Want To Learn Thai?

[SoftWater]

1. I’ve lost my passport.

chan(4) tam passport hai(4)

ฉันทำพาสป่อร์ตหาย

Although there is a Thai word for passport, the English version is in such widespread use that it is very unlikely you will ever be in a situation where you need to use it with someone who doesn’t know what it means.

[However, just in case, the correct Thai expression is nang(4)-seu(4) dern dtahng(1) pra(1)-tet(2) หนังสือเดินต่างประเทศ]

The pronoun chan(4) ฉัน is somewhat informal for both males and females, but it is most commonly used by women (we are about to meet the other pronouns shortly).

The verb ‘to lose’ consists of two parts tam ทำ… hai(4) หาย that go on either side of the noun that has been lost. Hence, you can use this pattern ฉันทำ + noun + หาย with any common object. Here are the names of some things you might lose:

Complete the gaps with all the necessary words:

Keys

gun-jehr

กุญแจ

chan(4) tam ________________ hai(4)

Shoes

rohng tao(3)

รองเท้า

chan(4) _____ ________________ ____(4)

Telephone (review post #3)

_____(-) _____ ________________ ____(-)

Wallet

gra(1)-pbao(3)

กระเป๋า

_____(-) _____ _______________(3) ____(-)

Ticket

dtua(4)

ตั๋ว

_____(-) _____ _______________(4) ____(-)

Softwater

[SoftWater]

2. What should I do?

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

ฉันควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

Thai has a number of different expressions for the different meanings expressed in English by ‘should’. Kuan-ja:(1) ควรจะ is equivalent to the meaning of ‘should’ in the sense of ‘ought to’ and, like English, is placed after the subject and before the verb.

‘tam-yahngrai-dee’ is a compound of three words, which literally translate as ‘do-how-good’ or 'make-how-good' so ‘chan(4) kuan ja:(1) tam yahng(1)rai dee’ can be rendered variously as close to 'What should I do', 'What's the right thing to do?' or‘What's the best thing to do?' in natural English, depending on context.

You can vary this expression by changing the pronoun at the beginning.

ผม /ดิฉัน

pohm(4) / dichan(4)

I (male formal) / (female formal)

คุณ

kuhn

You

เขา

kao(4)

He / She

เรา

rao

We

พวกเขา

puak kao(4)

They

Notice that all the tone(4), rising tone, pronouns begin with upper class consonants that you have already learned. Where you see a symbol before the consonant, as in เขา (the symbol เ appears before the consonant ข), what you are looking at is a vowel letter. We're going to be seeing how vowels work as we start on the middle class consonants. In the meantime, get familar with the new pronouns and the 'should' pattern with this:

Exercise

Complete the following expressions in transliterated Thai. Include the tone numbers where necessary by referring to the previous posts.

What should you do?

คุณควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________

What should they do?

พวกเขาควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________

What should she do?

เขาควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________

What should we do?

เราควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________

What should I do

ผมควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________

Softwater

Edited October 1, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

3. What did I do wrong?

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

ฉันทำอะไรผิดหรือ

This is another useful expression using the verb tam ทำ. The word after ทำ is ‘alai’, which means ‘what’, followed by another piece of useful vocabulary, pit(1) which means ‘wrong’. ‘reuah’ หรือ has no meaning when it appears at the end of a statement other than to signify a question. However, it gives the sense that one is seeking confirmation of what one already suspects is true. So the sense of 'Whad did I do wrong?' here is not the accusative one (when you are sure you did nothing wrong), but the contrite one (like when you upset your girlfriend).

Here are some other useful word combinations using ‘pit(1)’ and ‘reuah’. Notice the subject is suppressed in the same way as mentioned way back in the first post.

พูดผิดหรือ

puut(2) pit(1) reuah(4)

Did I say it incorrectly?

(after you say something and get only a confused expression from your listener)

เขียนผิดหรือ

kian(4) pit(1)reuah(4)

Did I write it incorrectly?

(after you write something and get a bale of laughter from your reader...)

ทำผิดหรือ

tam pit(1) reuah(4)

Did I do it wrong?

(after you tried to find reverse in the old man's pickup and end up hitting the garage door...)

4. What do you call this in Thai?

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

เรียกสิ่งนี้ว่าอะไรเป็นภาษาไทย

This long phrase can be shortened to simply ‘riak(2) wa(2) arai’

เรียกว่าอะไร (lit: call what?) in informal speech, but the longer version has some elements worth noting.

riak(2)

เรียก

to call

sing(1)

สิ่ง

thing

nee(3)

นี้

this

wa(2)

ว่า

(verb particle; it can often be translated as 'that-' when used to introduce an object noun clause : e.g., I think that + clause )

arai

อะไร

what

pben

เป็น

being/of

pasaa(4)

ภาษา

language

thai

ไทย

Thai

The word order of riak(2) sing(1) nee(3) wa(2) arai ben pasaa(4) thai is

“call-thing-this-what-in-language Thai”.

