period of rote
learning similar to the way you had to learn your times-table at school.
However, it is very easy to remember the classes and the work you put in now
will repay you no end later.
Here are all the high class consonants:
ถ ข ฐ ษ ศ ส ผ ฝ ฉ ห ฃ*
T/t K/k T/t S/t S/t S/t P/p F/f CH/ch H/h K/k
(*this consonant has become obsolete, so you can ignore it)
Notice that three of the consonants have the same sound, the /s/ sound when
used at the beginning of a word, and the /t/ sound at the end. This makes them
particularly easy to remember as there is only one other /s/ consonant in Thai,
the lower class ซ s/t. Thus, you should remember that all the /s/ sound
consonants except ซ are high class.
Make particular note that the letter ห as an intitial consonant is often silent when
followed by another consonant. For example, หนา would be pronounced /nah4/
and not /honah/.
Using the letters above and those in 1.02 and 1.04, transliterate the following
Thai words, all of which begin with a high class consonant:
สอน / _______________4/ teach

ถอน / _______________ 4/ to withdraw
ฉัน / _______________ 4/ I (pronoun)
ขอ / _______________ 4/ please (request)
ฝน / _______________ 4/ rain
ศอ / _______________ 4/ neck, throat
ฐาน / _______________ 4/ base, pedestal
ผี / _______________ 4/ ghost
ษอ / _______________ 4/ (name of the letter ‘ษ’)
หา /________________ 4/ to look for, to go and see
1.06
Live and Dead Syllables

All the words you have just transliterated have ‘live’ final syllables. This means
that the final sound of the syllable is open and could continue to be voiced in
the way children might extend the sound of, say, ‘soon-nnn, or ‘saw-www’ or
‘pea-eee’. Dead or closed syllables cannot have their sound continued in this
way. Think of the way the English words ‘Cop’, Shop, and ‘Gate’ end. The final
sound of these words cannot be voiced in extension. In the Thai language,
words that end in with the following consonant sounds are ‘dead’:
-b -p -d -t -k
All other final syllables are open or ‘live, including –ng (as in ‘sing’).
For the following 18 words items, circle ‘L’ or ‘D’ according to whether each
ends in a live or dead syllable.
1. Song 2. Rock 3. Home 4. Head 5. Clap 6. Sheet

L/D L/D L/D L/D L/D L/D
7. playng 8. hin 9. barn 10. nap 11. dtop 12. pehn

13. กับ 14. นาที 15. ชิน 16. บาท 17. นอน 18. ชา
In the exercise on the previous page, all the words you transliterated began with
a high class consonant, had a live final syllable and no tone mark; therefore,
Thai speakers will pronounce these with a rising tone.
Tone Rule 1:
Consonant Syllable Tone mark TONE

High Class Live n/a RISING
In the case where the initial consonant is high class, the syllable is dead and
there is no tone mark, the word will be pronounced with a low tone.
Tone Rule 2:
High Class Dead n/a LOW
Here are some examples of words with high class initial consonant, dead
syllable, and no tone mark. They are all pronounced with a low tone. Fill the
blank spaces with the correct transliteration:
สอบ /_____________1/ a test

ศอก /_____________1/ forearm
ขอบ /_____________1/ to repay
1.07
Tone Marks
There are only four tone marks in Thai. They are
่ ้ ๊ ๋
1 2 3 4
The good thing about tone marks is that if they appear, you do not have to pay
any attention to whether the syllable is live or dead, only to the class of the
initial consonant.
If a word with a high class consonant has the number 1 tone mark, -่ it will be
pronounced with a low tone regardless of whether the syllable is live or dead.
Thus while, as we saw earlier, the verb ‘to teach’ สอน has a rising tone, the
adjective meaning ‘cross eyed’ or ‘squint’ ส่อน is pronounced with a low tone
The only difference in spelling (and, therefore, pronunciation) is the number 1
tone mark.
Tone Rule 3:
High Class Live or Dead number 1 ่ LOW
สอน /sorn/4 to teach

ส่อน /sorn/1 cross-eyed
There is just one more tone rule to learn for high class consonants, and that is
the tone when tone mark number 2, -้ , is used. Words or syllables that begin
with a high class consonant and have the number 2 tone mark are pronounced
with a falling tone.
ห้า /hah2/ five

ส้ม /som2/ orange
ถ้า /tar2/ if
Tone Rule 4:
High Class Live or Dead number 2 FALLING
Since the tone marks 3 and 4, -๋ and -๊ are never used with high class
consonants, this completes the tone rules for any word or syllable that begins
with any of the high class letters, which are, again:
Finally, it can be seen from the table that any word or syllable starting with a
high class consonant never has middle or high tone.
1.08 Writing Practice

Write the following English words in Thai script (the first one has been done for
you):
pedestal _____ฐาน_______
rain _______________
ghost _______________
please (request) _______________
I (pronoun) _______________
look for _______________

name of the letter ‘ษ’ _______________
neck, throat _______________
teach _______________
withdraw _______________
1.09 ‘To have’ and ‘Is there…?’

