Want To Learn Thai?

[SoftWater]

I am about to update my computer, and among the things that are lurking in my old hard drive are loads of lessons and exercises I wrote to help myself learn Thai. Since I don't need them any more, I was going to delete them. [*I once thought about making them into a book, but have since realised there's far better stuff than mine all over the internet]. But before I hit the delete key, it occurred to me - well, maybe someone else might get some value out of them - seems a shame to waste. So, if you want somewhere to start, here's the first of a series of posts to set you off.

So, where to start? Fortunately for the beginner, informal Thai is very learner-friendly as it often makes use of short phrases or ‘chunks’ to express otherwise complex ideas, leaving out words or ideas that can be understood from context. For example, pronouns (I, Me, You, He, She) are used far less in Thai than in English in everyday conversation. Look at the following examples and compare them with their English equivalents. Notice how the literal translation of Thai lacks a pronoun.

[**The meaning of the bracketed (numbers) refers to tones and will be explained in the next post, along with some guide lines about the transliteration used here, but before getting bogged down by theory, let's learn something, so for now, just focus on getting used to some new ways of saying things.]

Are you well?

Sabai(1) dee mai(4) (Lit: “well?”)

สบายดีไหม

Yes, I’m fine.

Sabai(1) dee (Lit: Well.)

สบายดี

Where are you going?

bai nai(4) (Lit: go where?)

ไปไหน

I’m going to get something to eat.

bai gin khao(2) (Lit: go eat rice)

ไปกินข้าว

Is the food good?

aroi(1) mai(4) (Lit: tasty?)

อร่อยไหม

It’s fine.

aroi (tasty)

อร่อย(1)

Do you want this?

ow mai(4) (Lit: take?)

เอาไหม

No, I don’t want it.

mai(2) ow (Lit: not take)

ไม่เอา

Yes, I do want it.

ow (Lit. take)

เอา

I think it’s going to rain

fon(4) ja:(1) dtok(1) (Lit: rain will fall)

ฝนจะตก

I think you’re right.

hen(4) duay(2) (Lit: see also)

เห็นด้วย

Use the notes above to complete the following conversation between two close friends:

Ploy: Hi

sa(1)wat(3) dee

สวัสดี

Jack: Hello

sa(1)wat(3) dee

สวัสกี

Ploy: Where are you going?

a. ___________________________________

Jack: I’m going to get something to eat.

b. ___________________________________

Ploy: I think it’s going to rain.

c. ___________________________________

Jack: I think you’re right.

d. ___________________________________

Ploy: Do you want to take my umbrella?

e. ow rom(2) plao(1)

เอาร่มเปล่า

Jack: Yes, I do.

f. ___________________________________

Ploy: Goodbye

sa(1)wat(3) dee

สวัสดี

Jack: Goodbye

g. _________________________________

In the above conversation you were introduced to three new words:

sa(1)wat(3) dee = hello/goodbye

สวัสดี

rom(2) = umbrella

ร่ม

plao(1) = ‘or not’

เปล่า

The same expression, sa(1)wat(3) dee, is used both for hello and goodbye. The word plao(1) is a shortened or slang version of reuh(4)plao(1) หรือเปล่า. You will hear both in ordinary conversation. If you study the examples above, you will notice that many Thai questions are made by adding the particle mai(4) ไหม at the end of the sentence, which can be thought of as a verbal “question mark”.

OK, that's it for this post. Between now and the next post, try to find some audio resources that will give you a sense of how these words sound. Look in the pinned thread 'online resources' and you should stumble across more than you have time to follow!

Softwater

Edited September 16, 2009 by SoftWater

[worldfun]

thanks sw - the timing could not be better just as I'm about to start my intensive course

cheers!

[SoftWater]

Following on from Post 1, here's another exercise for you before we take the detour into transliteration notes and tones.

As we have seen, the verb 'to want (to have something)' is 'ow' เอา.

The verb 'to want (to do something)' is 'yarg'(1) อยาก, as in

Do you want to play a game?

yarg(1) len(2) gaym mai(4)?

(Lit: want play game?)

อยากเล่นเกมไหม

'ow' is also part of the phrasal verb 'to take (something) away' which is

ow + __(object) __ + bai

as in

Take this chair away.

ow gao(2)-ee(2) bai

เอาเก้าอี้ไป

and 'to bring (something) here' which is

ow + __(object) __ + mar

as in:

Bring me the telephone.

ow torasap(1) mar

เอาโทรศัพท์มา

Bring me the computer.

ow com mar

เอาคอมมา

OK, now have a look at these examples and try the exercise that follows:

Do you want to play a game?

yarg(1) len(2) gaym mai(4)

อยากเล่นเกมไหม

No, I need to do some work.

mai(2) yarg(1) len(2), dtong(2) tam ngarn

(Lit: not want play, need do work)

ไม่อยากเล่นต้องทำงาน

What work have you got to do?

tam ngarn alai?

(Lit: do work what?)

ทำงานอะไร

Let's go out instead.

bai tee(2)-yo dee gwa(1)

(Lit: go trip good more)

ไปเที่ยวดีกว่า

Shall I phone for a taxi?

toh taxi dai(2) mai(4)?

(Lit: telephone taxi can?)