Notice how the word for 'this' นี้ comes after the noun it is specifying. This is a common pattern in Thai. For example “Tell that girl she is pretty” would similarly reverse the order of ‘that’ and ‘girl’ to become “tell-girl-(person)-that[one]-she-(is)pretty”:

bork(1) puu(2)ying(4) kohn nan(3) wa(2) kao(4) suay(4)

บอกผู้หญิงคนนั้นว่าเขาสวย.

The indexical pronouns, or 'pointing words' 'this' and 'that' (as in 'this girl or that girl?) are nee(3) นี้ and nan(3) นั้น.

In this pattern the indexical ‘that’, นั้น, has the same function as it does in English despite its different position, namely to specify which girl is to be told, not to specify what is to be said to her. The function of specifying what is to be told (i.e., introducing the object clause for the main verb 'told'), is performed by 'wa(2)' ว่า.

5. There’s something wrong with this computer.

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

คอมพิวเตอร์ตัวนี้มีปัญหา

The word ‘dtua’ is a classifier word for computers (and many other objects as well as animals), which cannot be translated exactly in English but means something like ‘thing’, ‘object’ or ‘body’ (just as ‘kohn’ means ‘person’ and is a classifier for males and females). Again we can see the pattern of using the noun before its classifier “computer –object-this-have-problem”.

6. When will you let me know?

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

คุณจะให้ฉันรู้เมื่อไร

Two important words here are the future tense marker ja:(1) จะ (will) and the verb ruu(3) รู้ (to know).

In Thai, verbs do not change ending to indicate tense as they do in English, which is a significant advantage to the adult learner – no need to memorise long tables of verb endings. Instead, a few specific time words are used to indicate all tenses.

Future tense is typically indicated by ja:(1) จะ. We will meet the other tense words for past and perfect tenses later.

The other key word is ruu(3) รู้ (to know). This forms a number of common compounds and expressions. Probably the most familiarly heard are

I don’t know

mai(2) ruu(3)

ไม่รู้

and it’s variant

I don’t know too!

mai(2) ruu(3) meuan(4) gan

ไม่รู้เหมือนกัน

Again, notice the different word order between the Thai and English

When will you let me know?

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

(lit: You-will-let-me-know-when?)

In Thai, question words almost always appear at the the end of a sentence, unlike English where they usually appear first.

Here’s two other examples:

When will you telephone me?

toh hah(4) pohm(4) meu(2)-rai

โทรหาผมเมื่อไร

When did I speak incorrectly?

pohm(4) puut(2) pid(1) meu(2)-rai

ผมพูดผิดเมื่อไร

Softwater

Edited October 1, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

In this post we're going to look at some more vowels, specifically those that occur as the initial letter of a word and, therefore, before a consonant. First recall the three vowels from post#10 that appear above a consonant:

• ั /a / (as in ‘hat’)
  ิ /ih/ (as in ‘hit’)
  ี /ee/ (as in ‘free’)
  

There are six vowels that can appear before a consonant:

• อ (usually silent, but can take a schwa 'uh' sound as is 'America' อเมริกา)
  เ /ay/ (as in 'gay')
  แ /ehr/ (as in 'fair')
  ไ /ai/ (as in 'eye')
  ใ /ai/ (same as ไ)
  โ /oh/ (as in 'note')
  

The letter อ /or/ usually functions as a middle class consonant when it appears at the beginning of a word, but as a vowel in any other position. Where it appears as the initial letter, it is silent and the word will be pronounced using the sound of the next letter in the word. The function of อ as an initial consonant is purely to make a word’s tone consistent with its spelling, as we will see shortly when we examine the tone rules for middle class consonants.

Occasionally, you will meet words with อ at the beginning where it functions as a vowel and not a consonant, as in the Thai word for 'America' อเมริกา. When อ functions as a vowel in the middle of a word, it is pronounced as /or/ (as in ‘raw’) unless it is modified by any other vowel in the word; when it functions as a vowel at the beginning of a word it is oftern pronounced a little shorter (more like a schwa 'uh').

Here are some examples of Thai words with the vowels เ /ay/ and แ /ehr/

เก

/gay/

unreliable

เบ

/bay/

cot

แก่

/gehr(1)/

old

แต่

/dtehr(1)/

but

The vowels ไ and ใ both have the same sound /ai/ as in ‘eye’.

