Learn Thai Squiggles has been approved and is now available in the app store. Have a look!
Thanks to all the testers. You will be receiving a free copy shortly if you haven’t already.
The first version of the app is just about ready to go the store. Thanks to the testers for their suggestions!
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I have been messing around with Sketchcast lately and it has some potential.
I created a quick one introducing the middle class letters. Let me know if people would be interested in more of these.
Please forgive my writing as it was done with a mouse.
Here is a deck to practice the letters from the sketchcast. The most important thing at this point is connecting the English words with the letter. Hearing the words over and over should serve to anchor the sound in your mind as well.
Anki Deck – Mid Class Consonants
There are 24 low class consonants. This is the biggest group of letters. This post will just cover some of the more common ones. It is assumed you are familiar with the vowels covered in previous alphabet-related posts. These vowels are - อา อิ อี เอ เอา ไอ ใอ ออ อุ อู
If it isn’t already obvious, the best way to go about this is to memorize the 2 other groups of letters (high and mid) so that when you encounter a letter that you know isn’t high or mid, you know its low. With a bit of time spent trying to read, it will all become second nature and you will no longer need to think in terms of high, mid or low.
As I mentioned above, there are 24 letters in the low class. Today we are just going to cover 14 of them. As usual, I strongly reccomend learning the alphabet ASAP as it is very difficult to separate sounds within a language while you are associating the sounds with your native alphabet/sylalbary. So learn the damn alphabet already. Its easy. If you are going to be in Chiang Mai (or Bkk if I happen to be there) and need help, I can pound the bulk of the alphabet into your head in 6-8 nearly painless hours and help you start reading (fun easy stuff) so it stays put.
ค ง ช ซ ท น พ ฟ ภ ม ย ร ล ว
ค (คอ ควาย) is very much like the ‘k’ in English. You should note that the only difference (in appearance) between this letter and ด (ดอ เด็ก) is the circle placement.
Mnemonic – The line in the middle is an arm. The circle is a fist holding a dagger. If you are trying to kill someone the blade of the dagger is coming out the bottom of your hand while you stab them you might shout “I’m gonna kill ya!” in order to remember the ‘k’ sound — ค
If you are holding the dagger the other way (blade up) you are more likely to be ‘defending yourself.’ — ด
ง (งอ งู) is like the ‘ng’ in singing, but in Thai it can be the first sound in a word. The letter is called snake and it looks like one. Or it looks like a lower-case ‘g’, whatever works for ya. I’d go with a snake that makes งงงงง sounds rather than hiss instead.
ช (ชอ ช้าง) This one is like a ‘ch.’ The name of the letter ‘ช้าง’ (chaang + high tone) means elephant so you might consider the last line which heads off to the top right being the elephant’s trunk.
ซ (ซอ โซ่) This is the only ‘s’ sound that is low class (the rest are high). โซ่ means chain and has a nick in the tail of the elephant, so lets imagine a chain wrapped around the poor creature’s tail. It helps to create a mental image.
*This letter is the only ‘s’ sound that can be any tone (high class consonants leading a word restrict the word to rising, falling or low)
ท (ทอ ทหาร) is just like a ‘t’ and the letter’s name means soldier. Maybe this soldier is holding one fist (the circle) high in some sort of salute….
น (นอ หนู) – ‘n’ the name of the letter is ‘mouse’ or ‘rat.’ This letter looks a lot like an ‘N’ to me. The connecting line in the English letter is mousing its way along the floor only to scamper up the other side.
พ (พอ พาน) like a ‘p,’ and the name of the letter is a type of tray or dish that has a pedestal base. Let’s just think of it as pedestal-ed plate (จาน) with a big P on it.
ฟ (ฟอ ฟัน) like an ‘f,’ and the name means ‘tooth.’
ภ (ภอ สำเภา) – ‘p’ – type of boat (junk).
