This page is a record of my continued and pathetic attempts to learn the Thai language. After careful analysis of my failings over the years I have come up with an approach which, whilst probably not unique, may just allow me to get beyond limited light conversation. Or maybe not.

The page was last updated on 2nd April 2011.

Chapter 1: Introduction and the consonants.

Chapter 2: Starting to read Thai

Thai Language - Introduction

I have now lived in Thailand for nearly sixteen months on top of many visits beforehand and being married to a Thai for nearly nine years. I can order a beer and my favourite food and hold a light conversation; I have an eclectic collection of vocabulary depending what words have stuck and what have not. So I know the Thai word for poetry and the Thai word for snake, (but cannot pronounce it correctly), but I don't know the Thai word for tall or for statue. It means I cannot hold a conversation in Thai unless the sentence happens be rather peculiar -and so far that hasn't happened.

I left school with 7 'O' levels, all science except for English language. I took Spanish 'O' level but failed it but achieved Grade 4 CSE in Spanish, close to failure. I hadn't any interest in Spanish but I did have a interest in German for a while as it was a 'scientific' language and my father knew some German because of being posted there when he was in the army. If ever you need someone to hold a brief conversation including the subjects of synchrotron radiation and apples I am your man. If you need to book a hotel room it is best to find someone else.

But living in Thailand it is clearly necessary to master the language, (well perhaps not clearly, but I wish to because almost everyone where I live speaks no English, I wish to get permanent residency here at some point where the ability to read and speak the language is a requirement and not least I want to understand what is going on around me). Now I have Masters degree in Art History which was distance learning (Open University) and is reasonably far removed from any science subject so clearly my brain is not completely shut off from the arts, I just have to find some way that works for me. So I have decided over the last few months on an approach I hope will work for me. Taking lessons is difficult here in Saraburi, but also I don't want to make it a chore and I am busy most days with work so finding a regular slot is not easy. I learnt from the Masters, which took 8 years of study, that you do have to enjoy it, at least a little bit and although there were deadlines to essays which were annoying at times, there was enough interest to make me put my nose to the grindstone.

I have also learnt not to expect much help from my wife, Ploy, who, like me, knows a lot of the rules of her language because it sounds right that way or because, well that is the way it is. There are an increasing number of on-line resources for Thai - perhaps too many - but they are all aimed at speaking Thai or they provide the old school books, Manee, which I think really needs a teacher to be present.

So my approach: to be able to read Thai first. And I am going to this by rote learning. Now that didn't work for me for vocabulary but learning to read Thai is a matter of learning pictures as it doesn't use the Roman character set and after studying paintings for so long I surely should be able to manage that. The idea behind this approach is that once I can read Thai, albeit it with no understanding, the vocabulary should stick better. So when I go out in the car with Ploy I can read the road signs, (which is useful in itself), but also the signs for diesel or the pharmacy, for example, which by association I think will help the words stick. Menus at a restaurant, headlines in the newspapers, signs to the toilet (and which is which!) should be clear from association, (after the first mistake with the toilets), and I can slowly increase my vocabulary this way. I also avoid all the awful transliterations that the various books employ and immediately understand what tones are required for speaking, even if I don't actually manage to get them right.

So here goes. First I have acquired (from Ploy) a number of children's books on the Thai alphabet: these books usually have a page per character and a picture of the object that is associated with that character, (which I am told is how children learn them). I start with the consonants. There are 44 in total but two are obsolete. I have copied below the summary pages of the book with the two obsolete characters crossed out. You can see a small drawing of the object associated with the character and I have also scribbled on there the sound the character makes at the beginning and end of a word, (as it is sometimes different). In the next lessons I will write out the consonants individually: at the very least at the end of this I will have 42 new Thai words.

Consonants 4, 7, 10, 11 and 13

The first letter of the Thai alphabet is called Gor Gai and looks like this, ก, and that is usually the place that most lessons start; learning the order is important if you are to use a dictionary for example. However, given that a lot of Thai<>English dictionaries can now be found on-line I have chosen instead to learn them in the same order that a book I have suggests, Easy Thai (oxymoron) by Gordon Allison.

To pronounce the character you take the sound it makes, (at the beginning of the word), and add 'or' to it; so the first character at the top left is a 'g' which adding an ór 'to it makes the name 'gor'. And so on.

Looking at the list of consonants above and their pronunciation it becomes clear that some appear to be the same sound; there are three 'ch' -'chor' sounding characters for example. Let Gordon Allison from his book, Easy Thai, explain:

'...Thai has borrowed heavily from the Sanskrit and Pali languages in the past, and it was also desired to retain distinctive letters that would indicate the etymology of certain words. In addition, when the Thai language began to be written, it was found necessary or desirable to add certain consonants for use in writing native Thai syllables and words.'