ให้

/hai(2)/

to permit or give

ไอ

/ai/

to cough

Finally, the vowel โ /oh/, which you have already met in the word โทร ‘toh’ for telephone, is a deeper and more rounded /oh/ sound than the implicit /oh/, which occurs when two consonants appear together without a written vowel.

Using all the vowels (don’t forget า /ah/) and letters you have learned so far, try to read and transliterate the following words. The tone numbers have been provided for you for all words except those beginning with high-class consonants, which you should determine yourself by reviewing earlier posts in this thread. Remember mid tone words have no tone number.

EXERCISE

ไม่

no

________(2)

เกเร

naughty

________

โต

big, grow

________

ขอ

please

_________(-)

แน่น

tight

_________2

ผ่าน

to pass

--------(-)

ใฝ่

to aspire to

_________(-)

แสบ

to sting (as a feeling/sensation)

_________(-)

แสน

100,000

_________(-)

ศก

year

_________(-)

Edited October 4, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

OK, here we are at last at the middle class consonants.

There are 9 middle class consonants:

• ก /G /k/
  จ /J /t/
  ฎ /D /t/
  ฏ /Dt /t/
  ด /D /t/
  ต /Dt /t/
  บ /B /p/
  ป /Pb /p/
  อ /- /-or/* [see previous post on vowels before consonants]
  

The letters ‘gor ‘ก’ and jor ‘จ’ are both widely used and occur as initial consonants in many common words.

กิน

/gin/

to eat

ไก่

/gai(1) /

chicken

กับ

/gap(1)/

with

กลับ

/glap(1)/

go back

จาน

/jarn/

plate

จะ

/ja:(1)/

will

จราจร

/ja:(1) rajon/

road traffic

and also as final consonants, where the sound changes to ‘k’ for ก and ‘t’ for จ:

บอก

/bork(1)/

tell

แตก

/dtehrk(1)/

break

ตำรวจ

/dtam-ruat(2)/

police

The /D/ and /Dt/ sounding initial consonants are all middle class, which makes it easier to remember the tone rules for any word starting with these sounds. ด /d/ and ต /dt/ are widespread; however, ฎ and ฏ are far less common and (with one exception) never appear as the initial letter in a word.

Here are some common words using ด and ค:

เด็ก

/dek(1) /

child

ได้

/dai(2)/

can

ด้วย

/duay(2)/

together, also

ตัว

/dtua/

body, object, thing

ตา

/dtah/

eye

ตำรวจ

/dtam-ruat(2)/

police

แต่

/dtehr(1)/

but

แตก

/dtehrk(1)/

break

Two important consonants in the middle class set are บ /bor/ and ป /pbor/. The first is equivalent in sound to the letter ‘b’ in English, the second is somewhere between /p/ and /b/ in English, rather like the sound in the middle of ‘raspberry’. Here are some common words using บ and ป:

บอก

/bork(1)/

to tell

บาท

/baht(1)/

Baht (the Thai currency)

บริษัท

/bori-sat(1)/

company, firm

บัตร

/bat(1)/

(I.D/Credit) card

ใบ

/bai/

leaf. sheet

บน

/bon/

on, on top of

แบบ

/berhp(1)/

style, way

ไป

/pbai/

go

ปี

/pbee/

year

ปลา

/pblah/

fish

ปาก

/pbark(1)/

mouth

ปิด

/pbit(1)/

close

เปิด

/pberht(1)/

open

As final consonants both บ and ป have the sound ‘p’, as in the Thai word แบบ /behrp/ above.

The final middle class consonant is อ /or/, which is soundless on its own, but serves to make the tone rules and spelling consistent. Some common words that begin with อ are:

read

/ahn(1)/

อ่าน

bathe/wash

/ahp(1)/

อาบ

maybe

/aht(1)/

อาจ

Softwater

Edited October 4, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

EXERCISE

Using all that you have studied in this thread, write BOTH the transliteration with tone number where necessary and the Thai script for each of the following:

• English_______________Transliteration + tone________________Thai
  body_________________________dtua_________________________ ตัว
  break
  but
  can
  card
  chicken
  child
  close
  company
  eat
  fish
  go
  go back
  leaf
  mouth
  on
  open
  plate
  police
  road traffic
  style
  together
  will
  year
  

Softwater

Edited October 4, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

In this exercise, you are asked only to read the Thai word and supply the English meaning (not the transliteration). A good practice here is to say the Thai word out loud as you read it.