One of the most common words in statements and questions is the word มี
‘mee’ pronounced with a middle tone.
มี can be variously translated as ‘have’, ‘do you have…?’ ‘there is..’ or ‘Is
there…?’ depending on context. Study the following patterns.
Do you have a computer? mee kom mai4

มีคอมไหม
Yes, we have a computer mee kom krap3
มีคอมครับ
Is there a toilet? mee hong2 nam3 mai4
มีห้องน้ำไหม
Yes, there is. mee k้ah3
(female speaker) มีคะ
There are five people. mee kon hah2 kon
มีคนห้าคน
I have a problem. pohm4 mee pban ha4
(male speaker) ผมมีปัญหา
I have a problem chan4 mee pban ha4
(female speaker) ฉันมีปัญหา
Do you have a room? mee hong2 warng2 mai4
(as might be asked at a hotel) มีห้องว่างไหม
Yes, we do. mee khrap3
(male speaker) มีครับ

No, we don’t (have a room). mai2 mee ka:3
(female speaker) ไม่มีคะ
Is there a café here? tee2 nee3 mee rahn garfehr mai4
(here, is there a café?)
ที่นี้มีรานกาแฟไหม
Note that ที่นี้ tee2 nee3 meaning ‘here’ is often put at the beginning of a clause.
You will also notice that the word for ‘room’ is ห้อง hong2. It can be combined
with other words to name different kinds of rooms such as ‘toilet’ ห้องน้ำ* hong2
nam3 (room water), ‘bedroom’ ห้องนอน hong2 norn (room sleep), ‘classroom’
ห้องเรียน hong2 rian (room study) and ‘library’ ห้องสมุด hong2 sa1mut1 (room
book).
ห้องว่าง hong2 warng2 (room free) in the example above means ‘available room’.
The word ว่าง warng2 on its own means ‘free’. If you look closely at taxis in
Thailand, you will see the sign in the window that indicates the taxi is available
is actually the word ว่าง depicted in tiny red neon lights.
*(Do not worry that you cannot read all of these words in Thai script yet; we will
be meeting more consonants and vowels shortly).
1.10
Using the notes above and from the previous lessons, complete the following
conversation in transliteration with tone numbers.
English Thai Translitertaion+tone
Is there are a toilet here? ที่นี้มีห้องน้ำไหม ________________________
Yes there is. มีคะ ________________________
Do you have a problem? มีปัญหาไหมครับ ________________________
No, I don’t. ไม่มีครับ ________________________
Do you have a room? มีห้องว่างไหมคะ ________________________
Is there a ghost? มีผีไหมคะ ________________________
Do you have a telephone? มีโทรศัพท์ไหมครับ ________________________
Do you have an umbrella? มีร่มไหมครับ ________________________
1.11 ‘Thank you’ and ‘Thank you for…’

One of the most common expressions you will hear and one you should start
using almost immediately is the polite way to say ‘Thank you’. It is a simple
three word expression:
Thank you korb1 kuhn krap3 ขอบคุณครับ
The final word ‘krap3’ should be said with a short, sharp high tone.
You may also wish to thank somebody for doing something or giving you
something. There are two ways to do this:
i. Thank you for answering the question.

korb1 kuhn tee2 dorb1 kam-tarm4
ขอบคุณที่ตอบคำถาม
ii. Thank you for the answer.
korb1 kuhn sam4-rab1 kam dorb1
ขอบคุณสำหรับคำตอบ
The difference between i. and ii. in English is that in i. ‘thank you for’ is followed
by an –ing word whereas in ii. it is followed by a noun. This difference is
reflected in Thai by using a different word to translate ‘for’. If you want to use
an –ing word, korb kuhn is followed by ‘tee2’; if you want to use a noun, it is
followed by ‘sam4-rab1. The patterns are
i. korb kuhn + tee2 + verb = Thank you for + (verb)-ing

