List Of 3000 Most Common Thai Words

[franco767]

This list has 1172 common words.

http://www.thai-lang...com/ref/starred

THanks!!

[matconi]

Hi everbody !!!!

who speaks fluent Thai? For speak it's ok but for understand

matconi

[jbstrong]

Here are those top 3000 words with audio clips for 2500 of them.

I took the SEA vocab.xls previously posted and from the 3000 main words, I was able to download 2500 audio clips from ClickThai Language Center which at least for these words seems to have better coverage than other dictionaries I found online.

I've uploaded it in Anki format, but it should be easy to load into excel or something and then change it to a format of your choice (or just use the above SEA Vocab.xls file). The txt file has all the words in it although for my own use, I only used the words in Anki that have an audio clip. Maybe I can find more clips with time or someone else will for some of the others.

ps I didn't see anything on clickthai forbidding me from uploading their audio clips here but if I'm wrong I'm happy to have this post deleted or delete it myself, although I think they should welcome the fact that people are using their dictionary - which does have much better coverage than others I've tried! so i definitely will use this dictionary in the future.

top30001.zip

top30002.zip

top30003.zip

top30004.zip

The links from this post are not working any more.. can anyone update this with ones that do?

I'm especially interested in downloading the ANKI decks.

[maps424]

Yea I was excited to read that post, but disappointed that they are unavailable now...

If anyone has a copy of this, would you please message me if I could download it from you?

[pangolin]

"Khun na rak mak"

Hi, I mean "you are very lovely" that try to lean Thai language.

[Hockeybik]

Sadly there is no phonetical translations.

Check this page: Translation and Phonetic

box

Not sad at all - I was fortunate that my first Thai teacher convinced me that learning the Thai alphabet and not to rely on a "third" alphabet - transliteration - was the way to go. Transliteration really doesn't do a great job at teaching you how to pronounce the words anyway. I can't read a newspaper yet but I can read signs and menus well enough and I can sound out words when I need to. Someday, I'll read pretty well. Consequently, I also learn new words.

You won't find a newspaper printed in transliterated Thai. I strongly recommend learning the alphabet - it simply isn't all that difficult. Once you can read the letters, you'll be surprised what you can see.

Thank you Rikker for your resources.

[Hockeybik]

I just wanted to say that I have not forgotten this exercise - the search to find the top 3000 Thai words. I do have a growing list in an Excel spreadsheet, but after throwing everything in, I realised awhile back that it has to be tackled from a different angle. A more practical angle.

Some Thai words are created by joining two words together - compound nouns, compound verbs, compound noun + verb, compound noun + adjective, etc - so while knowing the top word frequencies is handy, word frequencies do not work on their own.

I personally believe that you need to start from the meaning and work backwards. I now know that not all English words have an exact duplicate in Thai, so there is that problem. Another problem: sentences to go with each word = a must...

So that's what I'm doing now. Last year, with three Thais, a vocabulary list from a generic book on learning languages was put together. This past month I dragged it out of the mothballs. In the coming months I'll sort it to suit. Right now it matches the book (page by page) so it's pretty basic. And like I mentioned, it's generic to learning all languages so words special to Thai are not listed (yet). So I plan on deleting what doesn't belong, tweaking, and then I'll start adding the must know Thai words from my excel spread sheet until... well, until it is right. Or close to right. Or at least to the point where it generates less of an argument.

The file, such as it is, can be downloaded from this post. Rikker did a quick look at the file, so PLEASE read his disclaimer in the comments.

My dream, for each word, is to have a sentence for: proper Thai (the Thai we get in our course books), street Thai, a more polite Thai than street, and the Issan Thai we hear in taxis and up north.

Yes, I do realise the amount of work this will take, but I am not in any rush...

Btw - For what it's worth, I'm armed with a whole heap of Thai courses, dictionaries, grammar books, phrase books, online resources, etc. I have Rikker's top frequencies, as well as thai2english.com's and others. Seems to me, some sense can be made from all of the resources combined. Or at least I'll have fun trying

Thank you Desi and Rikker, a lot of hard work. This appears to be a valuable resource. All the best.

[taiwanatoa]

Sadly there is no phonetical translations.

Check this page: Translation and Phonetic

box

It doesn't work.

[desi]

We've been working on a High Frequency Vocab List (the download is in that post). A Thai teacher is going through it yet again to catch any mistakes. We'll edit the list even further as we work through the series (no list is perfect).

