Reading Basic Thai

So, you can't read Thai, and when you look at the strange Thai script you know that it would be impossible to learn so it's not even worth trying. Right?

Wrong. Let me demonstrate. Take a quick look at the following and then attempt to read a few basic words.

า - this is a vowel that makes a long 'aa' sound - the kind of sound that a doctor would ask you to make if he was looking at your throat. In English it can be written as 'aa', 'ar' or 'ah' (as in Baht).

ห - this is a consonant that makes an 'h' sound.

ม - this is a consonant that makes an 'm' sound.

Take a few seconds to try to remember these three characters and the sounds they make. Next, using what you have just learnt, try reading a few simple words.

มา

This word says 'maa' and it's the Thai verb 'to come'.

หา

This word says 'haa' and it means 'to seek' or 'to look for'.

What about the next one?

ห้าม

It says 'haam' and it's a word that you see on many signs in Thailand. It means 'do not' do something.

Easy, wasn't it?

That's basic Thai. Hopefully, you read the words without needing any help even though two minutes ago you thought you were incapable of reading any Thai.

This level of Thai is incredibly easy and if you learn just a few more easy vowels and consonants you can start to read quite a lot of words. I have never been able to work out how someone can live in Thailand for 20+ years and not be able to read a word of Thai.

Tourist areas have quite a lot of written English, but outside of these places it is just Thai. Being able to read some basic Thai helps enormously if living in Thailand or visiting the country regularly.

Of course, it's not all easy. However, if you learn a few basics it then gives you the confidence to tackle more difficult aspects of the language.

What happens when you encounter the following word, which is also made up from the characters above?

หมา

In this word the 'h' consonant is only used for tone purposes. It makes no sound. It is a high class consonant and it therefore changes the tone of the word.

The 'maa' meaning 'to come' is pronounced with a mid-tone, but 'maa' with a rising tone means 'dog'.

This is one way in which tones of words are changed. Many Thai consonants make the same sound, but they are different classes. Different class consonants invoke different tone rules and change the tone of words.

Thai script also uses four tone marks which, in conjunction with the class of the initial consonant, dictate which tone should be used. The word above 'haam' uses the second tone mark. The first and second tone marks are used a lot, but the third and fourth tone marks appear very rarely.

The 'haa' above meaning 'to seek' has a rising tone, but when written with the second tone mark it has a falling tone and means 'five'.

ห้า

If you want to understand more about the tone rules, take a look at the tutorial that I wrote about the subject many years ago.

What happens when you see a word that starts with the following characters?

มหา

Another anomaly of Thai is that vowels are sometimes not written. With some Thai words (actually, quite a few) you need to know when to insert unwritten vowels. This is one of the most difficult aspects of written Thai.

ถนน - this is the Thai word for street.

The word consists of just three consonants - TNN. So, how is it pronounced? You need to know that a short 'ah' or 'uh' goes between the first and second consonants, and a short 'o' goes between the second and third consonants. It is pronounced 'tuh-non'.

This brings me on to the the many problems associated with Thai words being transliterated into English.

English makes no distinction in the written language between aspirated and unaspirated sounds. The 't' in 'take' and the 't' in sister make different sounds, but the same letter is used. Thai does differentiate and there are different consonants for aspirated and unaspirated sounds.

Whoever devised the transliteration system decided that an 'h' would indicate aspirated sounds. Therefore, the Thai word for street is transliterated as 'thanon'.

In English 'th' and 'ph' make very different sounds to 't' and 'p' and this causes confusion. This is why the presenter in a Lonely Planet podcast about Bangkok failed to pronounce Thonburi correctly. Had the confusing 'hi' not been used, his pronunciation would have been OK.

Transliteration also fails to differentiate between long and short vowel sounds. Vowel length is critical in Thai and if you get it wrong Thais will not understand you.

Transliteration systems use 'ham' for the verb 'to forbid' instead of the long 'haam'. This, of course, is totally wrong. Tramsliteration systems also tell you that the Thai for 'house' is 'ban' instead of 'baan' and Thais just won't understand you.

When you first start to learn to read Thai it all looks strange and unfamiliar. This can force learners out of their comfort zone and in order to feel more comfortable they look for resources where Thai words are written in English. This is a big mistake.

These transliteration systems are so bad that all they do is mislead people. If you want to learn to speak Thai, the best thing is to start learning to read Thai at the same time.

Back to the example I gave above about words beginning with the following characters:

มหา

With this combination of letters, which means 'great', it has an implied vowel and a short 'uh' is needed between the first and second consonants.

The Thai for 'university' is 'muh-haa-wit-tuh-yaa-luy'

If you want to start learning how to read, ignore the difficult aspects at first. Don't try to justify to yourself why it is too difficult to learn. Learn some easy stuff, grow your confidence, and then start to tackle the more difficult stuff.