Writing Thai

Reading and Writing Thai

          Most students of the Thai language learn to speak long before they learn to write. However, learning to write Thai offers several advantages. The ability to read and write helps to improve speaking. Thai script provides more precision than transliteration. It more accurately represents pronunciation.  With few exceptions, Thai is pronounced phonetically according to its spelling.  To borrow a computer term, Thai could be described as WISIWYG – what you see is what you get.

Written Thai distinguishes between words that sound the same but differ in tone. The spelling determines the tone of each syllable. The tone rules that determine the tone of a syllable are a bit complex, but fairly consistent. If you don't know the tone of a syllable, you can usually figure it out by applying the tone rules.

Learning to write Thai script is relatively easy and can be learned with a few days of practice. Learning to apply the tone rules is a bigger challenge, to which most of this chapter is devoted. A list of vowel symbols, dipthongs, and tripthongs is provided at the end of the chapter.

To develop writing skills, practice writing the words and example sentences in this chapter. To improve your tone pronunciation, practice the examples in this chapter as you listen to the CD (Tracks 10 and 11, Disc 2.)