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Thai alphabet

The Thai alphabet is the Thai script: 63 letters. 44 consonants in three tone classes, vowels are written around the consonant, and the tone of a syllable is computed, not written. The characters are grouped: middle class — nine consonants, high class — eleven consonants, low class: stops and aspirates. Below is a table with sound and a breakdown by groups.

Updated September 1, 2026 · Lingofly

All 63 letters in one list

ก, จ, ฎ, ฏ, ด, ต, บ, ป, อ, ข, ฃ, ฉ, ฐ, ถ, ผ, ฝ, ศ, ษ, ส, ห, ค, ฅ, ฆ, ช, ซ, ฌ, ฑ, ฒ, ท, ธ, พ, ฟ, ภ, ง, ญ, ณ, น, ม, ย, ร, ล, ว, ฬ, ฮ, เอ, แอ, โอ, ใอ, ไอ, เา, อะ, อา, อิ, อี, อึ, อือ, อุ, อู, อำ, ฤ, ฤๅ, ฦ, ฦๅ

The tables on this page also include อ่, อ้, อ๊ and อ๋: they are needed for reading but do not count as letters of the alphabet.

Middle class — nine consonants

อักษรกลาง. Reading starts from these nine. A live syllable with no tone mark takes the even mid tone; a dead one takes the low tone. They are also the only class that regularly takes the three-stroke mark ๊ and the rising hook ๋.

High class — eleven consonants

อักษรสูง. A live syllable with no mark reads rising, a dead one reads low. The silent letter ห lives here. In front of another consonant it makes no sound of its own, but it lifts the pair into the high class.

Low class: stops and aspirates

The first half of อักษรต่ำ: the kh, ch, th, ph, f, s letters. They sound just like their high-class twins; the difference is in the tone. A live syllable with no mark reads mid here, not rising. A dead one reads high after a short vowel and falling after a long one.

Low class: nasals and sonorants

The second half of อักษรต่ำ: n, m, y, r, l, w, ng. They close a syllable "alive", so a syllable ending in one of them needs no tone mark to be live. One class holds both lists; the split is for the table, not for grammar.

Vowels written before the consonant

The sign stands to the LEFT of the consonant, but the sound comes after it. So เ + ข + า makes เขา, read khao. This is the first habit to build. ใ and ไ are one sound, ai, in two signs: "the one in twenty words" and "all the rest".

Vowel marks around the letter

Shown on the carrier อ, as in a Thai classroom: by itself a vowel mark is not readable. Short and long pairs (ะ/า, ิ/ี, ึ/ื, ุ/ู) carry meaning as firmly as ship and sheep. They also decide whether the syllable is live. A short vowel with nothing after it makes the syllable dead, and that changes the tone.

Sanskrit vowels

ฤ ฤๅ ฦ ฦๅ — a consonant and a vowel packed into one sign. The first two live on in the words for "season" and "hermit". The last two only keep their place in the table, as on Thai school posters.

Tone marks

Four signs, shown on อ. One rule for all: a mark does not name a tone — it RECOMPUTES the tone from the consonant class. The same single stroke gives a low tone on ข and a falling tone on ค. The marks ๊ and ๋ are never placed on the high or low class at all, and that is part of the rule too.

What to know about this script

There are 67 signs: 44 consonants, 19 vowels and 4 tone marks. Thai schools count sounds, not signs, so their numbers differ. The tone of a word is not written — it is computed from three things. First, the consonant's class: middle, high or low, fixed for each letter. Second, whether the syllable is live or dead. A live one ends in a long vowel or in n, m, ng, y, w. A dead one ends in a stop or a short vowel. Third, the tone mark, if there is one. That is why the consonants below are grouped by class, not by shape. Every consonant has a school name, like "ko kai" or "tho thahan". Many letters share one sound, and the name tells them apart when you spell a word aloud. Vowels are shown on the carrier อ: a vowel mark alone is not readable. There are no capital letters, and words run together without spaces.

Where this script came from and why it looks the way it does

  • The 44 consonant signs of the Thai script carry only 21 sounds: some letters keep the distinctions of Pali, Sanskrit and old local speech that the Thai ear stopped hearing long ago. Two signs are outright obsolete — you will not meet them in modern texts.

    Unicode Standard, the chapter “Thai”

Test yourself

Five characters at random. No need to answer aloud — just pick; the answer appears at once.

  1. Which character reads as “k, no puff of air”?
  2. Which character reads as “t (spare, Pali loans)”?
  3. Which character reads as “b (final p)”?
  4. Which character reads as “kh (aspirated k)”?
  5. Which character reads as “th (spare, Pali loans)”?

How to learn letters so they stay

You cannot learn a table by staring at it. What works: see a character, try to recall its sound, get it wrong, see the right answer — and come back to that character in a day, not in an hour.

That is why the alphabet in the app is learned a few characters at a time, not all at once: nobody holds 63 signs in one sitting.

Frequently asked

How many letters in the Thai alphabet?

63 letters — Thai script: ก, จ, ฎ, ฏ, ด, ต, บ, ป, อ, ข, ฃ, ฉ, ฐ, ถ, ผ, ฝ, ศ, ษ, ส, ห, ค, ฅ, ฆ, ช, ซ, ฌ, ฑ, ฒ, ท, ธ, พ, ฟ, ภ, ง, ญ, ณ, น, ม, ย, ร, ล, ว, ฬ, ฮ, เอ, แอ, โอ, ใอ, ไอ, เา, อะ, อา, อิ, อี, อึ, อือ, อุ, อู, อำ, ฤ, ฤๅ, ฦ, ฦๅ. The tables on this page also include อ่, อ้, อ๊ and อ๋: they are needed for reading but do not count as letters of the alphabet. There are no capital and small forms: the character is written the same way everywhere.

Can I listen to how the Thai letters sound?

Not yet: we have no recordings for this script. That is why there is no sound button either — it would be silent.

How long does it take to learn the Thai alphabet?

A few characters a day — one to two weeks, if you come back to what you covered. The whole alphabet crammed in an evening is remembered for an evening: without reviews the next day and three days later, the characters are almost entirely gone.

Where to start: letters or words?

With the letters. A word in an unfamiliar script cannot be read at all, and a word card tells you no more than a picture.

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Work through Thai letters one by oneLearn the letters