โทรแท็กซี่ได้ไหม

Use the notes from this post and post 1 to complete the following conversations between

two close friends:

Jack: Hello, how are you?

a. _________________________________________________

Ploy: I'm fine.

b. _________________________________________________

Jack: Where are you going?

c. _________________________________________________

Ploy: I'm going to work.

d. _________________________________________________

Jack: What work do you do?

mee ngarn tam alai?

มีงานทำอะไร

Ploy: I teach English.

sorn(4) pasaa(4) angrit(1)

สอนภาษาอังกฤษ

Jack: Shall I call a taxi for you?

e. _________________________________________________

Ploy: No, thanks.

mai(2) pben rai

ไม่เป็นไร

* 'toh' โทร is the shortened form of 'torasap(1)' โทรศัพท์. It is usually used as a verb and means 'to telephone'. The longer word 'torasap' is usually used for the noun 'a telephone'.

** 'mai(2) pben rai' ไม่เป็นไร is probably the most ubiquitous phrase in the Thai language. It has various connotations according to context. It is often translated as 'never mind'. The sound /pb/ at the beginning of 'pben' เป็น is perhaps best represented by the sound of the same letters in the middle of the word 'raspberry'.

*** 'tam ngarn' ทำงาน means 'to do work'; 'mee ngarn tam' มีงานทำ means 'to have work to do'

**** 'sorn(4)' สอน is a verb that means 'to teach'

***** 'pasaa(4)' ภาษา means 'language' and always precedes the name of the language being spoken of, as in 'English language' = 'pasaa(4) angrit(1)', 'Thai language' = 'pasaa(4) thai'.

One more quick exercise just to make sure you didn't forget the stuff at the beginning of this post.

Complete the following conversation:

Jack: Do you want to play a game?

______________________________

Ploy: No I don't. Let's go out instead.

______________________________

Jack: OK, bring the umbrella

______________________________

Ploy: Do you want to take the telephone?

______________________________

Jack: If you like.

gor dai(2)

ก็ได้

Softwater

Edited September 17, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

There are many different conventions for representing the sounds of Thai phonetically in the Roman alpahabet, and no single one is perfect; there are a number of reasons for this that we don’t need to go into, but one that does need to be mentioned is that any guide to tranlisteration (like the one you’re going to see below) is inherently flawed as even the sound of the English words used as examples are pronounced differently by different English speakers. Thus ‘cup’ spoken by me (a North Eastern Brit) does not sound the same as spoken by a Southern Brit or an American and so on.

For this reason, I can’t promise that my (or any other) transliteration scheme will give you anything like the real sound of the Thai words to you. Its close to my ear for Thai and the way I speak.

Due to the imperfections of transliteration, and for many other reasons that will be outlined later, the serious learner would be wise to move beyond transliteration as soon as possible and learn to read Thai script for themselves. To this end, I’ll be introducing reading exercises as soon as we've dealt with tones (next post) and steadily reducing the transliteration along the way. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is start listening to some audio. As said in post 1, check the ‘online dictionaries and resources’ thread pinned in the list of discussion topics.

In these posts, you can take transliterated consonants (all letters except vowels ) as having approximately the same sound as in ordinary English. For the sake of beginners, I will simply ride roughshod over the more subtle distinctions, which can await the introduction of Thai script. The following conventions are used for vowels:

(sorry for the messy table,, the post editor has no sympathy for table makers!)

Transliteration English Equivalent

ao (เอา) = as in ‘cow’

ai (ไอ) = as in ‘eye’

ay (เอ) = as in ‘play’

ehr (แอ) = as in ‘air’

ee (อี) = as in ‘bee’

ih (อิ) = as in ‘it’

oi (โอย) = as in ‘oil’

oiy (เอย) = as in ‘oil’ but with a short /ee/ or /iy/ sound at the end

a (อั ) = as in ‘cat’

a: (อะ) = (see note*)

ah (อา) = as in ‘car’

ir (เออ) = as in ‘dirt’

ia (เอีย) = as in ‘ear’

uh (อุ) = as in ‘cook’

uu (อู) = as in ‘dew’

ua (อัว) = as in ‘sewer’

euh: (อึ) = see note**

euah (อื) = see note**

* In Thai, some words have a very short vowel sound that comes to a guttural stop (try saying the word ‘at’ without the ‘t’). This abbreviated vowel sound is represented in the text by using a colon : so that the sound ‘a’ (‘at’ without the ‘t’) would be transliterated as /a:/. Other conventions are introduced as needed.

** The closest sound in English might be something like the noise you might make when seeing something distasteful, ‘eurgh!’ Try saying it with a smile, which I know is a bit counter-intuitive but is generally recognised as being the best way to get close to the Thai sound.

The vowel sound /euh:/ is shorter than /euah/, which has a more pronounced /a:/ sound at the end.

[SoftWater]

The first thing anyone ever learns about Thai is that it is a tonal language. So let’s get stuck into this without further ado.

All five of the following words are transliterated as ‘mai’ but differ in tone.

ใหม่ (mai1) low tone, means ‘new’

ไม่ (mai2) falling tone, short vowel, means ‘no’

ไม้ (mai3) high tone, means ‘wood’

ไหม (mai4) rising tone indicates a question

มาย (mai) middle tone, means ‘ a measure’

Notice that after the transliteration of ‘mai’ a number appears in brackets, ‘mai(1)’, ‘mai(2)’ etc to indicate low tone, falling tone and so on. Remember that where no number is indicated, the tone is middle tone.