ม (มอ ม้า) ‘m’ – horse
ย (ยอ ยักษ์) ‘y’ – ‘giant’ *often used as a semi-vowel
ร (รอ เรือ) – ‘r’ (often pronounced as ‘l’ or half-ass’d ‘r’ *correct pronouciation involves a trill, but this is almost always dropped in colloqual speech) - boat (any kind)
ล (ลอ ลิง) ‘l’ – monkey *monkey down on all 4′s with unusually long tail extending high over its head
ว (วอ แหวน) ‘w’ – a ring *Mnemonic – here someone has presented you with a very odd ring – its far too small to fit on your finger (the circle) and it has a long curved claw jutting out of the top. Maybe if you just hung the claw over your finger…
ผี ฝาก ถุง ข้าวสาร ให้ ฉัน
What’s this nonsense above us? Well, its just that for now. But soon, very soon, it will be much more.
First up – ข [ขอ ไข่] This is the 2nd letter of the alphabet. Yes the one right after ก [กอ ไก]่. What does this letter’s name mean? Well, ไข่ is an egg. Its pronounced much like a ‘k’. Along with its vowel, it sounds a something like ‘kai’. Can’t think of any words in English that have it. How about the last syllable in the name Malachai (that guy that chills behind the rows). As you no doubt remember ไก่ means chicken and ไข่ is egg. 1st and 2nd. The debate is over. The chicken came first.
Rules of the high class are kind of interesting. Any time there is no tone mark and no hard ending (endings that are like k/g, p/b or t/d) the words will take on a rising tone. This applies for both long and short vowels. Too easy eh? Let’s go over 3 letters and then try some simple words.
ห [หอ หีบ] This letter is the closest thing to an ‘H’ that you’ll find in Thai. But remember its not an ‘H’, so its gonna do some things the English ‘H’ version doesn’t do.
ฝ [ฝอ ฝา] Here we have one of the ‘F’ – like letters. Also, high class so rising tone on open endings.
Now then, we need to learn some new vowels. These 2 are related and look very similar so lets learn ‘em together. Remember that อ is just a placeholder which you need in order to read the vowel. The vowels are the semi-circle-ish shapes on top. The only difference is that the long vowel has a line sticking up from it.
ผี Remember this from above? ผ is much like a ‘p’ – As this one is high class and we are throwing on that อี above, we are getting a sound just like when they say ‘P’ on Sesame Street. Well its a long vowel, so make it a bit longer than normal. Um with a rising tone. Lets change that …think something along the lines of …”I gotta peeee” and send that tone up high.
ผี means ghost btw
ฝี VS ผี – Notice that these letters are mighty similar. Long vowels, rising tones.
Mnemonicalafrageous time – You hopefully remember from 3-5 seconds ago that ผี means ‘ghost’ – Um …maybe when you were a kid and you saw a ghost you had to ‘peeee’ or something? Not great, but it might work.
ฝี – this means ‘boil’ as in the pus-filled kind – so lets say that the long part sticking up is a pus-filled abcess just waiting to burst. And we can even take that a step farther and imagine that the boil is just so friggin large that if it does burst (and the long part falls off) you die and become a ghost.
Not working? Go back and read the above again, but this time visualize it in your mind. Imaginative memory is an extremly powerful tool. You won’t need to remember this stuff forever, but the quickest way to get through an alphabet is by making sure its stuck in your short-term memory until you can process the letters fast enough to graduate to basic reading.
Moving along…consider the following word
ฝาก Do you remember that last letter? Its a middle class consonant. ก [กอ ไก่]
How about the vowel อา ?
ฝ + า = ฝา lid – see above. But if we throw on that last letter, everything changes!
ฝาก – Now that we have thrown a hard [k, p, t, b] ending on the tone is gonna change. Remember I said only open vowels are rising. With hard endings, we need to switch to a low tone. The low tone is created in your chest as opposed to your neck or head. You should feel it in your upper chest if you are producing the sound correctly. It is difficult to say this tone loudly especially at first.
ฝาก /faaak/ all k + g- like letters in Thai end with the same sound. An unaspirated ‘k’ – This means you need to cut off the air before it comes out.
Think of how you say ‘Duck, duck, duck Goose’ to find that cut off ‘k’ and you’ll catch on.
ฝาก – to deposit
So if we refer to that stuff at the top we now hopefully can read the first 2 words! Wow, we sure are amazing.
ผี ฝาก – ghost /piii/long vowel, rising tone + deposit /faaak/ long vowel, low tone
What is this ghost trying to deposit? We’ll get there in a sec. Be patient.