What's always stumped me about these frequency lists is how limited they are without phrases showing usage, so Hugh is doing just that. He picks a subject, selects a range of vocab from the list, and gives explanations and practicals. Audio is added in the followup posts. Here's the series so far.

[bow]

I love Mary ! Maybe I should tell you about her.

Mary Rosamund Haas (January 12, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics.

During World War II, the United States government viewed the study and teaching of Southeast Asian languages as important to the war effort, and under the auspices of the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of California at Berkeley, Haas developed a program to teach the Thai language.

Her authoritative Thai-English Students' Dictionary, published in 1964, is still in use.

Her dictionary is good because it is written for western students learning Thai, not for Thai students learning English.

Edited February 19, 2014 by bow

[T_Dog]

Sadly there is no phonetical translations.

In reality, phonetic transliterations would slow down your progress in the long term. That is a good list!

[bizzle]

How about having them in English too??

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[creditcard2]

Good one, I am searching from long time for this type of information for me. Thanks for sharing this.

[desi]

Anyone got the anki lists that could upload them again?

The list has been updated to the latest format and uploaded to Anki for download: SEA Thai Top 3000 Words With Sounds

[tangaroa67]

Great work ... much appreciated.

[isaray74]

How do I get the 1000 words?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[bizzle]

Are they available in English too for those of us who can't read Thai..?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Taunusianer]

Are they available in English too for those of us who can't read Thai..?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The question is: Does it make sense to have them in English. Most transliterations will not help you speaking Thai.

[tangaroa67]

I think it's unfair to say transliterations wouldn't help him speak Thai. I've been learning Thai for six months and can read Thai script pretty well. Still, I'll often look up a word from this list in my Paiboon dictionary to see a better definition but also, to see the HAAS transliteration to confirm I've read the tones correctly.

I find it a useful tool in that respect.

[Taunusianer]

I think it's unfair to say transliterations wouldn't help him speak Thai. I've been learning Thai for six months and can read Thai script pretty well. Still, I'll often look up a word from this list in my Paiboon dictionary to see a better definition but also, to see the HAAS transliteration to confirm I've read the tones correctly.

I find it a useful tool in that respect.

Agree totally, and so I do as well. Especially, because Thai writing isn't clear about the pronunciation in all cases. But I think it is a difference, to use is in addition to the Thai writing compared to use it as the only source about speaking.

But, for sure, everyone is different about that, an there are many guys out there, that speak a much better Thai than I will ever do (not so difficult to find) without the ability to read a single word. (what is very sad for me. 555)

[tangaroa67]

I find the list extremely useful. Of course course there are ways in which it could be improved, but that does not not detract from it's usefulness. I continue to be extremely grateful to HappyinCM, capeforever and others for putting the work in and making it available. Thank-you.

[clach]

thank you to everybody who contributed to this amazing topic. Really, really helpful!

[bannork]

Here's a good phrase, especially for teachers of apathetic students, when someone is gazing off into space, the lights are onม but no one is at home - เหม่อลอย

[rgs2001uk]

Here's a good phrase, especially for teachers of apathetic students, when someone is gazing off into space, the lights are onม but no one is at home - เหม่อลอย

Thought that meant, someone is thinking too mutt (LOL, should be much) or is engrossed in thought?

[jacky54]

Sadly there is no phonetical translations.

yeah useless without, I have no intention of learning all those squiggles anyhow you only really need 50 words to get by.

[Eightdeadangels]

Really helpful list. Kudos and many thanks to those who took the time to compile it. I'm finding Thai a hell of a lot easier to pick up than Chinese and I lived in China for a year or so and really battled to speak it. Cheers

[Matmakmak]

Thank you

[lap82]

Such a great list. Thank you very much.

[kennyro]

Great forum and I have downloaded heaps of good information. I am working on my own spreadsheet, and as I correct many mistakes I am hoping I will retain some knowledge of paasaa thai.

[khrai]

We've been working on a High Frequency Vocab List (the download is in that post). A Thai teacher is going through it yet again to catch any mistakes. We'll edit the list even further as we work through the series (no list is perfect).

What's always stumped me about these frequency lists is how limited they are without phrases showing usage, so Hugh is doing just that. He picks a subject, selects a range of vocab from the list, and gives explanations and practicals. Audio is added in the followup posts. Here's the series so far.

i get an error message when trying to open this last link.

Is this list still availabe somewhere?