I'm not going to give analogies to the sound of the tones with certain English expressions. Most books do this, but in my view they are more misleading than helpful. High tone, for example, has no analogy to anything I've ever heard in English. The only way to get a grip on the different tone soundings is to ask a native speaker, or again, go follow some audio links in the onlline resources thread.

Having said that, and even without audio, you can still profitably try the following exercises because what we are trying to do here is to begin the process of training ourselves to speak words with varying tone. Accuracy - matching the exact sound of native speakers - is something you will work on slowly and (probably) endlessly.

Exercise 1

See if you can say all of the mai words above in a discernibly different way.

Exercise 2

Re-read the dialogues in post 1 and post 3 trying to add a discernibly different tone according to the numbered scheme above.

Softwater

Edited September 17, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

Transilteration corrections –

Sorry, folks. I’ve just noticed some inconsistencies between the transliterations in posts 1 and 3 and the scheme offered in post 4.

So, let’s try this again. The corrections are in bold. Let me know if there are any other confusions.

Transliteration English Equivalent

ao or ow = as in ‘cow’

ai = as in ‘eye’

ay = as in ‘play’

ehr = as in ‘air’

ee = as in ‘bee’

ih = as in ‘it’

oh = as in ‘go’

oi = as in ‘oil’

or = as in 'raw'

oiy = as in ‘oil’ but with a short /ee/ or /iy/ sound at the end

a = as in ‘cat’

a: = (see note*)

ar or ah = as in ‘car’

ir = as in ‘dirt’

ia = as in ‘ear’

uh = as in ‘cook’

uu = as in ‘dew’

ua = as in ‘sewer’

euh: = see note**

euah = see note**

Edited September 17, 2009 by SoftWater

[soloman]

Brilliant! You now have your own page on my desk top. You should get your own banner ad )

Edited September 17, 2009 by soloman

[SoftWater]

In this post, I'm going to introduce you to Thai writing. The Thai writing system is very well organised and logical, but before we get to into it, I want to give you a sample of a few letters that you can quickly learn, just so you can see how easy it is to start reading simple words.

Here are seven Thai letters. The transliterated capital letter before the slash (/) indicates the sound of the consonant when it appears at the beginning of a word. In Thai, many consonants change sound when they appear at the end of a word. Where this is the case, the final consonant sound is represented by the lower case letter after the slash.

 บ		ท	   ก		 ช		 น	  อ			   า		
 B/p	T/t	G/k	Ch/t		 N/n	-or			-ah
										   (as in 'law') (as in 'car')

For example, the word บอก is pronounced /bork /, with the letter บ having a /b/ sound and the letter ก having a /k/ sound. On the other hand, the word กอบ is pronounced /gorp/, with the letter ก having a hard /g/ sound and the letter บ having a /p/ sound.

บอก  /bork(1) / to tell	
กอบ  /gorp1 / to scoop up

When two consonants appear together with no written vowel between them, an /oh/ (as in 'lot') sound is assumed between the consonant sounds. For example,

		
 บก = /bok(1) / land		กบ =  /gop(1)/ frog

Using the guide above, transcribe these Thai words into transliterated English (the tone numbers are provided for you). The first has been done as an example.

1.	บก		  /   bok (1) /		land
 2.	ชอบ		 /		(2)/		to like
 3.	บาท		 /		(1)/		baht (the Thai currency)
 4.	ทา		   /		   /		 to paint
 5.	กก		   /	   (1)/		 to embrace
 6.	ชา		   /		   /		 tea
 7.	ชก		   /		(3)/		to hit
 8.	บอก		 /		(1)/		to tell
 9.	นาน		 /		   /		 a long time
 10. นอน		  /		   /		 to lie down

Softwater

(many thanks to Meadish for the tip about 'code' tags, tho' I haven't fully mastered it yet!)

Edited September 17, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

The previous exercise should have produced the following answers

1. บก bok(1) = land

2. ชอบ chorp/chawp(2) = to like

3. บาท baht(1) = the baht

4. ทา tah = to paint

5. กก gok(1) = to embrace

6. ชา chah = teah

7. ชก chok(3) = to hit

8. บอก bork/bawk(1) = to tell

9. นาน nahn/narn = a long time

10. นอน norn/nawn = to lie down

Now, we need to slow down a bit. Of course, you can't work out the tones yet for yourself, you just have to copy the ones given. We'll be fixing that sooner (and easier) than you think.

Secondly, in fairness (and before other forum members start howling at me) I have to say I've glossed a couple of important pronunciation points for the sake of simple presentation. The only one I'm going to mention for now concerns ก G/k.

In a lot of transliteration schemes, including the official and commonly used ones in Thailand, you will see the letter ก transcribed as 'K' instead of 'G'. In fact, ก doesn't quite sound like either a 'K' or a 'G', but is a sound made in the same way as if you were making a pretend-choking sound after eating your friends cooking, or preparing a nice ball of muccus in the back of your throat before spitting at something a long way off! Start with the choking sound then go for a 'G' with an expulsion of air. Got it? (If not, wipe off the computer screen!). If you find this one hard to get right, sticking closer to a G rather than a K when ก is in the intial consonant position will serve you well.

