Thai
Thai — the Kra-Dai family; its closest relative is Lao, about 21 million native speakers; counting second-language speakers, estimates run to about 40 million (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: the Thai script: 44 consonants in three classes, vowels written around the consonant, and a syllable tone that is worked out, not written.
Where to start
A young course: the words, the lessons and the recordings are all here, but a native speaker has not read it end to end yet. Spot a rough edge — tell us and we will fix it.
- →Thai alphabetAll letters and how they are read
- →Thai wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- สวัสดีсаватдиhelloWorks as hi, good morning and good evening alike, at any hour. A man ends it with khrap, a woman with kha — without the particle the greeting sounds curt, like an order
- สวัสดี ตอน บ่ายсаватди тон байgood afternoonLiterally "hello in the afternoon". You will rarely hear it live: Thai just says sawatdi morning, noon and night, and builds no time of day into the greeting
- ขอบคุณкхопкхунthank youThe final r is silent: khopkhun, not khoprkhun. To boost it, add mak — "very much" — after the word
- กรุณาкарунаplease (as a request)Bookish and official: signs, announcements, loudspeakers. In a cafe or shop a request is built differently — with kho (I will take) and a polite particle at the end
- แล้ว เจอกันлаэо джёканbyeLiterally "see you then". The friendly farewell; the formal one is laa gon, said to the person who stays behind
- สบายดี ไหม?сабайди май?how are you?Literally "well or not?". The particle mai turns a statement into a question and sits at the very end
- คุณ เป็น อย่างไรкхун пен янграйhow are you? (polite)The polite "how are you getting along". Khun is the polite you, and it doubles as plain "you" for anyone who is not a close friend
- ลา ก่อนлаа конgoodbyeLiterally "I part first". Said to the person who stays; the friendly parting is laeo jer gan, "see you"
About the language
| Native name | ไทย · thai |
| Official in | Thailand |
| Also spoken in | Laos, the USA, the UAE and Australia |
| How many speakers | about 21 million native speakers; counting second-language speakers, estimates run to about 40 million (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | the Kra-Dai family; its closest relative is Lao |
| Script | the Thai script: 44 consonants in three classes, vowels written around the consonant, and a syllable tone that is worked out, not written |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: the tone changes what a word means, and the script does not write it: you work the tone out from the class of the consonant.
Easy: the verb never changes for person or tense, and there are no cases and no gender at all.
What people most often take it up for: holidays and long stays in Thailand, work and business with Thai partners, family and friends in the country.
Curiosities in Thai
The word “Thai” is read as “free”, and in 1939 Siam renamed itself Thailand, “the land of the free”: a state colonized by no European power wanted the very name to say so. The old name was brought back once, but since the late 1940s it has been Thailand for good.
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the longer the gap before reviewing it can be. To hold it for a week, review it after a day or two; to hold it for a year, after about three or four weeks.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20–40% of the target interval when you need to remember for a week, and 5–10% when for a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- A material reward promised for doing a task lowers the wish to take it up of your own accord once the reward is gone. Praise for what was done, on the contrary, keeps that wish alive.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. A material reward promised in advance and the time later spent on the task by free choice: d = −0.44 for finishing, −0.40 for taking part, −0.28 for performance; a reward unrelated to the task, −0.14, not significant. Praise: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Thai?
With the script: 63 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak Thai?
About 21 million native speakers; counting second-language speakers, estimates run to about 40 million — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Thai hard?
The tone changes what a word means, and the script does not write it: you work the tone out from the class of the consonant. At the same time, the verb never changes for person or tense, and there are no cases and no gender at all.
Where is Thai spoken?
An official language in: Thailand. Noticeable communities: Laos, the USA, the UAE and Australia.