Thai Transliteration: Consonants |
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The Thai language has it's own unique script with 44 consonants and 32 different vowels, though not all of these have a unique pronunciation. Many of the Thai consonants are very easy to pronounce, as there are exact or almost exact equivalents in English. They are pronounced as follows:
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Symbols |
Explanation |
Sound Clips |
| b |
As in back. |
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| bp |
This is a sound halfway between 'b' and 'p' . If you have trouble saying it, pronouncing it as either 'b' or 'p' will often be understood. |
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| ch |
As in chair. |
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| d |
As in down. |
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| dt |
This is a sound halfway between 'd' and 't' . Again, saying it either as d or t will often be understood. |
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| f |
As in food. |
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| g |
As in gold. It is never pronounced as a 'soft' sound, such as in the English "gem". |
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| h |
As in holiday. |
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| j |
As in just. |
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| k |
As in kill. |
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| l |
As in lemon. |
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| m |
As in man |
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| n |
As in never. |
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| ng |
As in sing . This is a difficult sound because, unlike in English, it can come at the start of words as well as at the end e.g. ngern (money) . Practice by saying words like 'singing' without the si in front. |
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| p |
As in pine. |
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| r |
As in red. |
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| s |
As in seat. |
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| t |
As in take. |
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| w |
As in window. |
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| y |
As in yes. |
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Though this is all of the consonant sounds, the range of consonant sounds which can come at the end of a syllable or word is limited only to 'p', 't', 'k', 'y', 'n', 'w', and 'ng'. When a consonant finishes a Thai word it is usually only half-pronounced.
The 'l' and 'r' sounds are often used almost interchangeably in Thai, though they are separate sounds. It's done because the proper 'r' sound is quite hard to say, even for many Thais as well as non-native speakers. It should correctly be slightly trilled, but if you can't do this the l sound is closer to being correct than the flat English 'r'.
It's very common when speaking Thai to drop the second consonant sound if two occur consecutively, so 'glai' will be pronounced as 'gai' , 'bplao' as 'bpao', 'krap' like 'kap' etc...Like the swapping of the 'l' and 'r' sounds, this is not technically correct Thai (you wouldn't hear a TV newsreader doing it, for instance) but it is a widespread practice and one many non-native speakers also adopt when learning Thai. A stranger change that also sometimes occurs is when a 'gw' sound is sometimes pronounced as 'f'.
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