OK, now lets review some of the vocab from earlier posts. Review the vocabulary you have learned so far by matching the English words a - j with the transliterated Thai words 1 to 10 below.

a. Hello

b. how are you?

c. Never mind

d. Tasty

e. To bring

f. Go and get something to eat

g. Go out

h. Work

i. Teach

j. Take (away)

1.mai(2) ben rai ไม่เป็นไร

2. bai tee(2)-yo ไปเที่ยว

3. sa(1)wat(3) dee สวัสดี

4. ngarn งาน

5. ow mar เอามา

6. sabai(1) dee mai(4) สบายดีไหม

7. aroi(1) อร่อย

8. sorn(4) สอน

9. ow bai เอาไป

10. bai gin khao(2) ไปกินข้าว

Now review the language all the way back from post 1 to help you write the correct transliteration after each of the following words. Include the tone number that is given. Don't worry about writing the Thai yet.

k. Umbrella

l. Game

m. It's going to rain

n. Want to play

o. Where are you going?

p. English language

q. Thai language

r. Chair

s. Telephone

Softwater

Edited September 17, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

Now I know you want to learn more vocab and cool things to say to the Thai people that you meet - and we'll be getting to that shortly. But the best way to learn new vocab so that it sticks is to learn how it is spelled. One of the great advantages of learning Thai writing is it tells you the tone of any word you can read! Given how important tone is to speaking Thai this alone should be enough to motivate the learner to learn Thai script. But it gets better because there are all these advantages too:

a. It is the fastest way to pick up new vocabulary. Understanding simple street signs is something you will be able to do very quickly, and this will help you acquire new vocabulary almost immediately.

b. Transliteration cannot accurately capture the sound of many Thai words.

c. Transliteration limits the learner to a small amount of learning materials. In fact, the best and cheapest learning materials are authentic Thai children's books and schoolbooks aimed at teaching Thai to Thais.

d. Finally, if all this were not enough, imagine someone walking around New York or London, able to speak English but unable to read it or write it. In the West we think of this kind of illiteracy as a handicap. And it is. Why should we resign ourselves to being handicapped illiterates in Thailand? Especially when learning to read and write, as you will soon discover, is actually easier than learning to speak and listen!

OK, now I know you're convinced, it's time to show you how easy this is.

Let's add three more vowels to the seven letters you saw above. The reason for doing this is that when we get into looking at the consonants in an organised and systematic way (next post), we'll have enough foundational items to look at them and make real-word examples. That way we can improve our spoken vocab at th same time as our literacy.

Vowels can appear before, between, above, below or after the consonant it modifies. We met two already อ and า that went after the consonants they modified. Now here are three vowels that can appear above a consonant:

1. ั /a /(as in 'hat')

2. ีิ/ee/ (as in 'free')

3. ิิ/ih/ (as in 'hit')

Using the seven letters you met before, and these three new vowels, write the following Thai words in transliteration (the first one has been done for you as an example).

1. ที__________/__tee__ /_____a time/occasion

2. นาที_______/________/_____minute

3. ทับ_______ /______(3)/_____to cover

4. บิน_______/_________/_____to fly

5. กิน_______/________ /_____to eat

6. กับ_______/______(1)/_____with

7. นับ_______/______(3)/_____count

8. ชิน_______/________/______to be used to

9. ชี________/________/______to point

10. กีบ_______/________/______hoof

Softwater

(that's the last one for today!)

Edited September 17, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

That third vowel should be

______ิ /ih/

(having some probs with the text editor )

[ianwuk]

These are great

Still learning the earlier ones.

Many thanks.

Ian

[SoftWater]

The previous exercise should have produced the following answers. (It's worth the effort to spend some time studying this particular post as there's a lot going on here.)

Some example sentences in which you could use the vocab are provided. You can't read the Thai yet, but start practicing your reading by identifying the words from the exercise in each sentence. This will help your word recognition skills later. Notice each Thai sentence is reproduced twice. The first time the target word is in bold to help you find it. The second time it is not. Be sure to read and find it both times.

Read the transliterated version out loud, trying to add the tones (as before, don't worry so much about accuracy here, just focus on changing the tone as indicated).

You do not need to worry about all the new vocab in these sentences yet, but the sentences have been chosen to give you some common or useful words and expressions. Any you can pick up here and remember will be a bonus!

1. ที tee / a time or occasion

I will eat later

จะกินข้าวทีหลัง

ja:(1) gin kaow(2) tee lang(4)

(lit: will eat rice time later)

จะกินข้าวทีหลัง

2. นาที nahtee or nartee / a minute (i.e. 60 seconds)

I will eat in 5 minutes

จะกินข้าวในห้านาที

ja:(1) gin kaow(2) nai ha(2) nahtee

(lit: will eat rice in 5 minute)

จะกินข้าวในห้านาที

3. ทับ tap(3) / to cover, lie on top of

The books are laid on top of one another.

หนังสือวางทับกัน

nang(4)seuah(4) warng tap(3) gan

(lit: book placed on top of together)

หนังสือวางทับกัน

4. บิน bin / to fly

The mosquitoes are flying all over the place

ยุงบินไปบินมา

yuhng bin bai bin mar

(lit: mosquito fly away fly come)

ยุงบินไปบินมา

(*notice all the words are middle tone!)

