Learn how to write 4 letters: ถ, ฐ, ฎ and ฏ
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| สวัสดีค่ะ, ดิฉันปรารถนาค่ะ! Welcome to Thaipod101.com’s ตัวอักษรไทย Made Easy! |
| The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn the Thai alphabet: ตัวอักษรไทย! |
| In the last lesson you learned the tone marks mái-dtrii and mái jàt-dtaa-waa. Do you remember how to write them? |
| In this lesson, you’re going to learn about 2 high class and 2 middle class consonants… |
| Ready to start? Then let's go! |
| The first new letter of this lesson is called ถ (thǎaw thǔng). The word ถุง (thǔng) means "bag" or "sack". As an initial consonant, ถุง makes the sound "th" like the T in "top". And as a final consonant it makes a T-stop. |
| You can see that ถ contains the shape of the letter ก, and looks very similar to another letter, ภ. |
| Here you see ถ on the left, ก in the middle, and ภ on the right. |
| The head for ถ is written clockwise and ends up inside the letter. Since ถุง (thǔng) means "bag" you can imagine that the head is some fruit being carried inside a bag. That might help you to tell it apart from ภ, which has the head sticking out to the left. |
| Are you ready to practice writing? |
| Let's write ถ together. |
| Start at the bottom with a clockwise head. Then make the shape of ก |
| We can use ถ to write the word แถว (thǎaeo), which means "row". The initial consonant is ถ, and the vowel is สระ แอ, which is written on the left side. The final consonant ว makes a sound like the letter O at the end of a syllable. And this blends with the vowel to make the sound แอว (aaeo). |
| แถว is said with a rising tone because it has a high class consonant and a live syllable ending. |
| The second high class consonant of this lesson is ฐ (thǎaw thǎan). The word ฐาน (thǎan) means "base" or "platform" ฐ makes the same initial and final sounds as ถ. |
| You can see that ฐ is one of the most difficult Thai letters to write. But if you take it step by step, it's actually not that difficult. |
| Think of the top part of ฐ as a combination of the letters จ and ร. |
| We start with a clockwise head and make the shape of the letter จ. Then add a hook and curving line on top like the letter ร.Then lift your pen up from the paper to write the extra line on the bottom. It starts with a clockwise head, then the line goes to the left with one bump and a curl. |
| Let's practice writing ฐ together. |
| ฐ |
| The most common word that uses ฐ is รัฐ (rát), which means "state". รัฐ is also used as a prefix for many words that have something to do with government or statehood. |
| รัฐ has the initial consonant ร sounding like a trilled letter R. The symbol ไม้หันอากาศ is used to show the short vowel สระ อะ. And ฐ is a final consonant making a T-stop. We pronounce รัฐ with a high tone because of the rule: Low class consonant with a dead ending and short vowel makes high tone. |
| Let's write it together. ร , ไม้หันอากาศ , ฐ . รัฐ (rát) |
| These are the last 2 middle class consonants. Their names are ฎ (daaw chá-daa) and ฏ (dtaaw bpà-dtàk). The word ชฎา(chá-daa) means a "pointed crown", and the word ปฏัก (bpà-dtàk) means "spear" or "goad". |
| You can think of these two letters as fancy versions of ด and ต. ฎ makes the same letter D sound as ด. While ฏ makes the same cross between a D and T sound as ต. And all of them make a T-stop when used as a final consonant. |
| Comparing ฎ and ฏ to the letters ด and ต will help you to remember which one is which. The only difference when writing them is that ฏ has an extra bump in the line on the bottom. This is just like how ต has an extra bump on top. So you can remember that the 2 letters with the extra bump make the same sound. |
| Let's practice writing ฎ and ฏ as a pair. |
| Got your pen ready? OK, here we go. |
| Start writing ฎ with a counter-clockwise head on the bottom. Then make the shape of ก. Extend the line on the right below the head. And make a loop on the left side. |
| Now let's do ฏ. |
| Again, start with a counter-clockwise head on the bottom. Then make the shape of ก. Extend the line on the right below the head. Then make one bump in the line going to the left before the loop. |
| Let's try them both one more time. |
| ฎ has just a loop on the bottom. |
| ฏ has a bump and then a loop. |
| Both of these letters are very uncommon. |
| But one word that uses ฎ is กฎ (gòt), which means "rule" or "law". It has ก for the initial consonant, and ฎ as the final consonant. |
| When we have a word containing only two consonants we know that there is an unwritten vowel สระ โอะ between them. กฎ has a middle class consonant and a dead syllable, so it's low tone. |
| One word that uses ฏ is "กบฏ", which means "rebel". "กบฏ" has 2 syllables. Just like the word "ขนม" which we have learned in lesson 14, there is an unwritten สระ อะ after the first consonant ก, and there is an unwritten สระ โอะ between บ and ฏ. |
| Both syllables have middle class initial consonants. And both syllables have dead endings. So they are both low tone. |
| Now it's time for Pradthana’s Point. |
| You've already learned three quarters of the Thai alphabet along with most of the vowels. All of the remaining consonants are not so common. So you should be able to read through some lines of dialogue in Thai script and be able to pronounce many of the words you see. Try to predict the remaining rules for tone marks based on any words you can find that use those marks. Then see if you are correct by watching the following lessons. |
| Have you ever heard the Thai word พัฒนา? In the next ตัวอักษรไทย Made Easy Lesson you'll learn what it means, and most of all, how to write it! See you there! สวัสดีค่ะ! |
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