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THAI LANGUAGE
Thai is a tonal language and the same word can be pronounced in different ways to give totally different meanings to it. However, here we have tried to give you a phrase book of basic words to get you started.
The "ph" representation should not be pronounced as "f" like in "photo". It represents an aspirated "p" sound. The plain "p" alone as in "pla" is to give it a pure "p" sound. We will upload a sound file for you to hear the difference soon. E.g. Phuket should be pronounced as "Poo-ket" rather than "Foo-ket".
Another aspirated letter is the is "k". Note the difference between "kh" and "k". The word "kai" is for chicken, whilst, "khai" is for "egg".
One possible difficult vowel is "ng" as in "ngoo" which means snake. You can practice the "ng" sound as in "singer".
A note on the "r" sound. You will hear Thais often pronouncing a word with the "r" substituted with the "l" instead. For example "Na rak" would sound like "Na lak" or "Thee Rak" sounds like "Thee Lak" (some times written as "tilac").
The phrase book is divided into sections for easy reference:
A CONCISE VOCABULARY
A -C | D-G | H-L | M-P | Q-S | T-Z
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