ขอบคุณ + ที่ + คำกริยา
ii. korb kuhn + sam4-rab1 + noun = Thank you for + noun

ขอบคุณ + สำหรับ + คำนาม
Here are some examples
Thank you for the gift. korb1 kuhn sam4-rab1 kong4 kwan4
ขอบคุณสำหรับของขวัญ
Thank you for your kindness korb1 kuhn sam4-rab1 nam3 jai
ขอบคุณสำหรับน้ำใจ
Thank you for helping. korb1 kuhn tee2 chuay2 leuah4 krap3
ขอบคุณที่ ช่วยเหลือครับ
Thank you for telling (me). korb1 kuhn tee2 bork1 (hai2 pohm4)
ขอบคุณที่บอก(ให้ผม)
Thank you for calling korb1 kuhn tee2 toh mar

(telephoning) ขอบคุณที่โทรมา
1.12 Common Phrases
In this section we will look at some useful phrases and how they are
constructed. This will improve both your vocabulary and grammar, as well
as giving you some handy tools in some common situations.
We will look at six short sentences:
1. I’ve lost my passport. chan4 tam passport hai4

ฉันทำพาสป่อร์ตหาย
2. What should I do? chan4 kuan ja:1 tam yahng1-rai dee
ฉันควรจะทำอย่างไงดี
3. What did I do wrong? chan4 tam alai pit1 reuah4
ฉันทำอะไรผิดหรือ
4. What do you call this in Thai? riak2 sing1 nee3 wa2 arai pben pasaa4
thai
เรียกสิ่งนี้ว่าอะไรเป้นภาษาไทย
5. There’s something wrong with computer dtua nee3 mee pban-hah4
this computer. คอมพิวเตอร์ตัวนี้มีปัญหา
6. When will you let me know? kuhn ja:1 hai2 chan4 ruu3 meu2-rai
คุณจะให้ฉันรู้เมื่อไร
1. I’ve lost my passport. chan4 tam passport hai4 ฉันทำพาสป่อร์ตหาย

Although there is a Thai word for passport, the English version is in such
widespread use that it is very unlikely you will ever be in a situation
where you need to use it with someone who doesn’t know what it means.
(However, just in case, the correct Thai expression is nang4-seu4 dern
dtahng1 pra1-tet2 หนังสือเดินต่างประเทศ)
The pronoun chan4 ฉัน is somewhat informal for both males and females,
but it is most commonly used by women (we are about to meet the other
pronouns shortly).
The verb ‘to lose’ consists of two parts ทำ…หาย that go on either side of
the noun that has been lost. Hence, you can use this pattern ฉันทำ +
noun + หาย with any common object. Here are the names of some things
you might lose:
1.13 Complete the following:
Keys กุญแจ gun-jehr chan4 tam ________________ hai4
Shoes ร้องเทา rorng3 tao chan4 _____ ________________ ____4
Telephone (see 1.1) _____- _____ ________________ ____-
Wallet กระ่เป๋า gra-pbao3 _____- _____ _______________3 ____-
Ticket ตั๋ว dtua4 _____- _____ _______________4 ____-
2. What should I do? chan4 kuan ja:1 tam yahng1rai dee

ฉันควรจะทำอย่างไงดี
Thai has a number of different expressions for the different meanings
expressed in English by ‘should’. Kuan-ja:1 ควรจะ is equivalent to the
meaning of ‘should’ in the sense of ‘ought to’ and, like English, is placed
after the subject and before the verb.
‘tam-yahngrai-dee’ is a compound of three words, which literally
translate as ‘do-how-good’ so ‘chan4 kuan ja:1 tam yahng1rai dee’ can be
rendered as something close to ‘How do I do the best thing?’
You can vary this expression by changing the pronoun at the beginning.
ผม /ดิฉัน pohm4 / dichan4 I (male formal) / (female

formal)
คุณ kuhn You
เขา kao4 He / She
เรา rao We
พวกเขา puak kao4 They
Notice that all the tone4, rising tone, pronouns begin with upper class
letters that you have already learned.
1.14
Complete the following expressions in transliterated Thai. Include the
tone numbers where necessary by referring to the previous pages.
What should you do? คุณควรจะทำอย่างไงดี
________________________________________________________________________
What should they do? พวกเขาควรจะทำอย่างไงดี
________________________________________________________________________
What should she do? เขาควรจะทำอย่างไงดี
________________________________________________________________________
What should we do? เราควรจะทำอย่างไงดี
________________________________________________________________________
What should I do ผมควรจะทำอย่างไงดี
________________________________________________________________________
3. What did I do wrong? chan4 tam alai pit1 reuah4 ฉันทำอะไรผิดเหรือ

