Before the letters: how Thai works

สวัสดี sà-wàt-dii▶

Hi. I'm going to teach you to read Thai. Not "recognise a few signs" read. Actually read: pick up a menu, sound out a word you have never seen, and get the tone right because the spelling told you. That is what this Lab is for.

You don't need to speak any Thai yet. The speaking lessons come after this, and they assume you can read. Most people try it the other way round, get lost in the script, and give up. We are not doing it the other way round.

About sixty million people speak Thai, and nearly all of them learned to read it at six, with a chant, a pencil and a lot of patience. You already have two of those.

Yes, it has tones

Thai is a tonal language. The pitch you say a syllable at is part of the word, the way the vowel is part of a word in English. Change the tone and you have changed the word.

There are five: mid, low, falling, high, rising. Here is the whole set on one syllable. Listen to them. Don't try to read them yet; just notice that they are five different words.

If you can't hear the difference today, that is completely normal, and it is also not your problem. Here is the secret of this whole course: in Thai, the tone is written down. It is in the spelling. By the end of the Tones module you will work out the tone of a word you have never heard, on paper, like a sum. Your ears catch up later. They always do.

• ขาkǎa · rising · leg
• ข่าkàa · low · galangal
• ค่าkâa · falling · value
• ค้าkáa · high · to trade
• คาkaa · mid · stuck

The script, in one look

Thai has its own alphabet, and it is an alphabet: letters spell sounds. There is nothing to memorise picture by picture. A few facts to settle you in.

There are 44 consonants. They come in three classes, and the class matters for tone. You will learn them a handful at a time, and each one has a name that is a little word, the way "b is for ball" works, except everyone actually uses it.

The vowels sit around the consonant: after it, on top of it, underneath it, and sometimes in front of it. That is the part that looks strange in week one and normal in week two.

There are four tone marks, small squiggles above a letter. They arrive in the third module, and by then you will be ready for them.

It runs left to right, like English. There are no capital letters, none at all, and no spaces between words. Spaces go between phrases, roughly where English would put a comma. Yes, that means you have to know where one word ends and the next begins. Yes, you will.

Here are a few words to look at. Don't read them. Just look at the shapes.

• สวัสดีsà-wàt-dii · hello. Three syllables, no spaces.
• ดีdii · good. One consonant with a vowel on top.
• ไปbpai · to go. The vowel comes first; the consonant second.
• แม่mâae · mum. A vowel in front and a tone mark on top.

How a lesson works

Every lesson has the same shape, so you always know where you are. A goal card at the top says what you will be able to do. Then I explain one thing, with examples. Then you drill it: reading, writing, listening, and later on working out tones. Every drill tells you straight away whether you got it.

Each lesson also comes as two printable sheets: a worksheet, and an extended sheet with more practice and the answers. Print them if you like paper. I do.

The writing drills want a pencil or a tablet. Tracing on a phone with your thumb is a bad time; I have tried.

One more thing. Every Thai word in these lessons has a small play button next to it. Press it. Press it a lot. Your ears need the practice more than your eyes do.

What's coming

Five modules. First the letters, in their classes. Then the vowels, and how a syllable ends. Then tones, which is where it all clicks. Then the handful of spelling tricks Thai keeps up its sleeve. Then the real world: signs, menus, place names, and the last step into the speaking lessons. Each module ends with a checkpoint, a drill session with nothing new in it, so you can see how far you have come.

Next lesson: your first seven letters. Bring a pencil.