กขค

0 BASIC
RULES TO
READ THAI

INTRODUCTION TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#1
A SYLLABLE CONSISTS OF AN
INITIAL CONSONANT AND A VOWEL

tone mark

เ ก่ ง
initial consonant

vowel final consonant

Every Thai syllable consists of at least an initial

consonant(s) and a vowel. Sometimes, there is a final
consonant or a tone mark which are optional.

In Thai language, we highlight the concept of beginning

and ending consonants as consonant sounds differ.

The position of the vowel can be in front of, behind, below,

above, or around the initial consonant(s) like a package.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
THAI CONSONANT
Thai script in Thai is อักษรไทย (àk-sõon-Thai) in which it's
derived from Khmer script. King Ramkhamhaeng the
Great (พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช) created the first set of
traditional Thai scripts in 1283.

In Thai language, there are 44 consonants but two of them

are obsoleted (ฃ and ฅ). It seems quite complicated but
there are some consonants that share the same consonant
sound.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#2
NAME OF THAI LETTER HAS AN
INHERENT -OOR SOUND

กgoor-gai
ก ไก่

To call each Thai letter, we would pronounce it with -oor

sound followed by an example word that has the same
consonant sound.

For example, we call ก, goor-gai in which the consonant has

'g' sound and ไก่ (gai) is an example word which means
chicken. The example words make it easier to remember.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#3
SOME INITIAL CONSONANTS
SHARE THE SAME INITIAL SOUND

The reason why each Thai consonant has an example word

in its name is that there are some consonants that share the
same initial sound. For example, ส ษ and ศ which have 's' as
the initial consonant sound. If you just say 'soor', it can be

ส ษ ศ
soor-suea, soor-rue-sii or soor-saa-laa.

soor-suea soor-rue-sii soor-saa-laa

All Thais know the names of each consonant as we learn

from school. Therefore it's quite important for you to learn
the names of letters so when you ask Thais to spell a word,
you can differentiate the consonants.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
SHARED INITIAL
CONSONANT SOUND
As mentioned before, some consonants share the same initial
consonant sound therefore there are in total 21 initial consonant
sounds in Thai language.

Let's take a look at the photo above! Some letters are grouped by
different colors as different initial consonant sounds. For
example, ข, ฃ, ค, ฅ and ฆ in red. All of these letters share the 'k-'
initial sound. So all of them are called 'koor ...'

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#4
A CONSONANT MIGHT HAVE DIFFERENT
INITIAL AND FINAL CONSONANT SOUNDS

ษา ดาษ saa daad

The same letters might have different sounds. The initial

consonant sound can be different from its final consonant
sound.

Take a look at the example above. ษ (soor-rue-sii) has 's' as

an initial consonant sound while it has 'd' as a final
consonant sound.

So how do I know which ending sound a letter makes?

Well, you need to learn the topic: 'final consonants' to
master 8 final consonant sounds and see which consonants
belong to each sound.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
THAI VOWELS สระไทย
Vowel in Thai is สระ (sà-rà). There are 32 vowels in total however
28 of them are the commonly used ones. Some vowels consist of
more than one symbol.

Thai vowels are categorized into 2 main types: Simple Vowels

(with only one vowel sound - can have either short or long sound)
and Complex vowels (a combination of two vowel sounds or one
vowel with one consonant sound).

A vowel always sticks with the initial consonant(s). It could be in

front of, behind, above, under or around initial consonant(s). - in
the image above, refers to the position of initial consonant(s).

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#5
A SYLLABLE IS PRONOUNCED
FROM THE INITIAL CONSONANT
AND FOLLOWED BY THE VOWEL

เก่ ง
ก + เ- + -ง +  ่
g + e + -ng

In Thai, some vowels are positioned in front of an initial

consonant in a syllable, however, you always start reading a
syllable from the initial consonant.

According to the example above, even though the vowel เ- (-e

sound) is in front, you will not read the word as "egng".
Instead, you will read it 'geng'. The initial consonant is read
first.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#6
THERE IS NO SPACE BETWEEN
SYLLABLES AND WORDS

sentence 1 sentence 2

ตอนนี้ ฉันอยู่ที่ บ้าน คุณอยู่ที่ ไหน

dtoorn-nii chãn yùu tîi bâan, khun yùu thîi-nãi
Now I am at home. Where are you?

In Thai language there is no space between words or even

syllables. You only see a space when a sentence or phrase
ends. So please do not leave a space between words when
writing or typing Thai.