Here is another useful expression using the verb tam ทำ. The word after
ทำ is ‘alai’, which means ‘what’, followed by another piece of useful
vocabulary, pit1 which means ‘wrong’. ‘reuah’ หรือ has no meaning other
than to signify a question.
Here are some other useful word combinations using ‘pit1’ and ‘reuah’.
Notice the subject is suppressed in the same way as mentioned in Section
One: Getting Started.
พูดผิดเหรือ puut2 pit1 reuah4 Did I say it incorrectly?

เขียนผิดเหรือ kian4 pit1 reuah4 Did I write it incorrectly?
ทำผิดเหรือ tam pit1 reuah4 Did I do it wrong?
4. What do you call this in Thai? riak2 sing1 nee3 wa2 arai ben pasaa4 thai
เรียกสิ่งนี้ว่าอะไรเป้นภาษาไทย
This long phrase can be shortened to simply ‘riak2 wa2 arai’ เรียกว่าอะไร
(call what?) in informal speech, but the longer version has some elements
worth noting.
riak2 เรียก to call

sing1 สิ่ง thing
nee3 นี้ this
wa2 ว่า (verb particle)
arai อะไร what
pben เป็น being/of
pasaa4 ภาษา language
thai ไทย Thai
The word order of riak2 sing1 nee3 wa2 arai ben pasaa4 thai is “call-thing-
this-what-in-language Thai”. This is a common pattern in Thai. For
example “Tell that girl she is pretty” would similarly reverse the order of
‘that’ and ‘girl’ to become “tell-girl-person-that(one)-she-(is)pretty”
bork1 puu2ying4 kohn nan3 wa2 kao4 suay4 บอกผู้หญิงคนนั้นว่าเขาสวย. Notice
that in this pattern ‘that’ has the same function as it does in English
despite its different position, namely to specify which girl is to be told,
not to specify what is to be said to her.
5. There’s something wrong with this computer. computer dtua nee3 mee
pban-hah4 คอมพิวเตอร์ตัวนี้มีปัญหา
The word ‘dtua’ is a classifier word for computers (and many other objects as
well as animals), which cannot be translated exactly in English but means
something like ‘thing’, ‘object’ or ‘body’ (just as ‘kohn’ means ‘person’ and is a
classifier for males and females). Again we can see the pattern of using the noun
before its classifier “computer –object-this-have-problem”.
6. When will you let me know? kuhn ja:1 hai2 chan4 ruu3 meu2-rai
คุณจะให้ฉันรู้เมื่อไร
Two important words here are the future tense marker ja:1 จะ (will) and
the verb ruu3 รู้ (to know). In Thai, verbs do not change ending to indicate
tense as they do in English, which is a significant advantage to the adult
learner – no need to memorise long tables of verb endings. Instead, a few
specific time words are used to indicate all tenses. All future tense is
indicated by ja:1 จะ. We will meet the tense words for past and perfect
tenses later.
Another key word is ruu3 รู้ (to know). This forms a number of common
compounds and expressions. Probably the most familiarly heard are
I don’t know mai2 ruu3 ไม่รู้
and it’s variant
I don’t know either mai2 ruu3 meuan4 gan ไม่รู้เหมือนกัน
Again, notice the different word order in this expression: “You-will-let-

me-know-when?” In Thai, question words always appear at the the end of
a sentence, unlike English where they usually appear first. Here’s two
other examples:
When will you telephone me? toh hah4 pohm4 meu2-rai โทรหาผมเมื่อไร
When did I speak incorrectly? pohm4 puut2 pid1 meu2-rai ผมพูดผิดเมื่อไร
1.15
Complete the following in transliteration adding tone numbers where necessary.

Try checking your answers by identifying the words in the Thai script, referring
back to the previous pages as necessary.
When will you write? ________________________________________

คุณจะเขียนเมื่อไร
When will you speak with that girl?

คุณจะพูดกับผู้หญิงคนนั้นเมื่อไร ___ __1 ____2 gap1 ___2-____4 ____ ____3 ____2-__
(with)
I don’t know _________________________________________

ไม่รู้
When will you bring the telephone? _________________________________________

คุณจะเอาโทรศัพท์มาเมื่อไร
When will they take this chair away? (note: the classifier for ‘chair’ is ‘dtua’ ตัว)
พวกเขาจะเอาเก้าอี้ตัวนี่ไปเมื่อไร __________________________________________
1.16 Vowels used as initial letters.