5. กิน gin / to eat

Do you want to eat with me?

กินข้าวกันไหม

gin kaow(2) gan mai(4)?

(lit: eat rice together?)

กินข้าวกันไหม

(**remember that ไหม translates as a question mark)

6. กับ gap(1) / with

Who are you going with?

ไปกับใคร

bai gap(1) krai?

(lit: go with who?)

ไปกับใคร

7. นับ nap(3) / to count

I can't count the money

นับตางค์ ไม่ได้

nap(3) dtang mai(2) dai(2)

(lit: count money no can)

(***say the English word 'death' starting the word with your tongue behind your top teeth. Thats the sound of /dt/ made by the Thai consonant ต DT/t)

นับตางค์ไม่ได้

8. ชิน chin / to be used to

I've already gotten used to the hot weather

ชินอากาศร้อนแล้ว

chin argart(1) rawn(3) laow(2)

(lit: used to weather hot already)

ชินอากาศร้อนแล้ว

9. ชี้ chee(2)/ point to

[note the correction - this word has falling tone; I mistyped it in post no.10)

Can you point to which way I should go?

ชี้ทางได้้ไหม

chee(2) tahng dai(2) mai(2)

(lit: point way can?)

ชี้ทางได้ไหม

10. กีบ geep(1) / hoof

[note the correction - this word has low tone; I mistyped it in post no.10)

The horse has an injured hoof

กีบม้าเจ็บ

geep(1) mah(3) jep(1)

(lit: hoof horse hurt)

กีบม้าเจ็บ

(OK, I admit it - this last one ,might not find a lot of use! Though the word for 'hurt' or 'pain' you will hear a lot!)

Softwater

Edited September 18, 2009 by SoftWater

[Lopburi99]

This is great. I've been meaning to check out this forum for something like this for some time. Time to get off my lazy ass and learn more Thai. Thanks SoftWater.

[SoftWater]

*Correction

8. แล้ว is high tone, so the correct transliteration is laow(3)

Edited September 18, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

This is great. I've been meaning to check out this forum for something like this for some time. Time to get off my lazy ass and learn more Thai. Thanks SoftWater.

Please feel free to post questions in this thread if you're unsure of anything, if you spot an error, or you need further explanation. I'll try my best to answer all your questions and if I can't answer them, there's bound to be someone else on thaivisa who can. I am something of a minnow compared to many of the experts on this forum, so don't be shy - you can get all the help you need here.

[SoftWater]

OK, here's one more consolidation exercise before we move on to looking at Thai writing in a systematic manner. If you've been following this thread from post 1, you should be able to read all of these simple Thai words. Review the previous lessons as much as necessary till you can do the whole exercise below.

Write the English meaning (not the transliteration) after each of these Thai words. The first one has been done as an example.

1. กก means 'to embrace'

2. กิน

3. ชก

4. ชอบ

5. ชา

ุ6. ชี้

7. ทา

8. บอก

9. บาท

10. นอน

11. นาน

12. นับ

Softwater

Edited September 19, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

*Correction

Post #9

6. ชา chah or char = tea

[SoftWater]

If you've worked your way through posts 1 to 18, you're now ready to start tackling the Thai alphabet. Make sure you did the exercise in post #17 first. I'll give the answers to that exercise in post #20 after this one.

If you managed the reading exercises so far, you are ready. Take as much time as you need to work through each post. I wouldn't attempt more than one post a day from here on in, and remember to review regularly.

OK, ready? Sure you are, let's go!

You may have heard that there are 44 consonants in the Thai alphabet, split into three groups called

High class

Middle class

Low class

(Do not confuse the three class names with the five tone names – low class does not mean low tone, for example.)

People get scared when they think of all that many items to remember, but learning which class each consonant belongs to requires only a short period of rote learning. It is very easy to remember the classes with a short burst of activity (which you'll be getting here!) and the work you put in now will repay you no end later. Trust me, if I can do it you can do it. I have a very poor memory (ask my wife, who always complains that I ' ha(4) mai(2) koiy jer ' หาไม่เคยเจอ, (lit: look not ever find) because I can never remember where I put anything!

Lets start with the high class consonants. There are only 11, and one of them is obsolete, so you can forget about that one anyway!

Here are all the high class consonants:

ข K/k

ฉ CH/-

ฐ T/t

ถ T/t

ผ P/-

ฝ F/-

ศ S/t

ษ S/t

ส S/t

ห H/-

ฃ* K/- (*this consonant has become obsolete, so you can ignore it)

Notice that three of the consonants have the same sound: the /s/ sound when used at the beginning of a word, and the /t/ sound at the end. This makes them particularly easy to remember as there is only one other /s/ consonant in Thai, the lower class ซ s/t. Thus, you should remember that all the /s/ sound consonants except ซ are high class.

*Make particular note that the letter ห as an initial consonant is often silent when followed by another consonant. For example, หนา would be pronounced /nah(4)/ and not /honah/.

