Learn about unfamiliar Thai consonants
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate Thai Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the final 3 consonant sounds in Thai. |
| These consonant sounds do not appear in English, so they'll likely be unfamiliar to you. |
| Be sure to practice these sounds, as these are the sounds that learners often get wrong. |
| Are you ready? |
| Then let's get started! |
| The first consonant sound is... |
| "ร |
| รอ Waiting |
| รัก Love |
| ร้อน Hot" |
| This is also known as a rolled R, or a Spanish R. Contact the gums directly behind the top teeth with the tip of your tongue, build pressure behind the gums and then flick the tongue upwards rapidly to release. The small passage created by the gums and the tongue should open and close rapidly -- as if your tongue is fluttering or vibrating against the gums. It sounds almost like a rapid "D" sound. |
| When building up pressure behind the tip of the tongue, rapidly brush the tip up and back, against the gumridge. As you do so, you should feel a vibrating sensation behind your gumridge. |
| It's like striking your gumridge, and then again *behind* the gumridge with the tip of your tongue, in one quick up and back motion. |
| One useful trick, is to repeat the word "butter" or "ladder" really *really* quickly. This will help you to get the 'tapping', or flicking sensation. |
| Yet another trick, is to think of olden day movies. Do you remember how Dracula first introduced himself? Like DO-RA-CU-LA. Try to say it like this multiple times. You want to focus on the D and R sound in the word "dracula". This *very* quick transitioning from the D to the R can sometimes allow you to prononuce the rolled R sound. |
| OK. Let's breakdown this sound. Listen to Jay. |
| ร, ร (slowly) |
| ร, ร (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| "จ |
| จาน Plate |
| เจ็บ Painful |
| จน Poor" |
| This consonant is similar to the 'ch' sound in English. English however, focuses the tip of the tongue to contact the gum ridge, while in Thai, the middle part of the tongue, known as the blade of the tongue, is used to contact the area *behind* the gumridge. Also, this is an unaspirated sound, meaning there shouldn't be a burst of air when pronouncing this sound. |
| One useful trick, is to repeat the word "question" to practice this sound. The sound created in "question", is the closest English equivalent to this Thai sound. |
| OK. Let's breakdown this sound. Listen to Jay. |
| จ, จ (slowly) |
| จ, จ (slowly) |
| The final consonant sound is... |
| "ฉ,ช,ฌ |
| ช้า Slow |
| ฉัน I/Me |
| ชาม Bowl" |
| This is identical to the previous sound, but aspirated, meaning there *should* be a burst of air when pronouncing this sound. It's very similar to the English 'ch' sound as in 'church'. Like the previous sound however, you want to use the blade of the tongue to contact the area just behind the gumridge. Listen to Jay. |
| ฉ/ช/ฌ, ฉ/ช/ฌ (slowly) |
| ฉ/ช/ฌ, ฉ/ช/ฌ (slowly) |
| Well done! You just learned the final 3 consonant sounds in Thai. |
| We've covered every single sound that could possibly appear in the Thai language. You can now pronounce anything in Thai! Isn't that great? |
| How difficult were they to learn? Please comment and share your thoughts. |
| See you in the next Ultimate Thai Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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