Mid Class Consonants
There are three classes of consonants, Mid, High and Low. We’ll learn these groups separately, which will make the class easier to remember. It’s important to remember the class of each consonant because, per the intro, class is one of the things that determines tone.
Memorize 1.1
ก
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กอ ไก่ chicken
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จ
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จอ จาน plate
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ฎ *(rare)
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ฎอ ชฎา crown
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ฏ (rare)
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ฏอ ปฏัก spear
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ด
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ดอ เด็ก child
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ต
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ตอ เต่า turtle
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บ
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บอ ใบไม้ leaf
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ป
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ปอ ปลา fish
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อ
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ออ อ่าง basin
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*I labeled some of these (rare) in case you prefer to postpone learning them until a later date. You may read Thai for days at a time without seeing these.
How to Memorize
There are many ways to memorize letters, words and sentences. Feel free to use any method you’d like, but here is the one I use for memorizing Consonants. It’s possible to use this exact method, or a variation of it, each time I ask you to memorize something in this book.
1) Starting at the top of the list, click the audio and listen. Instead of just ก, you will hear the name of the consonant, กอ ไก่. Listen and repeat several times. When repeating, make sure you not only pronounce the consonant and vowel sounds correctly, but also imitate the tones.
2) Click the image button. On a piece of paper, draw the letter ก as shown. Be sure to follow the direction arrows. While drawing, repeat the pronunciation กอ ไก่ over and over. If it helps, write it big the first time, and when you gain confidence, write it progressively smaller until you can make them normal writing size. Write it at least 10 times while repeating the pronunciation.
3) Repeat steps 1) and 2) for the second, third and fourth consonants. Memorizing in groups of four is a sweet spot – there are enough items to work your active recall, but not so many as to make the task too difficult. If the total number of items in the list isn’t divisible by four, make a judgement call of how you want to divide it up.
4) Scroll to the top of the page, select the “Hide all English” button. Scroll back down to the list, look at ก and try to pronounce it. Then click the audio to check your pronunciation. If your pronunciation is correct, go to the next consonant. If your pronunciation is wrong, listen and repeat several times before going to the next consonant. Do this for all four consonants. If you fail any of them, go through all four again until you can do all of them correctly.
5) Scroll to the top of the page, select the “Hide all Thai” button. Everything should be hidden now. Scroll back down to the list and click the audio for the first hidden consonant. On a piece of paper, draw the letter while repeating the pronunciation. Click the image and check to see if you drew it correctly. If you did, move onto the next consonant. If you didn’t, write it out correctly a few more times while repeating the pronunciation, then move onto the next consonant. Do this for all four consonants. If you fail any of them, go through all four again until you can do all of them correctly.
6) Repeat steps 1) thru 5) for the next four consonants. Keep doing this in sets of four until you finish the whole table.
7) Repeat steps 4) thru 5) for the whole table every day until you can easily go through it in one pass with no errors.
Long Vowels
Before we learn the rest of the consonants, we’ll learn some vowels so that we can form some complete syllables to practice with, and make things stick better. There are two vowel lengths in Thai, long and short. Listen to and repeat (don’t memorize):
อา อะ
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อี อิ
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อู อุ
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เอ เอะ
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แอ แอะ
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โอ โอะ
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เออ เออะ
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ออ เอาะ
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อือ อึ
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Notice that อ is not only a mid consonant, but also a vowel. For example, the first อ in ออ is a consonant, and the second is a vowel. When it’s in the position of consonant, it doesn’t contribute anything to the sound of the syllable; it’s just a place holder. But when it’s in the position of a vowel, it does contribute to the sound.
The vowels in the table are all simple, or singular, vowel sounds. We will introduce complex, or multiple, vowel sounds later. There are actually three more simple vowel sounds – อํา, ใอ, ไอ. Listen to and repeat (don’t memorize):
อํา
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ใอ
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ไอ
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Even though these are often pronounced somewhat short, they are classified as long vowels because อํา resonates and ใอ & ไอ sound open. All syllables that end in long vowels are live, and from the intro, if a syllable resonates or sounds open it’s live. Therefore, for tone rule purposes, these three vowels are classified as long. Now it’s time to memorize the long vowels. Also, notice that ใอ & ไอ sound the same even though they look different.
Memorize 1.2
อา
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long vowel
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อี
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long vowel
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อู
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long vowel
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เอ
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long vowel
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แอ
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long vowel
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โอ
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long vowel
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เออ
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long vowel
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ออ
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long vowel
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อือ
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long vowel
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อํา
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long vowel / sonorant/ shorter
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ใอ
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long vowel / shorter
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ไอ
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long vowel / shorter
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Notice that these are all mid tone, and as we mentioned before, they are live. Here is the applicable tone rule:
Tone rule one – live mid class consonant syllables with no tone marks have mid tones.
Exercise 1
ตา
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eye
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ดี
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good
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ปู
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crab
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เจ
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vegetarian
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แก
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you (informal)
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โบ
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bow; ribbon
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เจอ
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to meet
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จอ
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screen
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อือ
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yeah; umm
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ดำ
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black
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ใจ
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heart
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ไป
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to go
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How to do the Exercises
Unless otherwise stated, for all exercises in this guide you should have these goals:
• To be able to read each word out loud with correct pronunciation (read first then check with audio).
• To be able to write each word after listening to audio only (Thai hidden).
You can use your own method, or a variation of the “How to Memorize” method to accomplish these goals.
Read 1
Read this passage out loud. Note - some of the syllables in the passage aren’t actual words. This is just meant as practice to reinforce what you’ve learned to this point.
How to do the Reading
Always read out loud, and be mindful of your pronunciation. After the first readthrough, or before if you prefer, play the audio for the whole passage while following the text with your eyes. I recommend experimenting with the reading tool to discover what feels more comfortable to you.
Now a couple of important points regarding the reading. First, if you are using this guide as a beginner, which I recommended previously, don’t read for comprehension at this point. You are concentrating on the fundamentals; comprehension will come later. Trying to memorize each word and figure out grammar at the same time as learning a difficult writing system is very taxing. It’s better to divide and conquer. On the other hand, if you already have a good base in the language, you can hover over a word to get its definition, provided it’s a real word, or highlight an entire phrase to get a definition in later units. You can also change the status of words from “unknown” to “learning” or to “known” if you’d like.
Secondly, although the reading passages are all in the reading tool, which means that you can click a word or sentence to check its pronunciation, don’t rely on the accuracy of the TTS. Unfortunately, Thai TTS just isn’t very accurate in this day and age. Instead, do your primary listening and repeating work in the “Memorize” and “Exercise” portions of this guide, or using the Long Recording in the reading tool. All of the recordings in this guide, and the Long Recordings in the reading tool, were made by native speakers and checked for accuracy.