Recall the three vowels from section 1.4 that appear above a consonant:
ั ี ิ
/a / /ee/ /ih/
There are six vowels that can appear before a consonant:
อ เ แ ไ ใ โ
- /ay/ /ehr/ /ai/ /ai/ /oh/

(as in ‘play’) (as in ‘air’) (as in ‘eye’) (as in ‘note’)
Technically, the letter อ /or/ functions as a middle class consonant when it

appears at the beginning of a word, but as a vowel in any other position. Where
it appears as the intitial letter, it is silent and the word will be pronounced using
the sound of the next letter in the word. The function of อ as an initial letter is
purely to make a word’s tone consistent with its spelling, as we will see shortly
when we examine the tone rules for middle class consonants. In any other
position, อ functions as a vowel and is pronounced as /or/ (as in ‘raw’) unless it
is modified by any other letter in the word.
Here are some examples of the vowels เ /ay/ and แ /ehr/
เก gay unreliable
เบ bay cot
แก่ gehr1 old
แต่ dtehr1 but
The vowels ไ and ใ both have the same sound /ai/ as in ‘eye’, but ใ is often
pronounced slightly shorter than ไ. The vowel sound comes to a more sudden
stop, whereas with ไ it tends to be as long as the natural expulsion of air (for
most non-native Thai speakers the difference is almost inaudible).
Finally, the vowel โ /oh/, which you have already met in the word โทร ‘toh’ for
telephone, is a deeper and more rounded /oh/ sound than the implicit /oh/,
mentioned in section 1.02, which occurs when two consonants appear together
without a written vowel.
1.17
Using all the vowels (don’t forget า /ah/) and letters you have learned so far, try
to read and transliterate the following words. The tone numbers have been
provided for you for all words except those beginning with high-class
consonants, which you should determine yourself by referring back to sections
1.05 to 1.08. Remember mid tone words have no tone number.
ไม่ no ________2
เกเร naughty ________
โต big, grow ________
ขอ please _________-
แน่น tight _________2
ผ่าน to pass ---------
ใฝ่ to aspire to _________-
แสบ to sting _________-
แสน 100,000 _________-
ศก year _________-
1.18 Middle Class Consonants

There are 9 middle class consonants:
ก จ ฎ ฏ ด ต บ ป อ
G/k J/t d/t dt/t d/t dt/t b/p pb/p - /-or
The letters ‘gor ‘ก’ and jor ‘จ’ are both widely used and occur as initial
consonants in many common words.
กิน gin to eat

ไก่ gai1 chicken
กับ gap1 with
กลับ glap1 go back

จาน jarn plate
จะ ja:1 will
จราจร ja:ajon road traffic
and also as final consonants, where the sound changes to ‘k’ for ก and ‘t’ for จ:
บอก bork1 tell

แตก dtehrk1 break
ตำรวจ dtam-ruat2 police
The /d/ and /dt/ sounding initial consonants are all middle class, which makes
it easier to remember the tone rules for any word starting with these sounds. ด
/d/ and ต /dt/ are widespread; however, ฎ and ฏ are rarely used and (with one
exception) never appear as the initial letter in a word. For the sake of
memorising the consonant classes, ฎ and ฏ can be forgotten for the time being.
Here are some common words using ด and ค:
เด็ก dek1 child

ได้ dai2 can
ด้วย duay2 together, also
ตัว dtua body, object, thing
ตา dtah eye
ตำรวจ dtam-ruat2 police
แต่ dehr1 but
แตก dtehrk1 break
Two important consonants in the middle class set are บ /bor/ and ป /pbor/. The
first is equivalent in sound to the letter ‘b’ in English, the second is somewhere
between /p/ and /b/ in English, rather like the sound in the middle of
‘raspberry’. Here are some common words using บ and ป:
บอก bork1 to tell