In addition to the sound of the character there is also an object association which is to help children learn the alphabet and I think it helps me too. I have read that adults frown upon this and either don't use it or use other, more adult objects. Well bollocks to that, every book I have uses the children's nomenclature and I will do so as until the tones have been mastered as it is not possible to differentiate the characters in any other way. So the first character 'gor' is also referred to 'gor gai' because the spelling of 'gai' ไก่่ uses the character ''gor'; 'gai' means chicken in Thai.

So the first five characters to begin are:

From left to right they are 'kor' ('kor kwai' where 'kwai' means buffalo); 'ngor' ('ngor ngoo' where 'ngoo' meaning snake); 'chor' ('chor chang' where 'chang' means elephant), 'sor' ('sor so' where 'so' means a chain) and 'yor' ('yor ying' where 'ying' means a girl). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 'k', 'ng', 'ch', 's' and 'y' respectively, at least at the beginning of a word, at the end some consonants sound differently but one thing at a time.

The 'ng' sound is particularly difficult to sound, (for me at least), as in English we do not have this sound at the beginning of words, we have it at the end, as in 'sing' or in the middle as in 'angel'. Having never been able to consistently pronounce it correctly I have no advice here except try to avoid words beginning with 'ngor ngoo' - there are a surprising number of them, deliberately in my opinion as Thai is language with traps for English speakers peppered all over it.

For the record these are all low class consonants - there are 24 of them in Thai of the 44 total consonants. To write the characters start at the left beginning with the small circle if it has one. The characters should be written in one stroke unless they have discrete parts as in 'yor ying'.

One thing that will further confuse as you look for these consonants while out and about is that, as with English, from shop signs to the scrawl most of us use when writing, liberties are taken with them. For example 'chor chang' and 'sor so' are very similar at first sight with the only difference being the little dent in the top left arm that leads off the little circle. So I asked Ploy to write those two characters out for me as she might write them in a letter and what became clear is, whilst liberties are taken in the body of the character, the important bits that differentiate the character are actually emphasised, like the dent and also the flourish on the top right which is unique to those two characters.

Five more low class consonants will follow next time, once I feel I have remembered these!

Consonants 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31

I forgot to mention last time, in writing the similar characters 'Chor Chang' and 'Sor So' that Ploy refers to the latter as having a dent or bump in the head which might aid memory.

So five more low class consonants:

From left to right they are, 'tor' ('tor tha-harn' where tha-harn means soldier in Thai); 'tor' ('tor thong' where thong means a flag in Thai); 'nor' ('nor noo' where noo means a rat in Thai); 'por' ('por phaan' where phaan mean a dish with a pedestal base in Thai); and 'for' ('for fun' where 'fun' means a tooth in Thai). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 't', 't', 'n', 'p' and 'f' respectively.

There is another consonant that is similar to the 'tor tha-harn' ท and that is 'tor monto' ฑ which we haven't met yet, again it is the head of the character that is different. However I have a note in one of Thai language books that this is one of three consonants that occur in only a few words and need only be remembered in the intial stages for their position in the alphabet; I am ever willing to obey at this stage. In any case they both have the same sound. When I asked Ploy about 'tor monto' she had to think for a minute before writing it which sort of confirms what the book says.

The 'por phaan' and 'for fun' characters are also similar but not so difficult to discriminate because of the longer flourish at the end of 'for fun'. When Ploy writes these two characters she often doesn't write the 'head', the circle at the beginning, because that doesn't define these characters but she does overdo the flourish on the 'for fun'.

One thing I do have problems with when reading Thai is the immediate association of the shape of the character to a Roman character, for example 'tor thong' to the Roman character 's'. I don't have any answer to this except, like speaking the language, I guess you gradually learn to 'think' in Thai rather than think in English and then translate. Good things come to those who wait. Maybe the day will come when I see the Thai character before the Roman one!

So ten consonants down. 44 consonants in total, two are obsolete and it seems three are rarely used and can be saved for later so we are over 25% of the way there already.

Consonants 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36

I mentioned there were 24 low class consonants, ten of which we have encountered already and five more will follow in this chapter; fifteen in total. Of the other 9 consonants one is obsolete (but might be encountered in old books) and 5 are rare or very rare so I will leave them for later when we encounter words that use them. So just 8 more low class consonants to follow and here are the first five of them.

From left to right they are, 'por' ('por samphao' where samphao means a junk or sailing vessel in Thai); 'mor' ('mor ma' where ma means a horse in Thai); 'yor' ('yor yahk' where yahk means a giant in Thai); 'ror' ('ror rua' where rua mean a boat in Thai); and 'lor' ('lor ling' where 'ling' means a monkey in Thai). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 'p', 'm', 'y', 'r' and 'l' respectively.

