There are many books for teaching children the Thai alphabet but there is usually no English translation of the sounds. Years ago I had a book with Thai letters and their English pronunciation but now I can't find one. Anyone know where to find one?

From personal experience, trying to learn Thai by reading phonetics with tones is dam_n near impossible. May be easier to buy one of the children's books and have a Thai friend sound out the letters so you can put your own phonetics to it. Also keep in mind that that is only the first stage. You will need further instructions to learn to read tones into the letter combinations.

For one of the best collections of everything Thai, including pronunciation of the alphabet, Take a look here.

For one of the best collections of everything Thai, including pronunciation of the alphabet, Take a look here.

The books on the right of that page (and CD's with the first books) are excellent. Thai for Beginners and the next 2.... well worth having.

Hi siamjourney

This is the twenty-first century and technology is there to help us. There are plenty of free videos online for all sorts, including the Thai Alphabet. A typical video will display the characters (consonants or vowels) one at a time. They are also read out loud which means you get to hear the exact pronunciation.

The accompanying text examples are in roman script (and Thai with the more detailed vids). I've included a simple example below to illustrate. There are more thorough examples too which talk a bit about the Thai alphabet before running through it.

I even download certain vids (which are fly format), and convert them to MP4. I then put them on my mobile phone so that I can refer to whatever it is I've converted at any time no matter where I happen to be.

As you learn from the vid, why not also get a big children's chart and it'll all come together before you know it. Btw, if you, or anyone else, are serious about learning the language, these vids are but helpful audio-visual aids, and there is no substitute for real interaction which is the only way to build up any competency and fluency.

Good luck

Aitch