บาท baht1 (the Thai currency)
บริษัท bori-sat1 company, firm
บัตร bat1 (I.D/Credit) card
ใบ bai leaf. sheet
บน bon on, on top of
แบบ berhp1 style, way
ไป pbai go
ปี pbee year
ปลา pblah fish
ปาก pbark1 mouth
ปิด pbit1 close
เปิด pberht1 open
As final consonants both บ and ป have the sound ‘p’, as in the Thai word แบบ
/behrp/ above.
The final middle class consonant is อ /or/, which is soundless on its own, but
serves to make the tone rules and spelling consistent. Some common words that
begin with อ are:
read ahn1 อ่าน

bathe/wash ahp1 อาบ
may, could aht1 อาจ
We will look at the tone rules for middle class consonants in 6.5, but first some
vocab building.
1.19 Write the transliteration with tone number where necessary and also write
the Thai word for each of the following:
English Transliteration + tone Thai

body dtua ตัว
break _________________ __________________
but _________________ __________________
can _________________ __________________
card _________________ __________________
chicken _________________ __________________
child _________________ __________________
close _________________ __________________
company _________________ __________________
eat _________________ __________________
fish _________________ __________________
go _________________ __________________
go back _________________ __________________
leaf _________________ __________________
mouth _________________ __________________
on _________________ __________________
open _________________ __________________
plate _________________ __________________
police _________________ __________________
road traffic _________________ __________________
style _________________ __________________
together _________________ __________________
will _________________ __________________
year _________________ __________________
1.20 Write the transliteration and the English meaning of the following Thai
words:
Thai Transliteration +tone English

ตำรวจ _________________ __________________
จราจร _________________ __________________
ไก่ _________________ __________________
ปลา _________________ __________________
จาน _________________ __________________
ใบ _________________ __________________
กิน _________________ __________________
ไป _________________ __________________
กลับ _________________ __________________
ด้วย _________________ __________________
กับ _________________ __________________
แต่ _________________ __________________
บน _________________ __________________
เปิด _________________ __________________
ปิด _________________ __________________
แบบ _________________ __________________
ได้ _________________ __________________
จะ _________________ __________________
แตก _________________ __________________
1.21 Using just items from 1.19 and 1.20, construct simple sentences in Thai
for each of the English expressions (remember you don’t need to worry about
articles or punctuation in Thai). The first one has been done as an example.
English Transliteration Thai
The child eats the fish dek1 gin pblah เด็กกินปลา

The fish eats the child _________________ __________________
The fish will eat the child _________________ __________________
The fish opens its mouth _________________ __________________
The fish closes its mouth _________________ __________________
The chicken is on the plate _________________ __________________
The policeman will break the plate.
Transliteration ___________________________________________________________
Thai ____________________________________________________________
The fish is on the plate, but the child eats the chicken.
Transliteration ___________________________________________________________
Thai ____________________________________________________________
1.22 In the above, the word order in Thai is the same as in English. However,
when we use the verb ได้ dai2 meaning ‘can’, this word appears at the end:
เช่น chayn2 (= ‘for example’):
The child can eat the fish dek1 gin blah dai2 เด็กกินปลาได้
The policeman can break the plate dtam-ruat2 dtehrk1 jarn dai2
ตำรวจแตกจานได้
Now try the following:
English Transliteration Thai
The child can open his mouth _____________________________
________________________
The child can eat the chicken _______________________ ______
________________________
The child can break the plate _____________________________
________________________
1.23 Tone rules for middle class consonants.

There are six tone rules for middle class consonants. The first two are the
easiest to remember. Where there is no tone mark at all, the tone will be middle
tone in case of a live syllable, and low tone in case of a dead one:

Middle Class Live n/a MIDDLE
Middle Class Dead n/a LOW
เช่น
ปี pbee year
ปิก pbid1 close
Where tone mark number 1 is used, the tone will be low tone, regardless of
whether the syllable is live or dead.

Middle Class n/a number 1 LOW
เช่น
ไก่ gai1 chicken
Where tone mark number 2 is used, the tone will be falling, regardless of
whether the syllable is live or dead.

Middle Class n/a number 2 FALLING
เช่น
ได้ dai2 can
ด้วย duay2 together, also
Tone marks 3 and 4 are in fact ONLY used with middle class consonants, so
these are the only rules you will have to remember for them. They indicate high
tone and rising tone respectively.

