Learning Thai Language

Speaking Thai

bangpain culture of thailand Thai is a tonal language. It has five tones.

Thai can only be transliterated into Roman letters.
A transliteration must also be accompanied by some system that indicates

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
*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.