Learn about the forty-four Thai consonants
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Ryan: Pronunciation, Lesson 1 - Thai consonants on parade. Welcome back to ThaiPod101.com. |
| Rawinporn: [สวัสดีค่ะ] |
| Ryan: [สวัสดีครับ] And welcome to our Pronunciation Series. In this lesson we’re going to start with the basics and slowly work our way up. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Rawinporn: That’s right. First we’ll talk about what Thai sounds are made of. |
| Ryan: Well Thai has a wide variety of sounds compared with other languages. |
| Rawinporn: Yes. There are 44 consonants with 21 sounds in Thai. |
| Ryan: And there are 21 vowels (vowel symbols) with 32 (vowel) sounds. In Thai, there are no words that have clusters of three or more consonants such as the English word “strength”. Vowels are attached to consonants to form syllables. Can we hear some examples of how typical Thai words sound like? |
| Rawinporn: For example, [ข้าวเหนียว]. It means “sticky rice”. |
| Ryan: So there are two syllables in this word - [ข้าว] and [เหนียว]. Each one is made up of a consonant and a vowel. Can we have another one? |
| Rawinporn: Sure. [โทรศัพท์]. It means “telephone”. |
| Ryan: So this one is made up three syllables. |
| Rawinporn: Let’s get back to the consonants. There are many consonants with the same English pronunciation, while many differences exist. |
| Ryan: As mentioned before, Thai has 44 consonants with 21 sounds. The alphabet and the order of the letters was derived from the Sanskrit alphabet originating in Ancient India. All of the Sanskrit letters were kept so that words of Sanskrit, [Pali (from the audio, it’s not a Thai word but an english word)] and [Khmer(this is also an english word too)] origin could keep their proper spellings, even though Thai speakers didn’t pronounce the full range of Sanskrit sounds. That’s why the Thai alphabet has so many letters that sound the same. |
| Rawinporn: Each consonant name is made up of the sound it makes and the word starting with that letter. Some consonant names represent Sanskrit words. Some represent words of [Pali] and [Khmer] origin, and some represent native Thai words. |
| Ryan: I think 44 consonants is a lot. Why don’t we do half and half? Let’s start with the first 22 consonants in this lesson. |
| Rawinporn: Good idea. |
| Ryan: Ok, let’s start with the first consonant which is… |
| Rawinporn: [กอไก่] means “chicken”. |
| Ryan: [กอไก่] It’s a harder sound than in English, somewhere between G and K. |
| Rawinporn: Next, [ขอไข่]. |
| Ryan: [ขอขวด] means “bottle”. |
| Rawinporn: This consonant, [ขอขวด], is not used anymore. |
| Ryan: Next, [คอควาย]. [คอควาย] means “water buffalo”. |
| Rawinporn: Yes, and it can be bad word as well. If you call someone [ควาย] it means that person is very, very dumb. So please be careful. |
| Ryan: Next, [คอคน]. [คอคน] means “person”. Anyway, this consonant is not used anymore either. |
| Rawinporn: Yes. Then we have [คอระคัง]. [ระคัง] means “bell”. |
| Ryan: The next one is quite difficult for some people - [งองู]. [งู] means “snake”. In English the NG sound only comes in the middle or end of words, like the word “singing”. In Thai, it can begin words. You can practice this sound by dropping the SI from the beginning of “singing” and just say “nging”, “nging”, “nging”. It’s pretty fun to do. |
| Rawinporn: Ok, next - [จอจาน]. [จาน] means “plate”. |
| Ryan: The next one is [ฉอฉิ่ง]. [ฉิ่ง] means “little hand cymbals”, the ones that make the sound ching, ching, ching when you hit them together. |
| Rawinporn: Yes. And then [ชอช้าง]. [ช้าง] means “elephant”. |
| Ryan: Then [ซโซ่]. [โซ่] means “chain”. |
| Rawinporn: Are you getting tired? We’ve already come halfway. |
| Ryan: Woo-hoo! Next, [ชอกะเชอ]. [เชอ] means “bush”. |
| Rawinporn: That’s a very old word. I don’t even know the meaning. |
| Ryan: Ok. Next, [ยอหญิง]. [หญิง] means “woman”. [หญิง] is also a popular nickname for a girl. |
| Rawinporn: Right, many of my friends are named [หญิง] as well. Next we have [ดอชะดา]. |
| Ryan: Then we have [ตอปะตัก]. [ปะตัก] is a “goad” that you use to drive a water buffalo with. |
| Rawinporn: [ตอปะตัก] is a hard sound between T and D. |
| Ryan: Just like the TY at the end of 20. In Thailand, you’ll often see this sound written with just a T on street signs, for example. But to avoid the temptation to mispronounce it, we’ll transcribe it as DT in the lesson notes. |
| Rawinporn: Next is [ถอสันถาน]. [ถาน] means [base]. |
| Ryan: Ok. |
| Rawinporn: Next is [ถอสันถาน]. [ถาน] means [base], like a [base] of a statue. |
| Ryan: Ok. Then [ทอนามนโท], which means “dancer”. |
| Rawinporn: And then [ทอผู้เท่า], which means “old person”. You might notice that this three consonants sound exactly the same. |
| Ryan: Yes, they do. And we write this sound with TH, just like in the word “Thai”. |
| Rawinporn: Next is… |
| Ryan: [นอเณร]. [เณร] means “novice monk”. |
| Rawinporn: [ดอเด็ก]. [เด็ก] means “child”. |
| Ryan: Then [ตอเต่า]. [เต่า] means “turtle”. This makes the same sound we saw earlier, halfway between D and T. |
| Rawinporn: And the last one for this lesson is… |
| Ryan: [ถอถุง]. [ถุง] means “sack”. |
| Rawinporn: Alright, so we’ve covered the first 22 Thai consonants. |
Outro |
| Ryan: Make sure to practice these over and over until you really get the hang of them. The best way to improve pronunciation is through practice. |
| Rawinporn: So keep practicing. |
| Ryan: And see you next time at the Thai Pronunciation Series. |
| Rawinporn: [สวัสดีค่ะ] |
| Ryan: [สวัสดีครับ] |
Comments
HideHello Lisa,
Thank you. I will suggest. While waiting, please just zoom in on your screen to see bigger letter. Hope that helps. Please feel free to let me know if you have any future questions. I will be glad to help.
