Learn to read Thai - Tutorial 27

Strange Sounding Vowels

The ability to read some basic Thai is enormously useful when living or travelling in Thailand but it is essential if you wish to learn to speak Thai.

Learning resources that use Romanised characters to write Thai words are hopelessly inaccurate and using these books is a complete waste of time.

There is a book being sold in Thai bookshops that purports to teach foreigners how to speak Thai. On the front cover is an example of the transliteration used within the book. According to the German author, driving a car in Thailand is kab rod.

Apart from the vowel sounds being wrong the author has completely overlooked the fact that Thai consonant sounds change if they are final consonants. If a foreigner pronounces kab rod phonetically as it is written he will never be understood in Thailand.

The standard systems of transliteration are severely flawed to begin with and additionally some Thai sounds simply can't be expressed using a foreign alphabet because the Thai phonemes don't exist in other languages.

The two vowels I'm going to cover here are examples of this. As with all Thai vowels, there is a long version and a short version. Vowel length, along with the correct tone, is important in Thai.

These vowels are normally transliterated as 'eu' but that is hardly sufficient. The sounds are more like an English expression of disgust, like the sound you would make if you stepped in a pile of fresh dog poop. But how do you write such a sound? You can't.

I refer to these vowels as the 'Wide-mouthed frog' sounds. You need to make your mouth as wide as possible to get the right sound.

With my Thai students I tell them to watch my mouth as I pronounce certain English words. The shape of the mouth and the position of the tongue is essential to make the right sounds.

Thais have to learn how to make new sounds when speaking English, and learners of Thai need to learn how to make new sounds when learning to speak Thai.

The vowels (written above the zero consonant here) are:

อึ - short

อื - long

If the word doesn't use a tone mark, use the appropriate vowel length for the tone rules (Tutorial 14).

Some basic words

These vowels are written above the initial consonant. If a final consonant exists it is written next to the initial consonant. If no final consonant exists, then the zero consonant character is used to complete the word.

It is impossible for me to write these sounds in English so I will just use 'eu'. However, remember that one vowel sound is longer.

Here are some examples with no final consonant:

มือ - meu ('hand'). There is no final consonant and so the zero consonant is used. The sound is just an 'm' initial consonant (Tutorial 8) followed by the long 'eu' vowel. Low class initial consonant + live syllable = mid tone.

มือถือ - meu teu. There are two words here and both have the same long 'eu' vowel sound. The first initial consonant is 'm' (Tutorial 8) and the second 't' (Tutorial 15). This is the Thai for 'mobile phone'. The second word is high class consonant + live syllable = rising tone.

คือ - keu (verb to be). The initial consonant is one of the three Thai 'k' consonants. There used to be five but two are now obsolete. See Tutorial 5. Low class initial consonant + live syllable = mid tone.

Now here are some examples with a voiced final consonant and therefore we don't need the zero consonant:

ปืน - the long 'eu' vowel comes in between the 'bp' initial consonant (Tutorial 3) and an 'n' final consonant (Tutorial 8). The Thai word bpeun means 'gun'. Mid class initial consonant + live syllable = mid tone.

ผึ้ง - the short 'eu' sound comes in between a 'p' initial consonant (Tutorial 17) and the 'ng' final consonant (Tutorial 4). The Thai word peung means 'bee'. High class initial consonant + second tone mark = falling tone.

ดึง - the short 'eu' sound comes in between a 'd' initial consonant (Tutorial 6) and the 'ng' final consonant (Tutorial 4). The Thai word deung means 'pull' (as in door). Mid class initial consonant + live syllable = mid tone.

หนึ่ง - the short 'eu' sound comes in between a 'n' initial consonant (Tutorial 8) and the 'ng' final consonant (Tutorial 4). The leading hor heep is silent and only here for tone rule purposes (Tutorial 12). The Thai word neung is the number 'one'. High class initial consonant + first tone mark = low tone.

หึง - the short 'eu' sound comes in between an 'h' initial consonant (Tutorial 9) and the 'ng' final consonant (Tutorial 4). The Thai word heung means 'to be jealous'. High class initial consonant + live syllable = rising tone.

คืน - the long 'eu' vowel comes in between a 'k' initial consonant (Tutorial 5) and an 'n' final consonant (Tutorial 8). The Thai word keun means 'night' or 'to give back' as in a loan. Low class initial consonant + live syllable = mid tone.

Words with an extra syllable

The examples above are words consisting of one syllable. However, where a zero consonant is used in addition to a final consonant, the word gets another syllable. These words are prefixed with the 'sara ay' vowel (Tutorial 16).

Here are some examples:

เพื่อน - peu-un (friend) - falling tone

เลือก - leu-uk (to choose) - falling tone

เมือง - meu-ung (normally 'city' but my dictionary says: world, country, land, province, town, city, urban) - mid tone

With some words you may see the 'sara ay' vowel and the zero consonant but no final consonant. These words have two syllables but just end with 'uh'. For example:

เกลือ - gleu-uh (salt) - mid tone

เนื้อ - neu-uh (meat/flesh) - high tone

เพื่อ - peu-uh (for, for the purpose of) - falling tone

เสือ - seu-uh (tiger) - rising tone

เสื่อ - seu-uh (mat) - low tone

เสื้อ - seu-uh (shirt) - falling tone

Be a little careful with this.

หรือ - reu (or) - one syllable. The leading hor heep is silent and only here for tone rule purposes (Tutorial 12). High class initial consonant + live syllable = rising tone

เรือ - reu-uh (boat) - two syllables, mid tone

ซื้อ - seu (to buy) - one syllable, high tone

There are some examples of the longer 'eu' vowel in this sign:

seu kaay torasup meu teu - Mobile phones bought and sold

gwy dtiaew reu-uh - 'Boat noodles' is a Thai dish

deung - If you see this sign on a door you need to pull - pluk means to push

คิดถึง - kit-teung (to think of/to miss/to long for someone or something)

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.

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