Using the letters above and those introduced from post #8, transliterate the following Thai words, all of which begin with a high class consonant:

สอน			/ _______________(4)/		teach
ถอน			/ _______________ (4)/		to withdraw (money)
ฉัน			/ _______________ (4)/		I (feminine or informal male pronoun)
ขอ			/ _______________ (4)/		please (request)
ฝน			/ _______________ (4)/		rain
ศอ			/ _______________ (4)/		neck, throat
ฐาน			/ _______________ (4)/		base, pedestal
ผี			/ _______________ (4)/		ghost
ษอ			/ _______________ (4)/		(name of the letter ‘ษ’)
หา			/________________ (4)/		to look for, to go and see

Softwater

Edited September 19, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

Here's the answers to the exercise in post #17

1. to embrace

2. to eat

3. to hit

4. to like

5. tea

6. to point

7. to paint

8. to tell

9. Baht

10. to lie down

11. a long time

12. to count

[SoftWater]

**Correction of a correction - Post #13

9. ชี้ chee(3) - to point to - this word has HIGH tone (that's official!).

Can you point to the way I should go?

ชี้ทางได้ไหม

chee(3) tang dai(2) mai(4)

ชี้ทางได้ไหม

Edited September 19, 2009 by SoftWater

[Korat88]

Thanks for taking the time to share all this SoftWater. Very helpful and much appreciated.

[SoftWater]

Now that you can read some Thai words, you need to learn how to tell a word's tone. In truth, tones apply to each syllable in a word, so a word of more than one syllable can have more than one tone. However, to begin with, we will only look at single syllable – and therefore single tone – words.

There are three things that you have to ask yourself in order to determine a word's (or syllable's) tone:

1. What consonant does it begin with?

2. Is the final syllable 'live' or 'dead'?

3. Is there a tone mark?

We will deal with each of these in turn.

1. What consonant does it begin with?

You will have noticed that all the words you transcribed in the last exercise ended with the number 4 rising tone. This was not an accident. All words that start with a high class consonant have rising tone if there is no tone mark and the syllable is live.

2. Is the final syllable 'live' or dead'?

All the words you transcribed in the last exercise have 'live' final syllables. 'Live' means that the final syllable is open and could continue to be voiced in the way children might extend the sound of, say, 'soonnnn, or 'sawww' or 'peeee'. 'Dead' or closed syllables cannot have their sound continued in this way. Think of the way the English words 'Cop', Shop, and 'Gate' end. The final sound of these words cannot be voiced in extension. In the Thai language, words that end with the following consonant sounds are 'dead':

-b -p -d -t -k

All other final syllables ending with a consonant are open or 'live, including the –ng sound (as in 'sing').

For the following 12 words, say each out load and decide whether it is 'L' (live) or 'D' (dead).

1. playng L/D

2. hin L/D

3. barn L/D

4. nap L/D

5. dtop L/D

6. pehn L/D

7. กับ L/D

8. นาที L/D

9. ชิน L/D

10. บาท L/D

11. นอน L/D

12. ชา L/D

*****************

[the answers are: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12 are Live; 4, 5, 7, 10 are Dead]

*****************

As noted above, in the exercise in the previous post, all the words you transliterated began with a high class consonant, had a live final syllable and no tone mark; therefore, Thai speakers will pronounce these with a rising tone. Thus we can define the following rule:

Tone Rule 1:

			 
Consonant		  Syllable		  Tone mark				   TONE
High Class		  Live				n/a				   RISING

In the case where the initial consonant is high class, the syllable is dead and there is no tone mark, the word will be pronounced with a low tone.

Tone Rule 2:

Consonant					Syllable			Tone mark				TONE
High Class				   Live				   n/a				 RISING
High Class				   Dead				  n/a				 LOW

Here are some examples of words with high class initial consonant, dead syllable, and no tone mark. They are all pronounced with a low tone. Fill the blank spaces with the correct transliteration:

สอบ		  /_____________(1)/		  a test
ศอก		  /_____________(1)/		  forearm
ขอบ		  /_____________(1)/		  to repay

Tone Marks

There are only four tone marks in Thai. They are

่__ ้__ ๊__ ๋

1 2 3 4 respectively

The good thing about tone marks is that if they appear, you do not have to pay any attention to whether the syllable is live or dead, only to the class of the initial consonant.

If a word with a high class consonant has the number 1 tone mark, -่ it will be pronounced with a low tone regardless of whether the syllable is live or dead. Thus while, as we saw earlier, the verb 'to teach' สอน has a rising tone, the adjective meaning 'cross eyed' or 'squint' ส่อน is pronounced with a low tone The only difference in spelling (and, therefore, pronunciation) is the number 1 tone mark.

Tone Rule 3:

Consonant				Syllable			Tone mark			 TONE
High Class					 Live				 n/a				RISING
High Class					 Dead				n/a				LOW
High Class					 Live or Dead	  number 1   ่่	 LOW

Compare:

สอน /sorn(4)/ to teach

ส่อน /sorn(1)/ cross-eyed

There is just one more tone rule to learn for high class consonants, and that is the tone when tone mark number 2, -้ , is used. Words or syllables that begin with a high class consonant and have the number 2 tone mark are pronounced with a falling tone.

ห้า /hah(2)/ five

ส้ม /som(2)/ orange

ถ้า /tar(2)/ if

Tone Rule 4:

Consonant						Syllable		  Tone mark	  TONE
High Class				   Live				  n/a					  RISING
High Class				   Dead				 n/a					  LOW
High Class				   Live or Dead		  number 1 ่่		 LOW
High Class				   Live or Dead		  number 2้		  FALLING

Since the tone marks 3 and 4, -๋ and -๊ are never used with high class consonants, this completes the tone rules for any word or syllable that begins with any of the high class letters, which are, again:

ถ ข ฐ ษ ศ ส ผ ฝ ฉ ห ฃ*

T/t K/k T/t S/t S/t S/t P/p F/f CH/ch H/h K/k

(*this consonant has become obsolete, so you can ignore it)

Finally, it can be seen from the table that any word or syllable starting with a high class consonant never has middle or high tone.

