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Learn to read Thai - Tutorial 16

An important vowel character

I want to cover some important vowels today and they are all based around one vowel character that can be used alone or with combinations of other vowels.

I've kept things simple so far so as not to frighten people away, but this lesson will introduce another degree of difficulty. I said that written Thai is a lot more consistent than English (phonetically) - and it is - but some of these vowel sounds are inconsistent.

Inconsistency makes learning more difficult but in this respect it is far more difficult for Thais learning English than foreigners learning Thai.

This vowel symbol (sara ay) is used in lots of vowel combinations but I won't cover them all today. Here it is and it is always written before the initial consonant:

เ

On its own it can make an 'ay' sound as in 'way' or an 'e' sound as in the man's name 'Len'. Here are some examples:

เล่น

The word is pronounced Consonant-Vowel-Consonant but written Vowel-Consonant-Consonant.

You should recognise the initial and final consonants as being 'l' and 'n' sounds. Both of these consonants were covered in Tutorial 8 so I shouldn't need to explain again. If you don't recognise them, then you aren't following these tutorials as I had intended.

In this word, the vowel makes an 'e' sound, and not an 'ay' sound. The sound of the word is len, and not lane. This is a favourite Thai activity, the Thai verb for play.

Tone: Low-class initial consonant and first tone mark = Falling tone (Tutorial 14)

เวลา

Again, you should recognise the two consonants used in this word if you have been following these tutorials correctly. One is the same as used in the example above and the other was covered in Tutorial 9. You should also see two vowels at each end of the word.

If you remember what I said in Tutorial 7 you will know that these two vowels can combine to make an 'ao' sound. When they do that they are written either side of the consonant or consonant cluster.

However, in this example the two consonants 'w' and 'l' ARE NOT a consonant cluster and therefore the word is two syllables.

The first syllable is the 'w' consonant and the 'ay' vowel but it is written Vowel-Consonant. The second syllable is the 'l' initial consonant followed by the 'aa' long vowel. This vowel is written after the consonant just like written English.

The Thai word way-laa means time.

Tone: Both syllables use a low-class initial consonant and are live because they have long vowels, therefore both = Mid tone (Tutorial 14)

Now compare the following word with the one above:

เปล่า

You will see that the vowel symbols at the beginning and end of the word are exactly the same. With this word though, the two consonants used ARE a consonant cluster. We have the 'bp' character and the 'l' character so we get the consonant cluster 'bpl'.

In such a case, the two vowel symbols combine to make an 'ao' sound. The Thai word bplao means free of charge. When you eat at a small food shop, you pay for the curry but the rice and drinking water comes for free - kaaw bplao and naam bplao.

Tone: Mid-class initial consonant and first tone mark = Low tone (Tutorial 14)

You will have noticed that Thai vowels have a long and short version. Sometimes though, a special symbol is used above the initial consonant to change a long vowel to a short vowel. It is the same symbol as the Thai numeral eight.

When you see this used in conjunction with (sara ay), you know it is a 'e' sound as in 'fed' or 'ten'.

เต็ม

My examples use letters we have already covered so you should know them. In this word the initial consonant is the 'dt' sound (Tutorial 3) and the final consonant is the 'm' sound (Tutorial 8).

You can see that the vowel is used in conjunction with the vowel shortener symbol so the sound is a simple 'e' as in 'them'.

The Thai word dtem means to be full (a thing and not a person's stomach).

Used in conjunction with another vowel we have already covered, the sound changes again.

อิ

You will remember from Tutorial 6 that this vowel (written here above the zero consonant) makes a simple 'i' sound as in 'lid' or 'bin'. However, when used in conjunction with sara ay, the sound changes to 'er' as in 'pert'.

This vowel combination is only used when there is a final consonant.

ปิด

You should recognise the initial consonant as the 'bp' sound (Tutorial 3). The final consonant is dor dek which is pronounced as an unreleased 't' sound when used as a final consonant (Tutorial 6).

The vowel is a simple 'i' so the word is bpit which is the Thai verb to close or the adjective to be closed.

Tone: Mid-class initial consonant, dead syllable, short vowel = Low tone (Tutorial 14)

เปิด

This word is similar to the one above except you will see sara ay used as well. This vowel combination makes an 'er' sound so the word is bpert which is the Thai verb to open or the adjective to be open.

Tone: Mid-class initial consonant, dead syllable, long vowel = Low tone (Tutorial 14)

If we want an 'er' sound but there is no final consonant, we need to use sara ay in conjunction with the zero consonant. This vowel combination is written either side of the initial consonant. Here's an example:

เธอ

You should recognise the only consonant used as being one of the 't' sounds from the last tutorial (Tutorial 15).

Thai has many different personal pronouns and ter is the informal pronoun for 'you' used often in Thai pop songs when the singer is declaring his or her love for someone. When listening to Thai pop music, it won't be long before you hear ruk ter.

Tone: Low-class initial consonant, live syllable = Mid tone (Tutorial 14)

Another Thai vowel consists of two sara ay characters written together but it is a vowel in its own right. It is known as sara air. Like many Thai sounds, it is impossible to write accurately in English.

The English word 'hair' almost has two syllables - 'hair-er' - but this Thai vowel just has one and you leave your mouth open when saying it. The end of the syllable is a breathy 'h' rather than a rolled 'r'.

แม่

You should recognise the consonant used (Tutorial 8). The Thai word mair means mother, and no other person is more important to Thais than their mother. This Thai vowel is usually transliterated as 'ae' so this word would be mae in most phrase books.

However, I can't think of an English word where an 'ae' combination makes this sound. Because of this type of thing, transliteration systems are hellishly confusing and inaccurate, and should be avoided at all times.

Tone: Low-class initial consonant and first tone mark = Falling tone (Tutorial 14)

Summary

If you go back to the top of the page you should now be able to read the sign in the photo. The difficulty here is the fancy fonts that Thais use but I have now covered all the vowels and consonants used in this sign so theoretically you should be able to read it.

If you work out that it says something like wun dek you are making good progress.

I think that's enough for today. As I said above, this vowel is used in lots of other vowel combinations but some are quite complex and I don't want to cover them yet. Learn to walk before you attempt to run.

What you should also have realised is that remembering what has been taught previously is very important. The structure of these tutorials is such that each one builds on previously taught material.

If you skip something because you think it is boring or unimportant you will then have a problem later. Don't be impatient. Learning to read Thai cannot be hurried. Just make sure you understand everything fully - and can remember everything - before moving to the next tutorial.

If something isn't clear, or if you are confused, don't give up. Maybe I haven't explained something very well. In that case, drop me an e-mail and I will try to explain more clearly.

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.