เ — sara e
«sara e» is a vowel of the Thai script, read as “short e (written before)”. A short e as in "bed"; the sign stands BEFORE the consonant though it is read after it: เขา is khao, not e-khao. For example, in the word “เมือง” — city. The Thai alphabet has 63 letters in total. On a carrier the character looks like this: เอ. It appears, for example, in the word “แล้ว เจอกัน” — bye.
In short
| Character | เ |
| Name | sara e |
| Sound | short e (written before) |
| What it is | a vowel |
| On the carrier | เอ |
In our course the character comes 45th of 67: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ฮ and แ, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type เ
- 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+0E40 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 0E40.
- Unicode code point: U+0E40. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
A short e as in "bed"; the sign stands BEFORE the consonant though it is read after it: เขา is khao, not e-khao
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.
- เมืองмыангcity
The character in the “vowels written before the consonant” group
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".
Words with this character
- แล้ว เจอกันлаэо джёканbye
- คุณ เป็น อย่างไรкхун пен янграйhow are you? (polite)
- เยี่ยม มากйиам макgreat
- สวัสดี ตอน เช้าсаватди тон чаоgood morning
- เขาкхаоhe
- เธอтхёshe
- เราраоwe
- เรา สอง คนрао сонг кхонthe two of us
- พวก เขาпхуак кхаоthey
- ผม เป็น คน รัสเซียпхом пен кхон ратсияI am Russian
- ไม่ เข้าใจмай кхаочайI don't understand
- สวัสดี ตอน เย็นсаватди тон йенgood evening
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 «sara e» it is “short e (written before)”, as in the word “เมือง”), 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 เ read?
As “short e (written before)” — it is a vowel of the Thai script. A short e as in "bed"; the sign stands BEFORE the consonant though it is read after it: เขา is khao, not e-khao. For example, in the word “เมือง” — city.
What is the letter เ called?
Sara e. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Thai script: it is called “sara e” and reads as “short e (written before)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.