How to Read Thai: A Beginner’s Guide to the Thai Script

To read Thai, you read syllable by syllable. Each syllable is built around a consonant; its vowel is written before, after, above or below that consonant, sometimes in several places at once; and its tone comes from the consonant’s class, the tone mark and the type of syllable. Words are not separated by spaces. It sounds like a lot, but the system is regular, and with the letters and a handful of rules you can decode words you have never seen.

This guide explains how the script works, then decodes five common words step by step and suggests an order for learning the letters.

How does the Thai script work?

Thai is written from left to right with 44 consonants (two of them obsolete), 32 vowel forms and 4 tone marks. There are no capital letters, and punctuation is rare.

Linguists call this kind of writing system an abugida. The consonants are the main letters, and the vowels are marks attached to them. You do not read letter by letter in a straight line: you find the consonant, then look around it for its vowel.

Some vowels are not written at all

When a syllable has no written vowel, you add one yourself:

• between two consonants, the hidden vowel is usually a short o: คน kon (person), ผม pǒm (I);
• at the end of an unwritten syllable, it is usually a short a: สบาย sà-baai (comfortable), ตลาด dtà-làat (market).

You will recognise these hidden vowels faster in words you already know by ear, which is one reason to learn the script with familiar vocabulary.

Where are Thai vowels written?

Every Thai vowel has a fixed position relative to the consonant it follows in speech. This is the single most surprising thing for beginners: a vowel written before the consonant is still pronounced after it.

Two small marks are worth knowing early. The short a is written ะ after an open syllable but becomes ั above the consonant when a final consonant follows, as in กับ gàp (with). And ็ shortens a vowel, as in เป็น bpen (to be). All 32 vowels, with audio, are in the vowels section of our Thai alphabet guide.

Thai has no spaces between words

Thai writes the words of a phrase together and puts a space where English would put a comma or a full stop:

ฝนตก ผมไม่ไปตลาด

fǒn dtòk, pǒm mâi bpai dtà-làat

It’s raining, I’m not going to the market.

The first phrase contains two words (ฝน fǒn, rain; ตก dtòk, to fall); the second contains four (ผม ไม่ ไป ตลาด). There is no trick for finding the boundaries: you recognise words you know, and the rest becomes the unknown word. That is why reading gets much easier as your vocabulary grows, and why texts written for learners, with words separated or highlighted, help so much at the start.

Consonant classes and tone marks

Thai consonants are divided into three classes: middle (9 letters), high (11) and low (24). The class does not change how a consonant sounds, but it changes the tone of the syllable it starts. ข and ค are both pronounced k, yet one is high class and the other low class, which leads to different tones. The full list is in the consonant classes section of the alphabet guide.

Thai also has four tone marks, written above the initial consonant: ่ (ไม้เอก mái èek), ้ (ไม้โท mái too), ๊ (ไม้ตรี mái dtrii) and ๋ (ไม้จัตวา mái jàt-dtà-waa). The first two are by far the most common.

To find the tone, you combine three pieces of information: the class, the tone mark, and whether the syllable is live (it ends in a long vowel or in m, n, ng, w or y) or dead (it ends in a short vowel or in a k, t or p sound).

The two rarer marks, ๊ and ๋, are used with middle-class consonants and give a high and a rising tone. This table covers most syllables you will meet; the exceptions and the special cases are explained in our guide to the Thai tone rules.

How to read a Thai syllable, step by step

1. Find the initial consonant. Skip over any vowel written before it (เ แ โ ใ ไ): you will pronounce it next.
2. Read the vowel around the consonant, wherever its parts are written.
3. Read the final consonant, if there is one. At the end of a syllable, Thai consonants reduce to eight sounds: k, t, p, m, n, ng, w and y. The final consonants table shows which letter becomes which sound.
4. Work out the tone from the class of the initial consonant, the tone mark and the type of syllable.

Two special cases are worth knowing from the start. In a cluster (two consonants with no vowel between them, such as คร, กล or ปล), the class of the first one decides the tone. And a silent ห in front of a consonant such as ม, น or ล turns that consonant into a high-class letter: หมา mǎa (dog) has a rising tone, มา maa (to come) a mid tone.

