Writing and Reading Thai
Writing and Reading Thai script
How to Write Thai? Learn how to write and read Thai step by step with Kruumui.com. The best and easiest way to learn Thai writing. The lessons are well-explained with audio pronunciation. Suitable for beginners!
Many foreigners find learning to write and read Thai very complicated. Looking at Thai text may already make you feel overwhelmed – no capital letters, no gaps between each word, no periods, no question marks to show whether the sentence is asking a question. Don’t know where to start!
KruuMui.com Thai Writing and reading online is very well designed and colorful to help you learn Thai from ABC, explaining every step from how we form a syllable to make sentences. Each lesson will take less than 20 minutes! By the end of the course, you will be able to read and write almost anything in Thai!
Here is how to learn Thai writing at Kruumui.com:
Go through the overall Thai language below, no need to remember any consonants, vowels or tones right now. Try to understand the overall concept. Learn each lesson by listening to the audios, repeating after it, practicing writing on your notebook, and by doing the exercises!
Are you ready?
Thai Consonants (Pá-yan-cha-ná Thai)
There are 44 consonants in Thai. Some of them are no longer used and will be skipped. Thai words are broken up into a syllable, each syllable has a distinct tone. You will learn the consonants by class, middle, high and low. The reason you need to know the class of consonant is because the class affects how the syllable is pronounced. Every consonant can be initial consonant, some consonant is a part of a vowel and some work as a final consonant.
กอ gaw - ไก่ gài
ก
Middle Class - Final ก
ขอ käw - ไข่ kài
ข
High Class - Final ก
ค kaw - ควาย kwaai
ค
Low Class - Final ก
ฆ kaw - ระฆัง rá-kang
ฆ
Low Class - Final ก
งอ ngaw - งู nguu
ง
Low Class - Final ง
จอ jaw - จาน jaan
จ
Middle Class - Final ด
ฉ chäw - ฉิ่ง chìng
ฉ
High Class
ช chaw - ช้าง cháng
ช
Low Class - Final ด
ซอ saw - โซ่ sôo
ซ
Low Class - Final ด
ฌอ chaw - เฌอ cher
ฌ
High Class - Final ด
ญ yaw - หญิง yïng
ญ
Low Class - Final น
ฎ daw - ชฎา chá-daa
ฎ
Middld Class - Final ด
ฏอ dtaw - ปฏัก pà-dtàk
ฏ
Middle Class - Final ด
ฐอ täw - ฐาน täan
ฐ
High Class - Final ด
ฑ taw - มณโฑ mon-too
ฑ
High Class - Final ด
ฒ taw - เฒ่า pûu-tâo
ฒ
Low Class - Final ด
ณอ naw - เณร neen
ณ
Low Class - Final น
ดอ daw - เด็ก dèk
ด
Middle Class - Final ด
ต dtaw - เต่า dtào
ต
Middle Class - Final ด
ถ täw - ถุง tüng
ถ
High Class - Final ด
ทอ taw - ทหาร tá-häan
ท
Low Class - Final ด
ธ taw - ธง tong
ธ
Low Class - Final ด
น naw - หนู nüu
น
Low Class - Final น
บ baw - ใบไม้ bai-mái
บ
Middle Class - Final บ
ปอ bpaw - ปลา bplaa
ป
Middle Class - Final บ
ผอ päw - ผึ้ง pûng
ผ
High Class
ฝอ fäw - ฝา fäa
ฝ
High Class
พ paw - พาน paan
พ
Low Class - Final บ
ฟอ faw - ฟัน fan
ฟ
Low Class - Final บ
ภ paw - สำเภา säm-pao
ภ
Low Class - Final บ
ม maw - ม้า máa
ม
Low Class - Final ม
ย yaw - ยัก yák
ย
Low Class - Final ย
รอ raw - เรือ rua
ร
Low Class - Final น
ลอ law - ลิง ling
ล
low Class - Final น
วอ waw - แหวน wäan
ว
Low Class - Final ว
ศ säw - ศาลา säa-laa
ศ
High Class - Final ด
ษอ säw - ฤๅษี ruu-sïi
ษ
High Class - Final ด
ส säw - เสือ süa
ส
High Class - Final ด
ห häw - หีบ hìip
ห
High Class
ฬอ law - จุฬา ju-laa
ฬ
Low Class - Final น
ออ aw - อ่าง àang
อ
Middle Class
ฮอ ngaw - นกฮูก nók-ngûuk
ฮ
low Class
Thai Vowels (Sà-ra Thai)
There are 32 vowels, 2 different kinds, short and long vowels. Some vowels comes in front of initial consonants, some go above, under, behind, front-back, front-above-behind! Some change form when followed by final consonants. You will learn each vowels step by step. Some vowels that not often seen, will not bring them up in the lessons. To show the position of each vowel, will use ‘อ- aw’ as initial consonant. You do not need to remember all of them now, just go through and repeat the sounds.
อะ
a – Alaska
อา
aa – Ah
อิ
i – Kit
อี
ii – Eagle
อึ
eu – Eu!
อือ
euu – Euuh!
อุ
u – Boot (shorter)
อู
uu – Boot
เอะ
e – Pet
เอ
ee – Aid
แอะ
ae –
แอ
aae – Athlete
โอะ
o – Oh (shorter)
โอ
oo – Oh
เอาะ
aw – Aw (Short sound)
ออ
aw – Law
เออะ
er – Er (short sound)
เออ
er – Earth
เอียะ
ia – ia (short Sound)
เอีย
ia – Piano
เอือะ
eua – (shorter)
เอือ
eua –
อัวะ
ua – (shorter sound)
อัว
ua – Oo-aah
อำ
am –
ไอ
ai – I
ใอ
ai – I
เอา
ao –
Thai Tone Marks
There are 5 tones, 4 tone marks in Thai Script. A tone mark will place above the initial letter, or above a vowel.
For english transliteration will use (a)-middle tone, (à)-low tone, (â)-falling tone, (á)-high tone and (ä)-rising tone.
อ อ่ อ้ อ๊ อ๋
Final Consonants
The consonants that work as a final consonant may sound different from its initial sound. There are 2 types of final consonants, sonorant final and stop final. Thai final doesn’t have a strong sound like in English. These sounds are normally unvoiced, so aren’t fully sounded.
Stop Final: ก ด บ
Sonorant Final: น ม ง ย ว
Summarize What Determine the Tone
What determine the syllable tone? The script tone marks ( อ อ่ อ้ อ๊ อ๋ ) are not the only ones that determine the tone of syllables, don’t be confused with the English transliteration tone marks.
ก ข ค
1. Consonants Class
Whether the syllable has an initial consonant in the middle, high or low class
อะ-อา
2. Vowel Lenght
Whether the syllable has a long or short vowel
อ อ่ อ้
3. Tone Mark
Whether or not there is a tone mark placed above the initial consonant of a syllable
ก ด บ
4. Final Consonant
Whether the syllable followed by sonorant or stop final
Summary Tone Rules
Thai Basic Sentence structures
After you learn to form syllables/words, now it time to put words into sentences. In Thai we write from left to right, just like English. The way we form a sentence also similar. One basic sentence will start with a subject, following by an action/verb and an object (Subject + Verb + Object). Ex
I eat apple = Chän kin apple = ฉัน กิน แอปเปิ้ล
Chän ฉัน = I (male or female)
kin กิน = to eat
However there is no space between word in a sentence. So the sentence “I eat apple” should be like “ฉันกินแอปเปิ้ล” There is a space between sentences to show the sentence is ended, no period (.) or (?) is used to end a sentence in Tha