First we need more vowels! Did I mention that Thai has over 30 vowels? Don’t worry, they each have only one sound.
อุ VS อู - As you may have already guessed, these vowels are also related. The first one is of course the short vowel.
Now lets make some words.
Remember ง [งอ งู] ? Yea, well me neither, but we are going to need to if we are ever going to be able to talk about snakes. Anyways, ง is like the /ng/ in sing and thing and bring.
งู (not a high class consonant!) is pronounced /ngoo/ refer to this post if you need a refresher on the wonders of the งู (snake). If you still can’t figure out how to pronounce it, do tell me and I can explain in better detail how to find your งู.
Back to High Class – ถ [ถอ ถุง] This letter is just like the T in ‘Mr. T’. Well almost.
ถ /taw/ /u/ /ng/ = ถุง /toong/ (like the ‘too’ in too much with an ‘ng’ attached to it) rising tone
ถุง means ‘bag’ as in the paper or plastic variety – not backpacks or luggage.
ผี ฝาก ถุง – /piii/ /faaak/ /toong/ Ghost deposits bag
Letters letters letters! Too many letters! Gotta keep moving..
This next word is one of those you will here every day in Thailand.
ข้าว - ข [ขอ ไข่] + า = ขา + ว = ขาว + ้ = ข้าว
kaw + า = kaah (rising tone because high class and open ending) + ว = kaaaow **Imagine an excited kid saying “Wooow!” Now imagine that he is dyslexic, stutters and occasionally slips up with a lisp – erm..just change the ‘w’ sound to a ‘k’ might be easier. So…
Wait, did I mention ว yet? ว [วอ แหวน] is a semi-vowel. Distant cousin of the ‘W’. แหวน means ‘ring’. When it comes at the end of a word it ‘w’-afies the word before it. Think about what your mouth must do to change the word ‘Ho’ to ‘How’ and you should have a pretty good idea of what it does.
ข้าว is pronounced kaaow (becomes a falling tone due to the tone mark). If it didn’t have the tone mark it would be a rising ขาว because its a high class consonant with a soft or open ending.
To be continued…..
Next up – more vowels. We need to cover more vowels so you can begin to work out the names of some of the other middle class consonants.
What vowels do we know so far?
อา
ไอ ใอ
เอ
เอา
Let’s throw 2 more into the mix.
อุ and อู. Think of these vowels as siblings. They are essentially the same sound, but the longer shaped vowel, has um, the longer sound. Remember that the actual vowel symbols are simply ุ and ู while the อ is just a place holder we use to spell the vowels. Note that they go under the letter they are modifying.
While we’re at it, I should mention the long อา vowel sounds sidekick อะ. So the อ [ออ อ่าง] along with those sperm or comma-like symbols give us the short vowel อะ. This is one of those sounds your gonna need to hear. Kinda like the ‘a’ in about.
Oh yea, if you want big pretty pictures of the Thai alphabet, you can find some at learningthai.com.
Moving right along, lets quickly run over the sprinkle of letters from part 1.
ก [กอ ไก่] ไก่ chicken
อ [ออ อ่อง] ไอ to cough
Next up is ด [ดอ เด็ก] เด็ก means kid or child. We’ll get to how to read it shortly. This letter ด is very close to the letter D in English. Lets throw an ไ vowel in front of it to give us a word that sounds a whole lot like ‘die’ in English.
ได Simple ‘eh? ไก่ ได ไอ
Time to throw another vowel in the mix. The vowel [สระ อา] า. This is a long vowel. Comparable to the sound you make when the doctor tells you to open up and say ‘aah.’ Well, perhaps not quite that long. But maybe something like the vowel sound in dark if you got rid of the r and k and replaced it with some more ‘aah.’ The vowel is like a candy cane. And the sound you might make while trying to shove the whole thing in your mouth at once isn’t very different from the vowel sound.
กา อา ดา
Still with me? Probably not, but it’ll make more sense when I get the sound files up. Soon friend, soon.
