Thai is the main language of Thailand, spoken and/or understood by nearly 75 million people, although English is widely spoken and being taught as the second language, English-speakers have little trouble conversing; anyway Thais will greatly appreciate those who have taken the time to learn a few phrases in their language; it is a great way to make friends amongst the locals. Most Thais recognize how complicated it is for foreigners to speak Thai language and are usually quite tolerant of any mistake.

Like a good number languages of the world, the Thai is a complex mixture of several sources. Many Thai words used these days were derived from Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer, Malay, English and Chinese.

The combination of a complex orthography (with no spacing between words), relational markers, the use of tones and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for a foreign person, but with practice basic words and phrases are relatively easy to learn, you simply have to get used to each different sound.

Thai language is comprised of 44 consonants and 32 vowels and diphthongs. There are five phonemic tones: mid, low, falling, high, and rising. The rising tone is similar to the modulation used in English to indicate a question, the falling tone almost like calling someone’s name from far away, the low and high tones are correspondingly pronounced near the relative base and the top of your vocal range.

There are numerous groups of words which have the same sound but with different tones have diverse meaning, for example the word “mai” can mean “wood”, “not”, “silk”, “burn” and “new” depending on what tone is used to pronounce it.

The words “khrap” (for men) and “kha” (for women) are common polite suffixes, for example:

Hello / Goodbye	Sawat-dee khrap/kha
Thank You	Kop khun (maak) khrap/kha

SPONSORED BY STUDYLANGUAGES.ORG

Language Courses