Five Thai words decoded

มา (to come)

ม is m, low class. า is a long aa, written after it. The syllable ends in a long vowel, so it is live. Low class, live, no tone mark: mid tone. Result: maa.

คน (person)

ค is k (aspirated), low class. No vowel is written between ค and น, so you add the hidden short o. น at the end is n, which makes the syllable live. Low class, live, no mark: mid tone. Result: kon.

ไม่ (not)

The first symbol, ไ, is a vowel (ai): skip it and find the consonant, ม (m, low class). The vowel is pronounced after it: mai. Above ม sits ่ (mái èek). Low class with mái èek: falling tone. Result: mâi.

เขียน (to write)

The vowel เ–ีย wraps around the consonant: เ before it, ี above it, ย after it. Together they make the vowel ia. The consonant is ข (k, high class) and the final น gives n, so the syllable is live. High class, live, no mark: rising tone. Result: kǐan.

ครับ (polite particle for men)

คร is a cluster, kr, and ค (low class) decides the tone. ั is a short a. The final บ is pronounced p at the end of a syllable, so the syllable is dead. Low class, dead, short vowel: high tone. Result: kráp. In relaxed speech, many Thais drop the r and say káp.

Try it yourself: Hugo’s name in Thai is ฮิวโก้. ฮ (h, low class) with ิว (iu) gives hiu, mid tone; ก (middle class) with โ and ้ gives gôo, falling tone: hiu-gôo.

In what order should you learn the Thai letters?

Learning all 44 consonants in alphabetical order is the slowest way. A more practical order:

1. The middle-class consonants: ก จ ด ต บ ป อ, plus the rare ฎ ฏ. There are only nine, and their tones follow the simplest rules.
2. A dozen common vowels: า ี ู เ แ โ ไ ะ ิ ุ ั and ออ (ɔɔ). With these and the middle class, you can already read real words such as ดี, ไป and ดู.
3. The common low-class sonorants: ง น ม ย ร ล ว. They have no high-class twin and are everywhere.
4. The common high-class consonants: ข ฉ ถ ผ ฝ ส ห.
5. Their low-class partners: ค ช ซ ท พ ฟ ฮ, learned in pairs with the high-class letters that share their sound (ข/ค, ถ/ท, ผ/พ, ฝ/ฟ, ส/ซ).
6. The tone marks ่ and ้, then the tone table above.
7. The remaining letters as you meet them. Many appear mostly in words borrowed from Pali and Sanskrit: ณ in คุณ kun (you), ภ in ภาษา paa-sǎa (language), ศ in ฝรั่งเศส fà-ràng-sèet (France).

Learn each consonant with its name at the same time. Thai children learn ก as ก ไก่ gɔɔ gài (“g as in chicken”), ข as ข ไข่ kɔ̌ɔ kài (“k as in egg”) and ค as ค ควาย kɔɔ kwaai (“k as in buffalo”). The names are how Thais tell apart letters that sound the same, and each one gives you a word to practise with.

Practical tips for learning to read Thai

• Read words you already know by ear. Decoding is much faster when you can check the result against a word you have heard many times.
• Read the street. Shop signs, menus and BTS station names are often bilingual: read the Thai first, then check with the English. The 7-Eleven sign says เซเว่น see-wên.
• Watch for ์. This small mark above a letter makes it silent: in สงกรานต์ sǒng-graan (Songkran), the ต is not pronounced.
• Know the repetition mark ๆ. It repeats the word before it: ช้า ๆ cháa-cháa, “slowly”.
• Don’t rely on romanization for too long. Romanized spellings vary from one source to the next, as our article on Thai romanization explains; the script is the same everywhere.
• Read a little every day. Ten minutes of daily decoding builds recognition faster than a long session once a week.

To practise, Kru May shows every story in Thai script with the transliteration of every word, so you can read real sentences before you know all the letters and check yourself by tapping any word. Its alphabet section lists the 44 consonants with their names, the 32 vowels and the numerals, all with audio. And in the story Thai school, Hugo, the hero of the stories, writes his own name in Thai for the first time: it isn’t pretty, but it’s correct.