Thai letters - what's different?!

[learningthaihelp]

 

Look at these 3 letters. Their both in the "low tone group of letters" (I know every book calls it different). So same tone rules apply at them. And they're all pronounced "k".

 

So what's the diffference? If I want to write "kai" (chicken), how should I know which one to use?

[Kerivara1000]

^{None of them.  You would use ก.}

 

^{ไก่ = chicken}

 

^{Coincidently, the name for this Thai character is also chicken, much like 'A is for apple.'  This is also noted at the top of your low class consonant sheet.}

[learningthaihelp]

Ok, but there are words like:

 

kai (near)

kai (far)

kai (egg)

kai (chicken)

kin (eat)

kao (white)

kao (rice)

 

How should I decide which one of these "k" should I use than?

[Kerivara1000]

Best way for me is to learn the script, then read it how Thais spell it, rather than trying to spell it outright myself.  The Thai alphabet is actually a lot more efficient than ours in some ways, and it makes a lot more sense learning Thai once you have the script down.  It never makes complete sense if you try to spell Thai using our letters.  You will often see the same words spelled many different ways using our script.

[Kerivara1000]

In other words, try not to think of them as 'k', but remember them for their own names and sounds in Thai.  I am not fluent, but it helps me a lot to spend a great deal of time concentrating on how each letter sounds exactly.  It doesn't take as much time as you would think, and makes more sense as you go along and practice.  Have fun!! 

[learningthaihelp]

If I use different thai character (than is officialy used) I could be still understood?

 

 

Main reasson why I'm learning how to write/read thai is, that I want to learn how to speak from thai texts. There should not be a big deal how I pronounce that "k"? Because you know, for me are these 3 letters still the same "k".

[Taeng Mo]

55

Now you know what it's like learning English, for Thais.

No rhyme, no reason.

[Loong]

Ok, but there are words like:

 

kai (near)

kai (far)

kai (egg)

kai (chicken)

kin (eat)

kao (white)

kao (rice)

 

How should I decide which one of these "k" should I use than?

First you need to learn differentiate between the sounds.

ก sounds more like a "g", actually the same way as the "k" in skin, not so sharp.

ก is used in

glai (near)

glai (far)

gai (chicken)

gin (eat)

[slick67]

Out of these 6, ฃ and ฅ are obsolete, they aren't used anymore so you can forget about them

 

As for the others:

 

ก makes a different sound, like Loong already explained. In linguist talk: it is unaspirated.

 

The other 3 all have the same, aspirated sound:

ข is high class, and can be used to make words with tones you can't get with a low class consonant

ค and ฆ are the same. Why the extra consonant? Probably a relic from times gone by

ฆ is pretty rare though and only used in a handful of words, so if you have to guess between ค and ฆ, my money is on ค

[misteregg]

When a k sound appears at the end of a word, then normally ก gai is used. But not always.

 

Phil

[andy666]

2013-11-07_031733.png

 

Look at these 3 letters. Their both in the "low tone group of letters" (I know every book calls it different). So same tone rules apply at them. And they're all pronounced "k".

 

So what's the diffference? If I want to write "kai" (chicken), how should I know which one to use

make a sentence with: buffalo-person-bell

[el_jefe]

How do you know photo is spelled with ph and not an f? Or too vs to? There and their... After a while you'll just remember.

 

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Rowdy501]

The OP is somewhat confusing. He refers to chicken as 'kai', but the image he has provided refers to chicken as 'gai'. He then wants to know which Thai character in the highlighted red box (ค, ฅ and ฆ) is the correct spelling for the word. None of those options are correct. Chicken is spelt with a ก (ไก่) as is clearly depicted in the image.

 

I think the official Thai transliteration system refers to ก as a 'k' sound, and ค,ฅ and ฆ  as a 'kh' sound. Some schools and books obviously refer ก as a 'g' sound, and ค, ฅ and ฆ as a 'k' sound. The OP is trapped somewhere in between.

[Kerivara1000]

_{An interesting thing about language is that learning it is not useful unless you learn it the way the native speakers of the language use it.  After all, the purpose of learning a language is to communicate with the language's users, be it by reading, speaking, writing, or listening.  This requires some rote learning at the beginning, just learning it for what it is rather than trying to figure out all of the reasons 'why'.  The 'why' questions should certainly not be discarded, but kept for answering at a later date.  Often they will answer themselves as you continue to learn!  At least that has been my experience.}

[Sofa King High]

How do you know photo is spelled with ph and not an f? Or too vs to? There and their... After a while you'll just remember.

We need an emoticon for hitting the nail on the head

 

_{The 'why' questions should certainly not be discarded, but kept for answering at a later date.  Often they will answer themselves as you continue to learn!  At least that has been my experience.}

I adopted this approach after being asked to explain a few English grammatical rules. I realized I know (generally 555) how to use English correctly, but I cannot explain/don't 'know' grammar rules. Speak it and it will come... I hope!

[bdw]

make a sentence with: buffalo-person-bell

 

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