Softwater

---

apologies for the crap tables, only get limited chance to edit each post, and nothing seems to get them in order. I hope the rules are clear despite the mess - I think I'll give up trying to get the

 tags to behave themselves. :!

Edited September 20, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

Review the previous posts, especially from #19 to #23, as much as necessary till you can do this exercise with ease.

For writing Thai script, you can either practice your handwriting by buying cheap schoolbooks from Se-ed or other Thai bookstores, or you can type on your computer. Of course, you will need both Thai fonts installed and a Thai keyboard. You can find lots of Thai fonts to download if you just type 'download thai fonts' into Google, including many free ones. If you don't have Thai letters indicated on your keyboard, you can download a free keyboard layout plan here.

Write the following English words in Thai script (the first one has been done for you):

pedestal _____ฐาน_______

rain _______________

ghost _______________

please (request) _______________

I (pronoun) _______________

look for _______________

name of the letter ‘ษ’ _______________

neck, throat _______________

teach _______________

withdraw _______________

Softwater

Edited September 20, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

Before we move on to the middle class consonants, lets add some useful words and expressions to our vocab.

One of the most common words in statements and questions is the word มี ‘mee’, pronounced with a middle tone.

มี can be variously translated as ‘have’, ‘do you have…?’ ‘there is..’ or ‘Is there…?’ depending on context. Study the following patterns.

Do you have a computer?

mee kom mai(4)

(lit: have com?)

มีคอมไหม

Yes, I have a computer

mee kom

(lit: have com)

มีคอม

Is there a toilet?

mee hong(2) nam(3) mai(4)

(lit: have room toilet?)

มีห้องน้ำไหม

Yes, there is.

mee

(lit: have)

มี

There are five people.

mee kon hah(2) kon

(lit: have people five people)

มีคนห้าคน

I have a problem.

pohm(4) mee pban ha(4)

(lit: I have problem) [ผม is the male pronoun 'I']

ผมมีปัญหา

I have a problem

chan(4) mee pban ha(4)

ฉันมีปัญหา [ฉัน is the female pronoun 'I']

Do you have a room?

(as might be asked at a hotel)

mee hong(2) warng(2) mai(4)

(lit: have room free?)

มีห้องว่างไหม

Yes, we do.

mee khrap(3)

(lit: yes)

[(the word 'khrap(3) indicates a male speaker being polite)

มีครับ

No, we don’t (have a room).

mai(2) mee ka:(3)

(lit: no have)[the word ka(3) indicates a female speaker being polite)

ไม่มีคะ

Is there a café here?

tee(2) nee(3) mee rahn garfehr mai(4) khrap(3)

(lit: at here, is there a café?) [male speaker, being polite]

ที่นี้มีรานกาแฟไหมครับ

Note that ที่นี้ tee(2) nee(3) meaning ‘here’ is often put at the beginning of a clause.

You will also notice that the word for ‘room’ is ห้อง hong(2). It can be combined with other words to name different kinds of rooms such as

‘toilet’ ห้องน้ำ hong(2) nam(3) (room water)

‘bedroom’ ห้องนอน hong(2) norn (room sleep)

‘classroom’ ห้องเรียน hong(2) rian (room study) and

‘library’ ห้องสมุด hong(2) sa(1)mut(1) (room book).

ห้องว่าง hong(2) warng(2) (room free) in the example above means ‘available room’.

The word ว่าง warng(2) on its own means ‘free’. If you look closely at taxis in Thailand, you will see the sign in the window that indicates the taxi is available is actually the word ว่าง depicted in tiny red neon lights.

*(Do not worry that you cannot read all of these words in Thai script yet; we will be meeting more consonants and vowels shortly).

EXERCISE

Using the notes above and from the previous lessons, complete the following conversation in transliteration with tone numbers.

English Thai Translitertaion+tone

Is there a toilet here? ที่นี้มีห้องน้ำไหม ________________________

Yes there is. มีคะ ________________________

Do you have a problem? มีปัญหาไหมครับ ________________________

No, I don’t. ไม่มีครับ ________________________

Do you have a room? มีห้องว่างไหมคะ ________________________

Is there a ghost? มีผีไหมคะ ________________________

Do you have a telephone? มีโทรศัพท์ไหมครับ ________________________

Do you have an umbrella? มีร่มไหมครับ ________________________

Edited September 26, 2009 by SoftWater

[Harcourt]

Thanks very much Softwater....This is great! I haven't done all the excersises yet, but I just want to bump this up.

Warning too, to readers......I glanced at a Softwater post that had answers to the excersises.....people may want to skip over these posts if they are not ready to have them revealed.....SW, could you put a ANSWERS !! at the start of answer posts please?

[SoftWater]

Thanks Harcourt, a good suggestion.

Duly noted!

Edited September 27, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

You'll have noticed in the last lesson we saw two ways in which Thai people will make an expression more polite. Either by adding

krap(3) if you are a male, or

ka(3) if you are a female.