Middle Class n/a number 3 HIGH
Middle Class n/a number 4 RISING
เช่น
ต๋ัว dtua3 ticket
(note the difference from ตัว dtua ‘body’)
จ๊ะ ja:3 yeah, OK

(note the difference from จะ ja:1 ‘will’)
Both tones occur together in the expression
จ๊ะเอ๋ ja:3 ay4 peekaboo! surprise!
Which you will hear whenever you are around adults with small children; it is
also used sometimes as a greeting between intimate friends.
Transliterate and determine the tone for the following words by referring to the
tone tables above:
To complain บ่น ____________________

Some บ้าง ____________________
From จาก ____________________
To read อ่าน ____________________
To dress แต่ง ____________________
Unripe ดิบ ____________________
House บ้าน ____________________
To pump ปั๊ม ____________________
On บน __________________
ิTo break แตก ____________________
1.24 Review
Here is the complete list of tone rules you have learned so far.

High Class Live or Dead number 2 FALLING
Middle Class n/a number 3 HIGH
Middle Class n/a number 4 RISING
Though this may look complex, in fact there are some common patterns that
make the tones easy to remember. For example, notice that the number 1 tone
mark always indicates a low tone with both high and middle class consonants.
The number two tone mark always indicates a falling tone with both high and
middle class consonants. Also, when there is no tone mark, both high and
middle class consonants result in a low tone with dead syllables.
Here is the complete list of high class and middle class letters:
High Class
Middle Class:
ก จ ฎ ฏ ด ต บ ป อ
G/k J/t d/t dt/t d/t dt/t b/p pb/p - /-or
And here are the vowels you have learned that go above a consonant:
ั ี ิ
/a / /ee/ /ih/
and the six vowels that go before a consonant:
อ เ แ ไ ใ โ
- /ay/ /ehr/ /ai/ /ai/ /oh/
(as in ‘play’) (as in ‘air’) (as in ‘eye’) (as in ‘note’)
1.25 More vowels

There are two more vowels apart from the three above that can go above a
consonant. these are
ึ ื
eu: euah
The difference in sound is primarily one of length. The first one is a short vowel,
the second somewhat longer. The closest sound in English might be something
like the noise you might make when seeing something distasteful, ‘eurgh!’ with
an a: sound added on to the end – eurgh!-a: and eurgh:-a:
These two vowels occur in many useful words,
เช่น (chen = for example):

นึก(ว่า) neu:k1 (wa2) to think, consider (that)
รุ้สึก(ว่า) ruu3seu:k1 (wa2) to feel (that)
ถึง teu:ng4 to reach
ฝึกฝน feu:k1fon4 to practice
เลือก leuahk2 to choose
คื keuah namely, which is
ตื่น dteuan1 to wake up
จืด jeuaht1 tasteless
Finally, there are two other symbols that can occur above a consonant, these are
_็ and _์
The first one is a vowel shortener symbol. That is, it has no sound in itself, but it
serves to shorten the length of the vowel sound. For example the word เป็น has
the /ay/ sound given by the vowel เ shortened to make it sound more like the
vowel in the English name ‘ben’ (without the vowel shortene symbol, it would
sound more like /bayn/. The symbol ์ only appears above the final consonant
of a word, and indicates that the consonant should not be pronounced. For this
reason, it is sometimes called the consonant ‘killer’ symbol.
เช่น (chen = for example):
เป็น bpen being

เด็ก dek1 child
สิทธิ์ sit1 right (as in ‘the right to do…’)
ทุกข์ tuk3 suffering
1.26 Vowels that go under a consonant

There are two vowels that can go beneath a consonant:
ุ ู
uh uu
(as in ‘luck’) (as in ‘Winnie the Pooh’)
เช่น (chen):
ผู้ puu2 male, person that…(equivalent to the suffixes

‘–er’ and ‘-or’ in English)
สู้ suu2 to fight, to beat
สุข suhk happiness
ปู pbuu crab
1.27 Vowels that go after a consonant
There are only four vowels that go after a consonant, which are
า อ ำ ะ
/ah/ /or/ /am/ /a/
เช่น (chen):
หา hah4 to find
หมอ mor4 doctor
คำ kam word
จำ jam remember
จะ ja:1 will
ค่ะ ka:2 (polite particle for females)
There are also two special symbols worth mentioning here,
ๆ which indicates that a word is repeated, and
ฯ which indicates that a word is abbreviated.
เช่น
สู้ ๆ suu2 suu2 fight! fight!
กรุงเทพ ฯ Krunghthep Bangkok (the full name of Bangkok in Thai is
much longer, but it is usually abbreviated
to this in many places, including on vehicle
licence plates.)
1.28 Vowel combinations

