Guide Of Pronunciation

Thai Tones

Thai is a tonal language, its pronunciation presents new challenges for foreigner speakers. If the tone is wrong, you might not be easily understood, but not to be worried, you will learn from the mistake!
Thai uses five tones. The phonetic transliteration in this textbook uses tone marks over the initial consonant to determine the tone for each syllable. Note that the tone marks used for transliteration are different from those used in Thai script. Each syllable is pronounced with a distinct tone – mid, low, falling, high or rising.

You might not be able to get all tones correctly at first, which is OK! The more you practice it will become easier. We will go through new words in each lesson one by one together. Thai syllables are like music, just keep singing!

Tone marks (Transliteration)

Tone

Tone Symbol

Example

Middle

a

maa ( come;V)

Low

à

màa (no meaning)

falling

â

mâa (no meaning)

High

á

máa (horse;N)

Rising

ä

mäa (dog;N)

bpaa   bpàa   bpâa   bpáa    bpäa  

kaao  kàao  kâao  káao  käao

maa   màa   mâa   máa   mäa

Thai tones are like music, just keep singing!