• Thai------------------------English
  ตำรวจ
  จราจร
  ไก่
  ปลา
  จาน
  ใบ
  กิน
  ไป
  กลับ
  ด้วย
  กับ
  แต่
  บน
  เปิด
  ปิด
  แบบ
  ได้
  จะ
  แตก
  

Softwater

Edited October 4, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

Believe it or not, if you have been following this thread from the start, you have all the tools to be able to construct simple sentences in both transliteration and Thai for each of the English expressions below (remember you don’t need to worry about articles or punctuation in Thai). If you feel a bit lost here, review earlier posts as often as you need to, and then come at it again.

The first one has been done as an example.

1. The child eats the fish.

dek(1) gin pblah

เด็กกินปลา

2. The fish eats the child.

Trans: _________________

Thai: __________________

3. The fish will eat the child.

Trans: _________________

Thai: __________________

4. The fish opens its mouth.

Trans: _________________

Thai: __________________

5. The fish closes its mouth.

Trans: _________________

Thai: __________________

6. The chicken is on the plate.

Trans: _________________

Thai: __________________

7. The fish is on the plate, but the child eats the chicken.

Trans: __________________

Thai: ___________________

Softwater

Edited October 4, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

There are six tone rules for middle class consonants.

The first two are the easiest to remember. Where there is no tone mark at all, the tone will be middle tone in case of a live syllable, and low tone in case of a dead one:

Consonant----------------------------Syllable-------------------------------Tone mark-----------------------------------TONE

Middle Class----------------------------Live-------------------------------------n/a---------------------------------------MIDDLE

Middle Class----------------------------Dead------------------------------------n/a----------------------------------------LOW

เช่น [chen(2) means 'for example']

ปี

pbee

year

ปิก

pbid(1)

close

Where tone mark number 1 is used, the tone will be low tone, regardless of whether the syllable is live or dead.

Consonant-----------------------------Syllable--------------------------------Tone mark---------------------------------TONE

Middle Class----------------------------Live---------------------------------------n/a--------------------------------------MIDDLE

Middle Class----------------------------Dead--------------------------------------n/a--------------------------------------LOW

Middle Class-----------------------------n/a------------------------------------number 1----------------------------------LOW

เช่น

ไก่

gai(1)

chicken

Where tone mark number #2 is used, the tone will be falling, regardless of whether the syllable is live or dead.

Consonant----------------------------Syllable----------------------------------Tone mark--------------------------------TONE

Middle Class----------------------------Live----------------------------------------n/a-------------------------------------MIDDLE

Middle Class----------------------------Dead---------------------------------------n/a-------------------------------------LOW

Middle Class----------------------------n/a-----------------------------------------number 1------------------------------LOW

Middle Class----------------------------n/a-----------------------------------------number 2------------------------------FALLING

เช่น

ได้

dai(2)

can

ด้วย

duay(2)

together, also

Tone marks #3 and #4 are in fact ONLY used with middle class consonants, so these are the only rules you will have to remember for them. They indicate high tone and rising tone respectively.

Consonant------------------------------------Syllable--------------------------------Tone mark-----------------------TONE

Middle Class----------------------------------Live----------------------------------------n/a----------------------------MIDDLE

Middle Class----------------------------------Dead---------------------------------------n/a----------------------------LOW

Middle Class----------------------------------n/a-----------------------------------------number 1---------------------LOW

Middle Class----------------------------------n/a-----------------------------------------number 2---------------------FALLING

Middle Class----------------------------------n/a-----------------------------------------number 3---------------------HIGH

Middle Class----------------------------------n/a-----------------------------------------number 4---------------------RISING

เช่น

จ๊ะ

ja:(3)

yeah, OK

(note the difference from จะ ja:(1) ‘will’)

ต๋ัว

dtua(4)

ticket

(note the difference from ตัว dtua ‘body’)

Both tones occur together in the expression:

จ๊ะเอ๋

ja:(3) ay(4)

peekaboo! surprise!

Which you will hear whenever you are around adults with small children; it is also used sometimes as a greeting between intimate friends.