Only one note from these five consonants; ror rua is often pronounced as an 'l' rather than a 'r'. Whilst this is incorrect I find that actually eases pronounciation because the 'r' sound has a slightly rolled sound to it which is difficult in normal conversation (to me).

Consonants 19, 37 and 44

These are the last three low class consonants that are in everyday use.

From left to right they are, 'nor' ('nor nayn' where nayn means a novice monk in Thai); 'wor' ('wor whaen' where whaen means a ring in Thai); and 'hor' ('hor nok nook' where nok nook mean an owl in Thai). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 'n', 'w' and 'h' respectively.

The low class consonants that I have not included for reasons of rarity, (or obsolescence), are: 'kor kohn' [5]; 'kor rakung' [6]; 'chor cher' [12]; 'tor montho' [17]; 'tor phoo thao' [18]; and 'lor chulaa' [42] - the numbers are their positions in the alphabet. In total therefore the 24 low class consonants are now complete.

Of the 18 more commonly used ones three actually make a different sound at the end of word whilst two become vowels but I will not worry about this at this time. This is only my own approach but for now I intend to complete trying to remember what the consonants look like and then do the same for the vowels. At that point it should be possible to pronounce text, (albeit sometimes incorrectly), and at that stage it would be prudent to start to learn some grammar. But that is long way ahead of us as there are another 20 consonants to learn yet.

Next I will start to look at the 9 middle class consonants, (in fact only seven of them at this stage as 2 are little used). Just as a reminder, the importance of the class of the consonants becomes apparent when the tones are introduced, much, much later.

Consonants 1, 8, 20 and 21

The first four of the 9 middle class consonants are shown below.

From left to right they are, 'gor' ('gor gai' where gai means a fowl in Thai); 'jor' ('jor jaan' where 'jaan' means a plate in Thai); 'dor' ('dor dek' where dek mean a child in Thai); and 'dtor' ('dtor dtao' where dtao means a turtle in Thai). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 'g', 'j, 'd' and 'dt' respectively.

A word of the pronounciations. Dtor dtao is actually sounds as an explosive mix of both 'd' and 't' sounds. The phonetic symbol for this is officially 't' whereas the official symbols for the 't' sounds is 'th'. The sound of 'gor gai' is a hard 'g' as in 'give' but is sometimes represented by the letter 'k', (the 'k' sounds being represented by 'kh'). This is another reason why being able to read Thai is so useful; even official transliterations can be misleading. Similarly 'jor jan' is sometimes represented as 'ch' instead of 'j'. You will see this inconsistency on signposts quite a lot.

Two middle class consonants are little used, 'dor chadaa' and 'dor patuk' and will not be introduced until later.

Consonants 26, 27 and 43

The final three of the more frequently used middle class consonants are shown below.

From left to right they are, 'bor' ('bor bai mai' where bai mai means a leaf in Thai); 'bpor' ('bpor plaa' where 'plaa' means a fish in Thai); and 'or' ('or aang' where aang mean a basin in Thai). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 'b', 'bp' and 'or' respectively.

Or aang is not actually sounded when it is a consonant and is only there to support vowels which are not allowed to stand by themselves, the poor things. It can also be used as a tone indicator but we need only worry about that much later.

Consonants 2, 9, 16, 22 and 28

Finally we shall introduce the ten high class consonants (one is obsolete). The first five of these is shown below.

From left to right they are, 'kor' ('kor kai' where kai means an egg in Thai); 'chor' ('chor ching' where 'ching' means high pitched cymbals in Thai); 'tor' ('tor tharn' where tharn mean a pedestal for a statue in Thai); 'tor' ('tor thoong' where thoong means a small bag or sack in Thai); and 'por' (por pheun' where pheun means a bee in Thai). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 'k', 'ch', 't', 't' and 'p' respectively.

Consonants 29, 38, 39, 40 and 41

And finally the last five high class consonants.

From left to right they are, 'for' ('for fhaa' where fhaa means a lid in Thai); 'sor' ('sor saalaa' where 'saalaa' means an open sided shelter in Thai); 'sor' ('sor reu see' where reu see mean a hermit in Thai); 'sor' ('sor sua' where sua means a tiger in Thai); and 'hor' ('hor heep' where heep means a box in Thai). And when pronounced as part of a word they make the English equivalent sounds of 'f', 's', 's', 's' and 'h' respectively.

Sor saalaa is also known as sor kor because of its resemblance to kor kwai; sor reu see is also known as sor bor because of its resemblance to bor bai mai and and sor sua is also known as sor lor because of its resemblance to lor ling.

Hor heep is frequently silent and always so when it occurs at the beginning of a syllable.

This completes the 44 consonants (or the ones most frequently used or that are not obsolete). Next, as an alternative to further rote learning, we will look at some real signs and text in Thai through which the vowels and grammar will be introduced.

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