the phonetic Thai alphabet

The following are the standardised spellings used in all PLS Thai study books and materials. We have adopted a phonetic system that’s easy to read whilst still retaining good pronunciation and tone. Please familiarise yourself with the system by reading some text aloud to a Thai friend.

Consonants

initial consonants

There are 20 initial consonant sounds in Thai.

Note: ph & th are soft ‘p’ and ‘t’ sounds (‘ph’ as in pay, not phone) (‘th’ as in tin, not thin)
Note: bp and dt are hard ‘p’ and ‘t’ sounds (‘bp’ as in spat, not pat) (‘dt’ as in stop, not top)

ก	g	as in sky, skin, skull	ญ ย	y	as in yes, you, yellow
จ	j	as in jar, jump, jog	ร	r	as in burrow, train, bronze
ฎ ด	d	as in dog, dad, dip	ล ฬ	l	as in love, like, lump
ฏ ต	dt	as in stop, start, stick	ห ฮ	h	as in have, hope, help
บ	b	as in bog, ball, bin	ว	w	as in want, wit, well
ป	bp	as in spot, span, spit	ข ค ฆ	kh	as in kiss, khaki, kelp
ซ ศ ษ ส	s	as in send, sat, sun	ฉ ช ฌ	ch	as in chat, chip, chum
ง	ng	as in ring, tong, sang	ผ พ ภ	ph	as in pet, pad, pub
ณ น	n	as in name, nut, nab	ฐ ฑ ฒ ถ ท ธ	th	as in tin, tap, tun
ม	m	as in man, mix, mob	ฝ ฟ	f	as in fog, fab, fin

ending consonants

There are 6 ending consonant sounds in Thai.

m	as in tim, dam, cam, dom	p	as in cap, bop, top, lip
n	as in tin, fan, men, con, tun	k	as in back, neck, kick, jock, luck
ng	as in ring, hang, rung, song	d	as in add, bed, cud, did, tod

Vowels

There are both short and long vowel sounds.

	short			long
อะ	a	bat, fad	อา	aa	cart, heart
อิ	i	bit, kid	อี	ee	beet
อุ	u	put, took	อู	uu	boot
อึ	eu	yeuch!	อื	euu	boot (while smiling)
เอะ	e	pet, bent	เอ	ae	pay, pale
แอะ	ae	cat	แอ	aae	air
โอะ	oe/o	poke	โอ	oo	go, low
เอาะ	o	lot	ออ	aw	law, taut
เออะ	uh	dirt	เออ	er	learn, turn
เอียะ	ia	Mama Mia	เอีย	iia	Mama Mia
เอือะ	eua	too a day (smiling)	เอือ	euua	too a day (smiling)
อัวะ	ua	true ant	อัว	uua	true ant
เอา	ao	pout	อาว	aao	chow, powder
ไอ ใอ อัย	ai	bye, fly	อาย	aai	why, sky
เอ็ว	ew	elf	เอว	aew	railway
	–	–	แอว	aaeo	baby waeh waeh
อิว	iw	few	เอย	aey	sofa yawn
	–	–	เอียว	iaao	meow
	–	–	โอย	ooi	go yet
	–	–	ออย	oy	lawyer
อุย	ui	oo-ee	อวย	uuai	true why
	–	–	เอือย	euuai	too why (smiling)

short vowels

Notice the shape of the mouth and lips when saying the vowels.

long vowels

Tone marks

Accents are placed above the first vowel in a word or syllable to indicate tone. Tones apply to syllables, not words, so a multi-syllable word may have more than one tone.

common tone

lòw tòne

fâlling tône

hígh tóne

rĭsing tŏne

Don’t get hung up on being tone perfect. As long as you’re speaking in sentences you’ll be understood more through context than pronunciation. Good tone comes with practice and from listening to others.