บ [บอ ใบไม้] ใบไม้ means is 2 syllables and means leaf. The บ sound is a lot like ‘b,’ and that should suffice for now. The vowel ใอ is pronounced exactly the same as ไอ and the first one which is rounded at the top only appears in about 20 words and is important only for spelling.
Lets go over all the vowels we have so far -
กา บา ดา อา
ไก + ใก, ไบ + ใบ, ได + ใด differ only in the spelling of vowel.
We’d better cover another vowel before moving on. The vowel เ [สระ เอ] is a long vowel which sounds like the way we say the letter ‘A’ when spelling a word. Like in ‘day, tray, pay, say, and so forth. It looks like a tiny lowercase b and always appears before the consonant it affects.
เด เบ เก เอ
We need to add in another consonant and a vowel.
ต [ตอ เต่า] Some people have trouble pronouncing this letter so I’m gonna try to describe it. Its somewhere between d and th in English. Your tongue should be face up like a ‘th,’ but it shouldn’t actually go out past your teeth. It should stay kind of cupping your upper teeth. Keep your tongue loose and relaxed when practicing this sound.
เต่า means turtle. Notice that we have both the เ before and the า after the letter. These 2 vowels when enveloping a letter, actually become a new sound. Yay!
So what vowels do we know now? None? Erm. Well, lets pretend we do and try reading these mostly nonsense words below:
เอ อา เอา ออ
เก กอ กา เกา
บา เบ เบา บอ
เตา เต ตา ตอ
ใบ ไต ไก ไอ
*ออ is pronounced like ‘awe.’ Remember that the first อ is a placeholder and the second อ acts as a vowel.
First off, you gotta learn the alphabet. There isn’t going to be any getting around it. Not here anyways. The alphabet has a bunch of sounds that we don’t have in English. So the sooner your brain can process those letters as Thai sounds and not English sounds, the sooner you will start speaking correctly.
Now I’m gonna try and scare you off. Thai is tonal, has lots of letters and a bunch of rules you need to get used to in order to figure out which tone a word should be. Its a bit heavy at first, but if you take it in gradually it is by no means unattainable.
First the letter, then in [brackets] how its referred to. Formula is as follows:
letter – [letter + อ + name of letter]
ก – [กอ ไก่] This letter happens to be the first in the alphabet. Not a bad place to start. More importantly it is a middle class consonant and thats what we should be learning first. The rules are easier to grasp and there aren’t that many letters in the group. Only 9 in fact. Can’t get any easier than that..right?
I’m going to avoid using any linguistic terms because we don’t need them. If you need to learn words like bilabial and alveolar (who does?) then find a site that teaches English.
Back on track. This letter ก [กอ ไก่] is pretty simple. It kinda looks like a bird to me so use that as mnemonic if you’d like. It fits as the name of the letter is actually ไก่ which means chicken. Too easy.
The sound of ก might take a bit of getting used to, but its not really that hard. Phrasebooks tend to peg it as a k, but I’d say its much closer to the ‘g’ in guide. Then again, its not a g or a k, its a ก.
You may be wondering about that symbol after the ก. Thats the vowel. Thai vowels are like a group of rowdy kids. They are all over the place and never where you expect them. Under, over, before and maybe after the consonant if your lucky. There are some invisible vowels too, but we’ll get to that fun stuff later.
For now let’s make sure you are heading in the direction of grasping this vowel ไ [สระ ไอ]. While it is written before the consonant..the actual sound of the vowel still follows the consonant. The sound of the vowel is mighty similar to the vowel sound in words like – my, try, lie, spy, and of course, Thai [ไทย].
อ – [ออ อ่าง] While this is most certainly a middle class consonant, it also acts as a vowel or a placeholder and you will learn it quickly because you will see it all the time. Any time we spell a word in Thai [ไทย], we say a sound which combines the consonant + อ. In those cases it functions as a vowel sound. The sound is a lot like the word ‘awe.’ Any time we want to write a vowel, it must have a placeholder and that placeholder is อ. In those cases, it just takes the form of the vowel it is spelling. Like this – ไอ [to cough; vapor]. We just say the sound of the vowel – see above.
Lets go over those again now -
ไก่ is a chicken
ไอ means ‘to cough’
I’ll explain อ – [ออ อ่าง] as well as give some more easy word examples in the next post.