Aha, I know what you are thinking. It looks so messy in a

sentence, right? You might also wonder how can one
recognise when a word or syllable ends. Find the answer in
the next page (Rule #7)

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#7
THE VOWEL OF A SYLLABLE
HINTS WHERE A SYLLABLE ENDS

To find where a syllable ends, you need to be able to locate

the vowel and initial consonant of each syllable.

่ื
ฉน|ชอ|สาว
ั
The letters in orange are initial consonants
while the vowels are in green.

-ั -ื -า
above above behind
initial initial initial
consonant consonant consonant

The dash symbol (-) indicates the initial consonant position.

It's where a syllable starts and the previous syllable ends.

Therefore being able to identify the location of vowels

and initial consonants is really important.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
LIVE / DEAD SYLLABLES
Live and dead syllables are easily defined as sonorant or dead
sounds. A live (sonorant) syllable can be pronounced as long
as your breath goes. While dead syllable cannot be
pronounced long (basically it's short).

ban
It can be pronounced long
as -n ending is a nasal sound
(soft ending)
bad
Nope! It doesn't last long
because the -d ending sound
(hard ending)

baa
Long vowel without an end
ba
Short vowel is a short sound.
consonant is a long sound That makes sense right?

You: But why do I need to learn that?

Me: I know you would ask! Because it matters for tones. Live
and dead syllables determine different tones as you will see in
the next pages.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#8
LIVE & DEAD SYLLABLE ARE
DEFINED BY VOWELS AND ENDING
CONSONANTS

According to the previous page, there are 2 things that define

whether it's a live or dead syllable which are ending consonant
sounds and vowels.

To make it even easier, I provide a tree map to help you

recognize types of syllables in no time.

1. If the syllable has an ending consonant:

a. soft ending (-m, -n, -ng) > Live syllable
b. hard ending (-k, -b and -d) > Dead syllable
2. If the syllable has no ending consonant:
a. long vowel > Live syllable
b. short vowel > Dead syllable

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
T H A I T O N E S ผั น เ สีย ง
Thai is a tonal language which is quite different from English.
Same word with different tones have different meanings.

There are five different tones (flat, low, falling, high and rising
tones) with four tone marks described in the image above.
However some Thai syllables consist of no tone mark.

A tone mark sticks on top of the initial consonant(s) of a

syllable. In addition tone mark is above a vowel when the
vowel is positioned above the initial consonant(s)

แก่ กา
่ กุ่ กี ่
ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING
by BananaThai
RULE#9
TONES ARE NOT DEFINED (ONLY)
BY TONE MARKS!

When I said there are 5 tones and 4 tone marks + no tone

mark, many Thai learners immediately assumed that each
tone mark defines each specific tone.

I am so sorry to tell you a hard truth....

Thai writing is not that simple.

flat tone กา คา
low tone ก่ า -
falling tone ก้ า ค่ า
high tone ก๊ า ค้ า
rising tone ก๋ า -
As you can see, a tone is not only defined by the a specific
tone mark. So breathe in accept that you need to learn a few
things that determine tones.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
RULE#10
THEN, TONES ARE DEFINED BY ....
Please note that, my goal is to give you a quick overview
what matters for Thai tones, rather than explain all rules.

1.) CLASSES OF CONSONANTS

Thai initial consonants are classified in 3 classes: high, middle and
low. Each class of consonant has different tone rules to apply.

high class low class

ขา/kãa/
คา /kaa/
ขา (ข = high class consonant) is pronounced with a rising tone
while คา (ค = low class consonant) is pronounced with a flat tone.

2.) SHORT / LONG VOWELS

When there is no final consonant, tone is also determined by
vowels. According to the example below, the initial consonants are
ข (high class consonant) but with a short vowel, tone turns 'low'.

short vowel long vowel

ขะ /kà/
ขา/kãa/

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
CONTINUE
TONES ARE DEFINED BY ....

3.) SOFT / HARD ENDINGS

There are 8 final consonant sounds in which they are classified
by 2 groups: soft ending (ends with -m, -n, -ng, - w and -y sounds)
and hard ending (ends with -t, -d and -b sounds) in which the final
consonants also define tones.

soft ending hard ending

กัน
/gan/
กัด/gàd/

4.) TONE MARKS

There are 5 tones (flat, low, falling, high and rising tones)
and 4 tone marks in Thai. Different tone marks have different tones
(applied with same class of initial consonant). ก is a middle class
consonant.
mark -่ mark -้

กา
่
/gàa/
กา้
/gâa/

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai
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ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THAI READING

by BananaThai