The low-class partners: ค ท พ ฟ ซ ฮ ช

Seven letters you can already say

Here is a strange thing about Thai, and today it turns out to be a gift. Every sound you learned last lesson has a second letter. ข says k; so does ค. ถ says t; so does ท. ผ and พ are both p. ฝ and ฟ are both f. ส and ซ are both s. ห and ฮ are both h. ฉ and ช are both ch. Same puff, same everything, in the mouth.

So there is nothing new to pronounce. Seven new shapes, and seven sounds you already have. That is the gift.

The catch is the obvious one. If two letters sound the same, how do you know which one a word uses? You don't, not from the sound. You learn it with the word, the way you learned that "phone" has a ph. Reading goes the other way, and the other way is easy: you see the letter, so you know which one it is.

• คาค + ◌า → kaa. Stuck.
• ทาท + ◌า → taa. To apply, as in cream or paint.
• พาพ + ◌า → paa. To take someone along.
• ชาช + ◌า → chaa. Tea.
• ฮาฮ + ◌า → haa. Funny.

Why two letters for one sound

Because of the class. ข is high class. Its twin ค is low class. The sound is the same; the class is not; and the class is what sets the tone.

A low-class letter with a long vowel and nothing else is read flat, exactly like the mid class was. คา kaa. ทา taa. ชา chaa. No lift.

Now put the twins side by side. ขา kǎa: high class, so it rises. คา kaa: low class, so it stays flat. Same sound at the front, same vowel, and they are two different words, leg and stuck, told apart by tone alone. That is the whole reason Thai keeps both letters. Every twin pair works the same way: หา hǎa rises, ฮา haa doesn't.

You now have all three classes, and with a long vowel and nothing else they go: mid flat, high rising, low flat. The last class was the easy one.

• ขาhigh → rising. kǎa. Leg.
• คาlow → flat. kaa. Stuck.
• หาhigh → rising. hǎa. To look for.
• ฮาlow → flat. haa. Funny.

Seven more names

Seven more names to chant, and this time you will hear the class in them at once: the low names stay flat, kaaw kwaai, taaw tá-hǎan, where last lesson's rose, kǎaw kài, tǎaw tǔng. Say a twin pair of names together and you can feel the difference in your throat.

As always, the name-words are real words with tricks you don't have yet: ควาย kwaai starts with two consonants, ช้าง cháang has a mark and a final, โซ่ sôo wears its vowel in front. Say them, copy them, let them be.