Even informally, Thais often use the particle words ‘krap’ ครับ for males and ‘ka:’ คะ for females at the end of sentences to express politeness. They can also be used alone as single words in response to a command or question to indicate ‘yes’, much the same as people might nod assent or say ‘uhuh’, ‘OK’, ‘right’ or, ‘yes’. For males, ‘krap’ ครับ is spoken with a short and high tone in either case. For females, the polite particle ‘ka:’ คะ is spoken short and high, whereas ‘ka:’ ค่ะ for assent is spoken with a falling tone.

To aid the beginner, the polite particles were omitted in the early posts. However, you should employ them from time to time in every conversation with Thai people. Exactly when you should use the polite particle and when it can be omitted cannot be stated in a rule. The best way to learn their use is to observe and copy native speakers whenever you have the opportunity.

In any language, two of the most important expressions you can learn in order to avoid offending people are, of course, those for 'thank you' and 'excuse me'.

‘Thank you’ is a simple three word expression:

Thank you

korp(1) kuhn krap(3)

ขอบคุณครับ

Don't forget the final word ‘krap(3)’ should be said with a short, sharp high tone.

You may also wish to thank somebody for doing something or giving you something. There are two ways to do this:

i. Thank you for answering the question.

korp(1) kuhn tee(2) dtorp(1) kam-tarm(4)

ขอบคุณที่ตอบคำถาม

ii. Thank you for the answer.

korp(1) kuhn sam(4)-rap(1) kam dtorp(1)

ขอบคุณสำหรับคำตอบ

The difference between i. and ii. in English is that in i. ‘thank you for’ is followed by an –ing word whereas in ii. it is followed by a noun. This difference is reflected in Thai by using a different word to translate ‘for’. If you want to use an –ing word, korp kuhn is followed by ‘tee(2)’; if you want to use a noun, it is followed by ‘sam(4)-rap(1). The patterns are

i. korp kuhn + tee(2) + verb = Thank you for + (verb-ing)

ขอบคุณ + ที่ + (คำกริยา)

ii. korp kuhn + sam(4)-rap(1) + noun = Thank you for (+ noun)

ขอบคุณ + สำหรับ (+ คำนาม)

Here are some useful examples

Thank you for the gift.

korp(1) kuhn sam(4)-rap(1) kong(4) kwan(4)

ขอบคุณสำหรับของขวัญ

Thank you for helping.

korp(1) kuhn tee(2) chuay(2) leuah(4) krap(3)

ขอบคุณที่ช่วยเหลือครับ

Thank you for telling (me).

korp(1) kuhn tee(2) bork(1) {hai(2) [pohm(4)/chan(4)]}

{the italicised part may be omitted}

[if the speaker is male/female, respectively]

ขอบคุณที่บอก(ให้ผม/ฉัน)

Thank you for calling

korp(1) kuhn tee(2) toh mar

(telephoning) ขอบคุณที่โทรมา

You will remember from our work on high-class consonants that the letter ข has number 4 rising tone when the final syllable is open, so the first word that makes up the expression for 'excuse me' - ขอ will be rising tone: kor(4); the second word is tohrt(2) โทษ

Excuse me

kor(4) tohrt(2) krap(3)

ขอโทษครับ

---

EXERCISE - Write the transliteration with tone for these expressions (don't forget to add the polite particle):

1. Thank you.

2. Thank you for answering.

3. Thank you for telling me.

4. Excuse me.

Softwater

Edited September 27, 2009 by SoftWater

[bannork]

Not directly concerned with the topic but it's not worth starting a new thread over.

I saw and heard the British ambassador on TV saying he had just come back from the UK and was concerned about the King's health- oh dear! his accent is bad, just the sort of misplaced tones that Thais extract the urine from when they see a farang!

He needs some tonal practice urgently!

[SoftWater]

I'm holding out on my promise to move on to the middle class consonants for a couple of posts yet, just in case you'e getting the itch for more practical expressions. In this post we will look at some useful phrases and how they are constructed. This will improve both your vocabulary and grammar, as well as giving you some handy tools in some common situations.

We will look at six short sentences:

1. I’ve lost my passport.

chan(4) tam passport hai(4)

(lit: I make passport lose)

ฉันทำพาสป่อร์ตหาย

2. What should I do?

chan(4) kuan ja:(1) tam yahng(1)-rai dee

(lit: I should make how good?)

ฉันควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

3. What did I do wrong?

chan(4) tam alai pit(1) reuah(4)

(lit: I make what wrong?)

ฉันทำอะไรผิดหรือ

4. What do you call this in Thai?

riak(2) sing(1) nee(3) wa(2) arai pben pasaa(4) thai

(lit: call thing this that what in language thai?)

เรียกสิ่งนี้ว่าอะไรเป้นภาษาไทย

5. There’s something wrong with this computer.

computer dtua nee(3) mee pban-hah(4)

(lit: computer object this have problem)

คอมพิวเตอร์ตัวนี้มีปัญหา

6. When will you let me know?

kuhn ja:(1) hai(2) chan(4) ruu(3) meu(2)-rai

(lit: you will give me to know when?)

คุณจะให้ฉันรู้เมื่อไร

In the next few posts we're going to look at each of these in a little more detail.

Softwater