Have a good day.
ปริษา Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
please use a bigger size font for the Thai letters, the differences are hard to spot when you are looking at the letters for the first time
Hello Michael,
Thank you. So sorry that we only able to add word into flashcard at the moment. I will suggest and see what we could do in the future. Please feel free to let me know if you have any future questions. I will be glad to help.
Have a good day.
ปริษา Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
Are there flashcard Decks for the consonants and vowels?
สวัสดี Lara,
Great that it got resolved!
If you have any questions, let us know. 😉
Wishing you good luck with your Thai,
เลเว็นเต้ (Levente)
Team ThaiPod101.com
Sorry I think something was wrong with my browser but I am now able to download pdfs again. Sorry to bother
Good day! I'm new and just started the 7day free Premium Trial but I can't seem to download the pdfs of this lesson. I'm also having similar problems with the Thai alphabet made easy lessons. I wanted to download the pdfs so that I can learn it anytime even without internet. Hoping you can help me with this. 😊 Thank you
Hello Mel Malinowski,
Thank you very much. Check Ultimate Thai Pronunciation Guide "Thai vowels". Hope that help.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be glad to help.
Have a nice day.
Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
For some reason, the vowels are left out of the very useful download "Thai Alphabet" (thaialpha.pdf)
Why? I cannot find a corresponding pdf for the Thai vowels.
Hello Jim,
Thank you very much for your comment. I think she speak from her own opinion and our writer was not put that on at the beginning so it's hard to be re write after the work done. We will check with our team again if we can do something about it. Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be glad to help. We wish you will have a good progress with Thai.
Have a nice day.
Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
You have in the transcript: Right, many of my friends are named [หญิง] as well. Next we have [ดอชะดา].
But after that Rawinporn says, "Chada" means headdress." Her explanation isn't in the text of the transcript.
Hello Sighto,
Thank you very much for your comment and suggestion. We provided a video lesson called "Thai alphabet made easy lessons" and in our lesson we inform all meaning of each lesson. That might help you for now. I will pass your comment to our team so they can consider. Please let me know if you need any help. I will be glad to help you. We wish you have a good progress in learning.
Have a nice day.
Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
Hello ! A table with all 44 consonants is very usefull !
You are missing just the writting in Thai for the meaning of the letter : For exemple :
ช chaaw-cháang "elephant" (ช้าง) -ch
With all the 44 consonants in one table !!... would be perfect !!
Hello Newbie,
Thank you very much for your comment and question. I will pass your comment to our team so they can consider. While waiting, if you using out website on laptop computer, try copy and paste on Microsoft word and extend the letter might help you. Hope that's help. Please let me know if you have any future questions. I will be glad to help you. We wish you have a good progress with Thai language.
Have a nice day.
Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
May the Thai letter be bigger in the note?
It is too small to learn the difference between each.......
thank you
Hello Maxim,
Yes, sure you can get lesson notes pdf. Just go to download pdf. above then click download lesson notes. There are in the same place for every lessons.
Have a nice day.
Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
Have the one week free premium membership, but I cant get lesson notes.pdfs. arent they part of the premium service?:thumbsup:
Hi Deborah,
Thank you very much for your comment and suggestion. We really appreciated that. Sorry to hear that you have a problem pronouncing "dt" sound. There's no "s" sound in the “thaaw-thaan” (base) and also no “n” sound between “thaaw” and “mon” in “thaaw-mon-thoo.”. The way it written is how there pronounce maybe you just hearing some sounds that are not there. Keep practicing will help you get better. Please let's know if you have any future questions.
Have a nice day.
Parisa
Team ThaiPod101.com
Also, it sounded like there was an "s" sound in the middle of "thaaw-thaan" (base) and an "n" sound between "thaw" and "mon" in "thaaw-mon-thoo." (dancer) But these extra sounds aren't transcribed. Is this just an accent, or am I missing important sounds? This is my first tonal language, so I'm worried about messing up the basics.
I think having the recorder option for basic pronunciation will be very helpful. I still can't tell if I'm pronouncing "dt" correctly (because I pronounce the last "t" in "twenty" like a "d," but "d" is already a sound.) If there's a recorded option, then us students can build on proper pronunciation and not leave Thai speakers as confused when they hear us. ;)