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Speaking Thai
Thai is a tonal language. It has five tones.
- neutral
- high
- rising
- low
- falling
.
Thai can only be transliterated into Roman letters.
A transliteration
must also be accompanied by some system that indicates
- tone
- aspiration of consonants
- abruptness of ending a word or syllable
- "length/duration" of the vowel sounds
This page uses the "Robertson's Practical English-Thai
Dictionary" system.
Grammar tips
- Object --> Modifier (modifier
follows object) Ex: Thai's wouldn't say "black
shoes", but would say, "shoes black."
- Repeating an object indicates a plural. Ex: "cat,
cat" would mean "cats."
- Aspiration When the speaking of a consonant produces a small puff of air it is said to be an aspirated consonant. As an example, notice the puff of air when saying "pop". Those consonants will be marked in the table with "(a)"
- Syllable Endings in Thai are of two types; abrupt and normal. An abrupt ending such as in "pop" will be designated with a "!"
- Vowels that tend to lengthen the vowel sound will be expressed with a double vowel
Go to ... phrases
| Tone | Designation |
| high | (h) |
| rising | (r) |
| neutral | no indicator |
| low | (l) |
| falling | (f) |
| Consonant | Phonetic Sound |
Consonant | Phonetic Sound |
| b | bell | l | lock |
| bp | * | m | made |
| ch | chair | n | nut |
| d | duck | ng | ri(ng) |
| dt | * | p(a) | put |
| f | food | r | red |
| g | get | s | sit |
| h | help | t(a) | tip |
| j | job | w | wet |
| k(a) | kite | y | (y)es or m(y) |
| Vowel | Phonetic Sound |
Vowel | Phonetic Sound |
| a, ah | father | ao, ow | chow |
| aa | sand | aw | crawl |
| ai, i, y | lie, by | | |
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*Notes: "bp" and "dt" have no english equivalents, but are a combined sound of both letters. Thai has no equivalent to a soft "g". Thai has no "th" sound as in "the". "ng" can be found as a beginning consonant in numerous Thai words. |
Enough already! Show me the ... Thai phrases!
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