ฮ — ho nokhuk (owl)
«ho nokhuk (owl)» is a consonant of the Thai script, read as “h (a real h)”. Low class. A full breathy h with audible friction; unlike ห it never goes silent. For example, in the word “นกฮูก” — owl. The Thai alphabet has 63 letters in total. It appears, for example, in the word “ฮีต เตอร์” — heater (portable).
In short
| Character | ฮ |
| Name | ho nokhuk (owl) |
| Sound | h (a real h) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 44th of 67: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ฬ and เ, appears in 4 words of this site.
How to type ฮ
- On a phone: add the Thai keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0E2E and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0E2E.
- Unicode code point: U+0E2E. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Low class. A full breathy h with audible friction; unlike ห it never goes silent
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- นกฮูกнокхукowl
The character in the “low class: nasals and sonorants” group
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.
- งng at the start of a wordngo ngu (snake)
- ญy (final n)yo ying (woman)
- ณn (spare, Pali loans)no nen (novice)
- นn (the common one)no nu (mouse)
- มmmo ma (horse)
- ยy (the common one)yo yak (giant)
- รr (final n)ro ruea (boat)
- ลl (final n)lo ling (monkey)
- วw (final o/u)wo waen (ring)
- ฬl (spare, Pali loans)lo chula (kite)
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «ho nokhuk (owl)» it is “h (a real h)”, as in the word “นกฮูก”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 63 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Thai character ฮ read?
As “h (a real h)” — it is a consonant of the Thai script. Low class. A full breathy h with audible friction; unlike ห it never goes silent. For example, in the word “นกฮูก” — owl.
What is the letter ฮ called?
Ho nokhuk (owl). A character's name and its sound are different things in the Thai script: it is called “ho nokhuk (owl)” and reads as “h (a real h)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.