Thai like the various chinese dialects is a tonal language so a word has to be pronounced exactly as it is. When i was learning mandarin and hanyu pinyin we were taught the 4 tones in mandarin. Steady, rising, middle and falling. I think thai probably has more than 4 tones probably 5 or 6 while cantonese has 8. Also thais tend to pronounce words with Rs in them as Ls. Anyway for those of you that don't speak a tonal language like english for example how did you manage to pronounce the words correctly cos if you pronunce a word that sounds the same but in a different tone it could mean something totally different.

Being a musician helps if learning by ear. Reading and then pronouncing correctly is more difficult I find.

(1) Even non-tonal languages have tones, it's just that they're used in a different way. Consider, for example, how when asking a question the tone typically rises towards the end of the sentence, whilst making a statement it falls. In other words, producing different tones isn't difficult, it just takes a bit of practice when learning Thai. For me much more difficult were some of the consonant and vowel sounds which don't occur in English.

(2) Even fluent speakers of Thai don't quite get the tones 100% correct. There was some research done a few years back where native speakers listened to recordings of Thais and foreigners saying individual words. More than half the time the listener could spot the foreign tongue.

(3) Technically, tones aren't needed to be able to understand Thai - context is usually enough. If I write something like phom yaak pai krabi you can almost certainly guess what it means, even without tone information. When listening to whispered Thai Thai people can still understand what is said. (It's physiologically impossible to make a tone when whispering.) That said, if a foreigner gets the tones wrong many Thai people won't understand, but that's really a psychological issue.

True enough remark, I remember my Swiss wife wandering around the city centre in Yorkshire ooking for 'Curry Sauce'. She battled on and eventually they said 'oh, you mean 'curry sauce!'. I understood ok..

True enough remark, I remember my Swiss wife wandering around the city centre in Yorkshire ooking for 'Curry Sauce'. She battled on and eventually they said 'oh, you mean 'curry sauce!'. I understood ok..

I have this problem all the time in Thai. Asked the vendor (in Thai) at the golf course for 2 bottles of water and a bottle of orange juice. Ow nam pblaow soong kuart, laew gaw, nam som kuart nung kap.

I get the <deleted> look from him so I repeat it. Another <deleted> look. I ask him (in English) if he speaks English. He says yes.

I say "gimme a cupla tubes of h2O an' one o' them wee thingies of OJ". Confused look - I repeat the request - still confused. I ask him in English if he's a Thai person - yes he says.

I say "Ow nam pblaow soong kuart, laew gaw, nam som kuart nung kap."

Instant understanding. Go figure!

(apologies for the bad transliteration, so many versions in the books I have that I've invented my own shorthand)