English Words That Are Difficult To Pronounce Words For Thais ?

[SICHONSTEVE]

Hmmm, so many people deviated from the OP.

My GF says sa-peek and sa-leep on purpose to wind me up, but she can say them properly. She can't, however, pronounce "dumpling" always saying dum-ping, even though she can say ling (monkey) perfectly well.

The reason that she says sa-leep and sa-peak is because she is supposed to according to the Thai language rules.

If two consonants (that are not a consonant cluster) do not have a vowel between them then you insert an 'oh', if you have three consonants that do not contain vowels then you put 'uh' between the first two and an 'oh' between the last two.

if there is no vowel between the first two but a vowel between the last two then you insert 'uh' and then pronounce the vowel present between the last two.

My wife still loves to eat Sapaghetti.-

Glad she likes farang (falang) food.

[SICHONSTEVE]

School

becomes schoon. L, I beleive is pronounced N

i.e. Ubol Ratchathani = Ubon Ratchathani

Yeah, what is it with the L and N swap, I just don't get it

Lor ling at the end of a word changes to a nor nu. This occasionally occurs with the first letter - long rean or rong rean (school) are both said.

Many of the Thai consonants ending letters change to a different sound ie: most of the S's and T's become D and the Y (in yor ying) also changes to an N.

[monkeyboots]

Crisps - shrimps - crispy shrimps - really - rarely - posts - lists ........... As much fun as we have hearing Thais attempt these words - I'm sure we are just as bad to them with words like meuang - ngwan (norn) - dteuan and the like....

[katastrophic]

My partner refers to Yingluk as 'Prime Minisister.

She was watching a TV program showing a guy mixing something in a jar. I asked her what it was about. She said, "placenta for beauty product. I thought it a bit strange so I explained what a placenta was, and she replied, " no, he is placenta (presenter) for beauty product!"

[Andre0720]

Cannot say 'sister'.

But can say 'Me no have money'

[DiggerDoug]

While travelling I found most Thai struggled with my name, Doug. I think it's the ug sound. Now I just call myself Digger.

[kurnell]

Try renting the movie Intolerable Cruelty and ask your missuz to read the title.

[ppmacready]

Thank you!

[sirchai]

School

becomes schoon. L, I beleive is pronounced N

i.e. Ubol Ratchathani = Ubon Ratchathani

Stephanie eats her spaghetti at school in Ubon Ratchatahni.

[bryanlunadelacruz]

they have 'pombem' pronouncing any words starting with an "S' followed by a consonant

satop

sanake

sanack, etc.

on another note, the word VIRUS; it sounded like 'by-laws' to me.

[jcore]

Towel vs Tower.

A towel is what you use in morning after shower vs where you go get massages, such as Pratu nam tower

[sirchai]

My partner refers to Yingluk as 'Prime Minisister.

She was watching a TV program showing a guy mixing something in a jar. I asked her what it was about. She said, "placenta for beauty product. I thought it a bit strange so I explained what a placenta was, and she replied, " no, he is placenta (presenter) for beauty product!"

My partner refers to Yingluk as 'Prime Minisister.

​Hope Yingluck does have a shower on regular basis.--

[SICHONSTEVE]

they have 'pombem' pronouncing any words starting with an "S' followed by a consonant

satop

sanake

sanack, etc.

on another note, the word VIRUS; it sounded like 'by-laws' to me.

Its not a problem, it is how the Thai rules define the saying of these words.

[marell]

A case can be made that a big part of it is the mechanics. For example, if you demonstrate to a native Thai speaker that the English 'th' sound requires the tip of the tongue to make contact with the upper front teeth you're halfway there. Same goes for most other sounds (like a 'v' calls for the upper front teeth to touch the lower lip). It's just that if a particular English sound doesn't exist in Thai, people have never learned how to produce it. Sometimes the hardest part is convincing them that they can. So instead of simple repetition (often frustrating) maybe try concentrate on the mechanics of producing unfamiliar sounds. It can be more effective.

[SICHONSTEVE]

A case can be made that a big part of it is the mechanics. For example, if you demonstrate to a native Thai speaker that the English 'th' sound requires the tip of the tongue to make contact with the upper front teeth you're halfway there. Same goes for most other sounds (like a 'v' calls for the upper front teeth to touch the lower lip). It's just that if a particular English sound doesn't exist in Thai, people have never learned how to produce it. Sometimes the hardest part is convincing them that they can. So instead of simple repetition (often frustrating) maybe try concentrate on the mechanics of producing unfamiliar sounds. It can be more effective.

This is not too dissimilar to how they try to teach us farangs Thai in the pronunciation of some of their more complicated characters (such as gnor gnu) and the vowels!!!

[masuk]

"l" at the end of a word and "v" all the time

Thai's don't have a letter for V - the nearest is wor waen ว and they often (if not always) omit sala e ิ when it is at the end of a word eg: Suvarnabhum(e).

Absolutely not. That is the letter that represents W. This is half of the problem, unless you are German.

Thais constantly use their symbol of W for a V. The nearest is For Fun ฟ which represents the letter F but can be used as a V with a little explanation.

The sera อิ is being omitted for a reason. The words are spelt with a garan meaning that the sound should not be pronounced. The failure here is that it is spelt incorrectly.

Why do they call a television tee wee or a van a wan then?? I appreciate that for fun is used for a V as my name (Steve) uses this, I was refering to it being used at the beginning of a word.