EXERCISE

Transliterate and determine the tone for the following words by referring to the tone tables above:

To complain

บ่น

____________________

Some

บ้าง

____________________

From

จาก

____________________

To read

อ่าน

____________________

To dress

แต่ง

____________________

Unripe

ดิบ

____________________

House

บ้าน

____________________

To pump

ปั๊ม

____________________

On

บน

__________________

To break

แตก

____________________

Edited October 6, 2009 by SoftWater

[SoftWater]

More Vowels

There are two more vowels apart from the three we learned earlier that can go above a consonant. These are

• ึ eu:
  ื euah
  

The difference in sound is primarily one of length. The first one is a short vowel, the second somewhat longer. The closest sound in English might be something like the noise you might make when seeing something distasteful, ‘eurgh!’ with an a: sound added on to the end – eurgh!-a: and eurgh:-a:

These two vowels occur in many useful words,

เช่น (chen = for example):

นึก[ว่า]

neu:k(1) [wa(2)]

to think, consider [that]

รุ้สึก[ว่า]

ruu(3)seu:k(1) [wa(2)]

to feel [that]

ถึง

teu:ng(4)

to reach

ฝึกฝน

feu:k(1)fon(4)

to practice

เลือก

leuahk(2)

to choose

คือ

keuah

namely, which is

ตื่น

dteuan(1)

to wake up

จืด

jeuaht(1)

tasteless

Finally, there are two other symbols that can occur above a consonant, these are

• _็
  and
  _์
  

The first one is a vowel shortener symbol. That is, it has no sound in itself, but it serves to shorten the length of the vowel sound. For example the word เป็น has the /ay/ sound given by the vowel เ shortened to make it sound more like the vowel in the English name ‘ben’ (without the vowel shortener symbol, it would sound more like /bayn/). The symbol ์ only appears above the final consonant of a word, and indicates that the consonant should not be pronounced. For this reason, it is sometimes called the consonant ‘killer’ symbol.

เช่น (chen = for example):

เป็น

bpen

being

เด็ก

dek(1)

child

สิทธิ์

sit(1)

right (as in ‘to have the right to do…’)

ทุกข์

tuk(3)

suffering

Vowels that go under a consonant

There are two vowels that can go beneath a consonant:

• ุ
  uh
  (as in ‘luck’)
  ู
  uu
  ('oo' as in ‘Winnie the Pooh’)
  

เช่น (chen):

ผู้

puu(2)

male, person that…(equivalent to the suffixes

‘–er’ and ‘-or’ in English)

สู้

suu(2)

to fight, to beat

สุข

suhk

happiness

ปู

pbuu

crab

Vowels that go after a consonant

There are only four vowels that go after a consonant, which are

• า /ah/
  อ /or/
  ำ /am/
  ะ /a/
  

เช่น (chen):

หา

hah(4)

to find

หมอ

mor(4)

doctor

คำ

kam

word

จำ

jam

remember

จะ

ja:(1)

will

ค่ะ

ka:(2)

(polite particle for females)

There are also two special symbols worth mentioning here,

• ๆ which indicates that a word is repeated, and
  ฯ which indicates that a word is abbreviated.
  

เช่น

สู้ ๆ

suu(2) suu(2)

fight! fight!

กรุงเทพ ฯ

Krunghthep

Bangkok (the full name of Bangkok in Thai is much longer, but it is usually abbreviated to this in many places, including on many vehicle licence plates.)

Edited October 11, 2009 by SoftWater

[bifftastic]

There's been a few of us beginners posting on the language forum recently and Sw was kind enough to send me a link to this thread so I thought I'd revive it by adding this reply.

I hope others will find it useful too

Thanks Sw

[SoftWater]

If you're a beginner or just learning to read, go back to post 1 and work your way through the thread. As I said to Biff, unfortunately some of the table in the early posts have all the formatting messed up. I think this is a result of Thaivisa changing the forum a couple of months back.

If people are interested (and confused), let me know, and I can re-post them here. If you have any other learning materials (like Becker's books) you should be able to piece it together. If not, let me know.

Sw

ps. There may be some corrections necessary; I wrote most of this when I knew less than I do now (and I don't know that much now). Please post any errors! Thx

Edited September 16, 2010 by SoftWater

[Suradit]

Excellent resource. Thanks alot.

Edited September 19, 2010 by Suradit

[SoftWater]

Thanks Suradit.

At least one error I've been made aware of thanks to others on TV is my rendering of the vowel - ุ- as the sound of the English vowel in 'luck'. This I now realise is incorrect.

With the caveat that transliterations are never going to give you an accurate representation, and the best way forward is to listen to audio or live speaking to get the right sound, I'd suggest that both - ุ- and - ู - are closest to the vowel sound in 'school', the difference between them only being the length of time that the vowel is sounded (short/long respectively).

Edited September 19, 2010 by SoftWater

[KunMatt]

This is great, thanks Softwater, I did the first few exercises and have saved the rest for further study sessions.

Thanks very much for taking the time to help me out!

[ChristianPFC]

This looks good. Softwater, why don't you just copy the files onto your new computer? Or why don't you share them as attachment, so they can be downloaded and printed? Of course, posting is good for discussion, but a file in whatever format is better for printing.

Edited September 19, 2010 by ChristianPFC