Thai Script: First Look

Learning the Thai script from the start pays off quickly because Thai is hard to represent accurately with romanization. Thai uses many distinct written vowel shapes, and each one has a consistent pronunciation. That means more work up front, but much less guessing later.

This course introduces the script and sound system through common, high-frequency words you can use right away. It will take time to get fully comfortable with the sounds and tone rules, but within a few days you should already be able to start picking out Thai characters on signs and reading short words.

Here is a very common Thai word:

Thai words are built from smaller pieces. The consonant gives the basic sound, and the vowel piece changes it.

In this example, the vowel piece sits above the consonant. In other words, vowel pieces can appear in other positions too.

Blasts of Air

This consonant is close to a [k] sound, but without the strong blast of air that English usually adds.

Put your hand in front of your mouth and say "car" and "cool." You should feel a puff of air. Now say the Thai consonant above much more softly. If you feel the same puff, you are using too much air.

It may sound a little like a "g" at first, but it is better not to think of it that way because it is still a Thai "k" sound, just without the blast of air.

You will also see this consonant often in examples:

This consonant is often used as a stand-in so a vowel piece has something to attach to. For now, just get used to seeing it. You will learn more about it later.

Thai words and syllables usually consist of two or three parts although some will have more. It's different from English and may seem strange at times, but after you are a couple of hours into this course, I expect that everything should start becoming clearer for you. At this point, you will see how useful learning the script really is.

Hungry for more? Move on to the next lesson and get to work!