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

Middle Class - Final ก

ขอ käw - ไข่ kài

High Class - Final ก

ค kaw - ควาย kwaai

Low Class - Final ก

ฆ kaw - ระฆัง rá-kang

Low Class - Final ก

งอ ngaw - งู nguu

Low Class - Final ง

จอ jaw - จาน jaan

Middle Class - Final ด

ฉ chäw - ฉิ่ง chìng

High Class

ช chaw - ช้าง cháng

Low Class - Final ด

ซอ saw - โซ่ sôo

Low Class - Final ด

ฌอ chaw - เฌอ cher

High Class - Final ด

ญ yaw - หญิง yïng

Low Class - Final น

ฎ daw - ชฎา chá-daa

Middld Class - Final ด

ฏอ dtaw - ปฏัก pà-dtàk

Middle Class - Final ด

ฐอ täw - ฐาน täan

High Class - Final ด

ฑ taw - มณโฑ mon-too

High Class - Final ด

ฒ taw - เฒ่า pûu-tâo

Low Class - Final ด

ณอ naw - เณร neen

Low Class - Final น

ดอ daw - เด็ก dèk

Middle Class - Final ด

ต dtaw - เต่า dtào

Middle Class - Final ด

ถ täw - ถุง tüng

High Class - Final ด

ทอ taw - ทหาร tá-häan

Low Class - Final ด

ธ taw - ธง tong

Low Class - Final ด

น naw - หนู nüu

Low Class - Final น

บ baw - ใบไม้ bai-mái

Middle Class - Final บ

ปอ bpaw - ปลา bplaa

Middle Class - Final บ

ผอ päw - ผึ้ง pûng

High Class

ฝอ fäw - ฝา fäa

High Class

พ paw - พาน paan

Low Class - Final บ

ฟอ faw - ฟัน fan

Low Class - Final บ

ภ paw - สำเภา säm-pao

Low Class - Final บ

ม maw - ม้า máa

Low Class - Final ม

ย yaw - ยัก yák

Low Class - Final ย

รอ raw - เรือ rua

Low Class - Final น

ลอ law - ลิง ling

low Class - Final น

วอ waw - แหวน wäan

Low Class - Final ว

ศ säw - ศาลา säa-laa

High Class - Final ด

ษอ säw - ฤๅษี ruu-sïi

High Class - Final ด

ส säw - เสือ süa

High Class - Final ด

ห häw - หีบ hìip

High Class

ฬอ law - จุฬา ju-laa

Low Class - Final น

ออ aw - อ่าง àang

Middle Class

ฮอ ngaw - นกฮูก nók-ngûuk

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.

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

Learn Thai Writing has never been this simple!