Actually Suvarnabhum(e) doesn't have mai garun and it is just a quirk of the system. Mai garun is usually associated with foreign words and the letter is sometimes pronounced and sometimes not.

and mind you don't get a wirus in your computer...

[JeffreyWitty]

"honesty"

It's like Thai kryptonite (for many reasons) - usually comes out "honestly"

[belg]

dubben plicing, fol u falang

they have no problem with that

[WaatWang]

they have 'pombem' pronouncing any words starting with an "S' followed by a consonant

satop

sanake

sanack, etc.

on another note, the word VIRUS; it sounded like 'by-laws' to me.

Its not a problem, it is how the Thai rules define the saying of these words.

If they are learning English and want to be understood, it *is* a problem.

When I am learning Thai, I don't make excuses about English-speaking rules as they are applied to speaking Thai (i before e except after c...). I try to learn how to pronounce Thai words as closely to the way a Thai speaker would pronounce them. So IMHO - Thai people learning to speak English should do the same.

[Wombat6]

There are whole books written on this subject, but one word that caught me a few times was "Sah Cotland" (Scotland), "Sah Wensens" (Swensens).

When I first arrived here, I asked a tuk-tuk driver to take me to Global House hardware complex. He was puzzled, asked a few others, and eventually the light came on: "AHHHH. Globan Hau"!!

Got it.

BKK Dreaming: if you PM me, I'll scan and send you some pages on "Thai Speakers" from a chapter on "Thai Speakers".

School = Sah Cool

[puchooay]

Did you try "she sells sea shells by the sea shore"?

Actually quite easy as all of the sounds are present in Thai language.

Really??

Please give an example of where the "sh" sound is present in the Thai language

An "s" sound never appears at the end of a word in Thai, coupled with the fact that no word ends in an "L" sound, it makes it very difficult for Thais to pronounce "Shells"

Phonically the sounds are present in their language. You are not teaching them new sounds like TH or V.

Listen to Thais using the letter ช. It really should be a "ch" but is pronounced more like "sh". Getting Thais to say "Chip" is more difficult than asking them to say "Ship".

[tjshannonigans]

Solly....no hab.

School=sa coon

Tesco lotut

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[puchooay]

"l" at the end of a word and "v" all the time

Thai's don't have a letter for V - the nearest is wor waen ว and they often (if not always) omit sala e ิ when it is at the end of a word eg: Suvarnabhum(e).

Absolutely not. That is the letter that represents W. This is half of the problem, unless you are German.

Thais constantly use their symbol of W for a V. The nearest is For Fun ฟ which represents the letter F but can be used as a V with a little explanation.

The sera อิ is being omitted for a reason. The words are spelt with a garan meaning that the sound should not be pronounced. The failure here is that it is spelt incorrectly.

Why do they call a television tee wee or a van a wan then?? I appreciate that for fun is used for a V as my name (Steve) uses this, I was refering to it being used at the beginning of a word.

Actually Suvarnabhum(e) doesn't have mai garun and it is just a quirk of the system. Mai garun is usually associated with foreign words and the letter is sometimes pronounced and sometimes not.

You mean like Vittaya, for example. Or Sukumvit. They will always use the Wor wen for a V. No getting away with it. Try to get them to spell Steven. They will try to put one in.

I must admit I was wrong about the airport name. It is one of those quirks like the name Permsak. However there are loads of words in Thai with "garan" Just look at the days of the week.

[Payboy]

Fluctuation.

[cardholder]

I refuse to take any nation seriously until they can say "Football" and "Arsenal".

[SinglePot]

A case can be made that a big part of it is the mechanics. For example, if you demonstrate to a native Thai speaker that the English 'th' sound requires the tip of the tongue to make contact with the upper front teeth you're halfway there. Same goes for most other sounds (like a 'v' calls for the upper front teeth to touch the lower lip). It's just that if a particular English sound doesn't exist in Thai, people have never learned how to produce it. Sometimes the hardest part is convincing them that they can. So instead of simple repetition (often frustrating) maybe try concentrate on the mechanics of producing unfamiliar sounds. It can be more effective.

Boom boom

[SICHONSTEVE]

they have 'pombem' pronouncing any words starting with an "S' followed by a consonant

satop

sanake

sanack, etc.

on another note, the word VIRUS; it sounded like 'by-laws' to me.

Its not a problem, it is how the Thai rules define the saying of these words.

If they are learning English and want to be understood, it *is* a problem.

When I am learning Thai, I don't make excuses about English-speaking rules as they are applied to speaking Thai (i before e except after c...). I try to learn how to pronounce Thai words as closely to the way a Thai speaker would pronounce them. So IMHO - Thai people learning to speak English should do the same.

Easier said than done though - Thai's often have problems with the pronunciation of gnor gnu and I think that they can be understood contextually 90% of the time when speaking English then that is fine.

When the Japanese say engrish doyouunderstandthis and do you understand what i've just written?

If you are learning Thai then you will not get everything right just like most people learning a second or third language are going to do with these new languages.

[SICHONSTEVE]

I refuse to take any nation seriously until they can say "Football" and "Arsenal".

........and I refuse to take anyone serious who mentions the 'scummy' Gooners.

[SICHONSTEVE]

Steve is spelt with (for fun - tooth) not wor wairn. In fact, most Thai's pronounce Steve as sa-teeb.

You say straight back to them Steve and they say sateeb!!!!

[SinglePot]

I asked my mate Kenny where his gf comes from. He said I don't know but it sounds like Woolly Lamb.

I got there eventually.