i can read and write fairly well in Thai but ive always been intrigued in regards to how you're supposed to know which silent consonants go on the end of a person's name etc.. for example, "yingluck" as consonants that are not pronounced. is there a system or are you just supposed to know for each name etc...??

Many Thai names are loanwords from Sanskrit, Pali, Mid-Chinese, or other languages.

ยิ่ง = "better"

ลักษณ์ = "kind" or "face". In Sanskrit it is pronounced [lakShaNa], but the last two syllables became silent with years.

This happens not only with names, but with common words as well:

โทรศัพท์ = [dUra] "far" (Sanskrit) + [zabda] "voice" (Sanskrit)

โทรทัศน์ = [dUra] + [dassana] "vision" (Pali)

ทวาร = [dvAr] (Sanskrit)

This pattern seems to be very common: loanwords in Thai language keep their complete orthography, but may change in spoken language to adopt local rules.

The only way is to remember each word, unless you are familiar with Sanskrit. :-)

With English names I get even more confused.

Everyone seems to pronounce my name as 'Loss' it is actually Rod. I realise that Thai people have difficulty with R but what is it with 'ss' rather than D at the end of the word ?. My friend says you can not have a hard letter at the end of a name so it becomes a double S.

Everyone seems to pronounce my name as 'Loss' it is actually Rod.

I think they think your name is Ross.

With English names I get even more confused.

Everyone seems to pronounce my name as 'Loss' it is actually Rod. I realise that Thai people have difficulty with R but what is it with 'ss' rather than D at the end of the word ?. My friend says you can not have a hard letter at the end of a name so it becomes a double S.

But my name they every time speak as "Markut" instead of "Markus".

I seems they cannot pronounce the "s" at the end.

With English names I get even more confused.

Everyone seems to pronounce my name as 'Loss' it is actually Rod. I realise that Thai people have difficulty with R but what is it with 'ss' rather than D at the end of the word ?. My friend says you can not have a hard letter at the end of a name so it becomes a double S.

But my name they every time speak as "Markut" instead of "Markus".

I seems they cannot pronounce the "s" at the end.

I agree with you. If your name ends with "s" sound, it will be spelt in Thai as "ส" or "ซ", in both cases they will be prononced like a "ด". As stop finals in a syllable, there are only three sounds: ก,ด and บ.

Just to confuse matters, final /s/ and /f/ may be used in loanwords from English.