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Learn to read Thai - Tutorial 15

'T' consonants

In the process of learning to read Thai, there are different things to do. At this early stage it is important to try to remember the Thai characters and what sounds they make.

This tutorial is only to show you the different 't' sound consonants.

As we saw in Tutorial 5, there are several characters that make a 'K' sound and in Tutorial 10 we saw that there are four Thai consonants that make an 'S' sound. It will not surprise you then that there are several Thai consonants that make a 'T' sound.

As is always the case though, usage varies considerably. You will see a couple of these characters all the time - and one occasionally - but you can live in Thailand a long time and never see the other three. Put your energy into learning the commonly used characters and don't worry too much about the others.

Try to learn and remember the common 't' sound consonants as you will need them later when we do more reading practice.

ท

Name in Thai: ท ทหาร
Name in English: Tor Tuh-haan (soldier)
Initial: t
Final: t
Class: Low
Usage: Very common
Comments: This is the most commonly used 't' consonant and you see it all the time. All of the 't' consonants retain the same sound whether used as an initial or final consonant.

ถ

Name in Thai: ถ ถุง
Name in English: Tor Tuung (bag)
Initial: t
Final: t
Class: High
Usage: Fairly common
Comments: I have no statistics but I guess this is the second most common 't' consonant.

ธ

Name in Thai: ธ ธง
Name in English: Tor Tong (flag)
Initial: t
Final: t
Class: Low
Usage: Fairly rare
Comments: Not used as often as the consonants above, but used more than the consonants below. This consonant seems to be reserved for special words that are related to nation, religion, monarchy.

ฑ

Name in Thai: ฑ นางมณโฑ
Name in English: Tor Naang Mon Toh (a Thai Queen)
Initial: t
Final: t
Class: Low
Usage: Very rare
Comments: Some Thai consonants are so rare that I hardly ever see them and can't remember how to write them. This is an example. For the beginner, be aware that these rare characters exist but concentrate on the commonly used consonants.

ฒ

Name in Thai: ฒ ผู้เฒ่า
Name in English: Tor Poo Tao (old man)
Initial: t
Final: t
Class: Low
Usage: Very rare
Comments: I only know one expression that uses this letter and it's one that my Thai female friends use a lot for me. The Thai idiom tao hoo-uh ngoo (old man snake-head) is the equivalent to 'Dirty Old Man' in English. It didn't take them long to suss me out.

ฐ

Name in Thai: ฐ ฐาน
Name in English: Tor Taan (base)
Initial: t
Final: t
Class: High
Usage: Very rare
Comments: The only time I have ever seen this consonant used is in the names of apartment buildings. It's virtually obsolete but it isn't obsolete. If you can't remember, don't worry. I can't remember how to write it but I never need to write it.

Thai Alphabet Soundboard

To hear the sound of the Thai alphabet, click on individual consonants using the Thai Alphabet Soundboard. Thanks to David Tang for creating this.

Recommended books

If you are serious about learning how to read Thai, I highly recommend the following two books. These two books taught me almost everything I know and I still use them almost every day for reference purposes.

Most of the phrase books and text books for beginners that I have bought sit on my bookshelf accumulating dust. They are next to useless and good only to fuel the fire, except that it is never cold enough here to need a fire. However, if a sudden cold snap happens to descend, I will be grateful to Lonely Planet.

If you want to learn how to speak Thai, learning to read Thai will assist your pronunciation enormously. If you are trying to learn to speak Thai from books that use hopeless transliteration systems you are wasting your time because Thais won't be able to understand you.