You now are in possession of all the vowels, but to complete your knowledge
you have to learn the ways in which they can be combined together. Here is the
complete list. Study it first, then try the exercise that follows.
-ะ _ั -า -ำ _ิ _ี _ึ _ื -ุ -ู เ- แ-
/a:/ /a/ /ah/ /am/ /ih/ /ee/ /eu:/ /euah/ /uh/ /uu/ /ay/ /ehr/
เ-ะ เ-า เ-าะ เ-ิ เ-ี เ-ื แ-ะ แ-าะ โ โ-ะ ใ

/ay:/ /ao/ /oh:/ /ir/ /ia/ /ir-a:/ /eh:/ /oh:/ /oh/ /oh:/ /ai:/
ไ เ-ย แ-ว
/ai/ /oiy/ /ehr-ao/
Transliterate each of the following and try to say it out loud. Don’t forget to
work out and voice the proper tone by following the tone rules. Remember also
that ห is often silent as an initial consonant when it is followed by another
consonant (see 1.05).
เกือบ ____________________ almost

เขา ____________________ he/she (pronoun)
เจ้า ____________________ owner
เสีย _____________________ use, waste, spend
เกาะ _____________________ island
โต๊ะ _____________________ table
ศูนย์ _____________________ centre, zero
หนึ่ง _____________________ one
เจ็ด _____________________ seven
เก้า _____________________ nine
เกิน _____________________ too much
แจ้ว _____________________ clear (sound)
Coming soon (I promise!!  ): the low class consonants

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

A THAI TOOLKIT by PHILIP STOKES

0. Before you start

Learning a language is rather like learning any other skill – it requires

Finally I have endeavoured to give as wide a variety of both formal and

In this book, transliterated consonants have the same sound as in

Transliteration English Equivalent

oiy = as in ‘oil’ but with a short /ee/ or /iy/ sound at

0.1 Getting Started

Fortunately for the beginner, informal Thai is very learner-friendly as it

(The meaning of the supercript numbers used below will be explained

Are you well? Sabai1 dee mai4 (Lit: “well?”)

Is the food good? aroi1 mai4 (Lit: tasty?)

Ploy: Where are you going?

Jack: I’m going to get something to eat.

Ploy: I think it’s going to rain.

Jack: I think you’re right.

Ploy: Do you want to take my umbrella?

Jack: Yes, I do.

and ‘to bring (something) here’ which is

Bring me the telephone. ow torasap1 mar

Bring me the computer. ow com mar (lit: take computer

Jack: Hello, how are you?

Complete the following conversation:

Jack: Do you want to play a game?

Ploy: No I don’t. Let’s go out instead.

a. Hello 1.mai2 ben rai

1. Learning your ABCs

Parent: That’s Annie’s book,

Parent: Are you going to be naughty again?

A: I’m going to buy your drinks all night!

ใหม่ (mai1) low tone, means ‘new’

Notice that after the transliteration of ‘mai’ a number appears in

Thai script is fundamental to fluency in a way that learning to read and

represented in English by either ‘bow’ or ‘bough’. English is not a

Learning to read Thai has other advantages too.

บอก /bork1 / to tell กอบ /gorp1 / to scoop up

When two consonants appear together with no written vowel between

บก = /bok1 / land กบ = /gop1/ frog

10. baht ________________

Here are three vowels that can appear above a consonant:

Write the following Thai words in transliteration.

1. What consonant does it begin with?

We will deal with each of these in turn.

Here are all the high class consonants:

สอน / _______________4/ teach

Live and Dead Syllables

1. Song 2. Rock 3. Home 4. Head 5. Clap 6. Sheet

7. playng 8. hin 9. barn 10. nap 11. dtop 12. pehn

Consonant Syllable Tone mark TONE

สอบ /_____________1/ a test

สอน /sorn/4 to teach

ห้า /hah2/ five

1.08 Writing Practice

look for _______________

1.09 ‘To have’ and ‘Is there…?’

Do you have a computer? mee kom mai4

(male speaker) มีครับ

Is there are a toilet here? ที่นี้มีห้องน้ำไหม ________________________

Yes there is. มีคะ ________________________

Do you have a problem? มีปัญหาไหมครับ ________________________

No, I don’t. ไม่มีครับ ________________________

Do you have a room? มีห้องว่างไหมคะ ________________________

Shoes ร้องเทา rorng3 tao chan4 _ ________ 4

Telephone (see 1.1) ___- _ __________ -

Wallet กระ่เป๋า gra-pbao3 ___- _ _________3 -

Ticket ตั๋ว dtua4 ___- _ _________4 -

The child can eat the chicken _________________