Cant Say These Words

[terrychris]

I am taking Thai language lessons.my teacher taught me the thai word for' work',similar to 'TAM naagn , except pronouncing it is very difficult.

It seems to be a word that you must use your nasal to say it.

Also having difficulty with these words Tdoot-to mean 'suck',

tdoot- to mean 'katoy' or female type male

tdoot- to mean 'butt'

[bytebuster]

The transcription for "ทำงาน" (to work) is [tʰɑm - ŋaːn].

[ŋ] is pretty much equivalent to English velar consonant, like in "going". For practice, just try speaking "going under" or so.

As per the other words. In order you have listed, they are: [dùːt] [tút], and [tùːt].

They have different initial consonants, tones (low, high, and low, respectively) and vowel lengths (long, short, and long).

Don't be confused, English [oo] is always long, while in Thai there are short and long vowels.

[Richard W]

Don't be confused, English [oo] is always long, while in Thai there are short and long vowels.

Not so - the vowel is short in British English good and standard British English book but long in British English brood. However, the vowel quality is very different in English, and the quality difference significantly helps a Briton tell the short and long vowels apart. In Thai, the vowel quality of the short /u/ and long /uː/ vowels is very similar, even though short and long Thai front vowels can generally be distinguished on quality alone.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Richard W

[rak sa_ngop]

Don't be confused, English [oo] is always long, while in Thai there are short and long vowels.

Not so - the vowel is short in British English good and standard British English book but long in British English brood. However, the vowel quality is very different in English, and the quality difference significantly helps a Briton tell the short and long vowels apart. In Thai, the vowel quality of the short /u/ and long /uː/ vowels is very similar, even though short and long Thai front vowels can generally be distinguished on quality alone.

I can think of one English 'word' that has a short and a long vowel versions with different meanings.

'to' and 'too' have the same vowel sound to my ear (ignoring the t' shorthend version) but different lengths. But generally their position in a sentence means that we can understand the correct meaning without resorting to identifying the vowel length, and of course in rapid speech the lengths will shorten.

Add the number 'two' to the discussion and this it is also doubtless confusing to a beginner learner of English, but the sentence structure provides the answer.

[Richard W]

Add the number 'two' to the discussion and this it is also doubtless confusing to a beginner learner of English, but the sentence structure provides the answer.

There are many tales of young English-speaking children using 'three' as a more intensive or extensive form of 'too'! 'Me three', though, is generally just word play.

[ZeroDesire]

The 'katoy' word has shorter sound compared to the 'butt' word. If you know how to write these two words, you'll see that the 'katoy' word has ' ุ' which has shorter sound than ' ู' of 'butt'.