Can some help me with this problem i'm having.

ช้า - slow. Okay i have looked at a number of charts and a low class consonant with ไม้โท gives it a high tone, but this is not the case as ช้า has a rising tone. It's the same with ซื้อ - to buy

Can some help me with this problem i'm having.

ช้า - slow. Okay i have looked at a number of charts and a low class consonant with ไม้โท gives it a high tone, but this is not the case as ช้า has a rising tone. It's the same with ซื้อ - to buy

Your confusion stems from the fact that there is a slightly rising pitch in what is referred to as the high tone in Thai. So just settle for that this pitch contour is called the high tone, and be more concerned with how it actually sounds, and how it differs from the other four possible tones - because this is what's important.

In reality, it helps to view the tones as unique 'pitch curves' rather than 'tones' (because the word tone leads us to believe they remain fixed on the same frequency like musical tones, which they don't).

The tone referred to as the 'rising tone', as a contrast, first dips down a little to gather momentum before making a sharp pitch climb, as in หรือ สาว or เหงา.

When you hear these two tones said after one another you will be able to distinguish the difference, and the goal you want to reach is to be able to always identify which is which, and reproduce them.

This diagram is a rough outline of the actual pitch curves described by the five tones in Standard Thai - personally I found similar graphs helpful when I was practicing the tones:

(Picture taken from http://brams.dk/thai-frontpage/thai-tones/ )

That's great, thanks for your help, i will spend some time on this chart too no doubt!!