Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

สวัสดีค่ะ, ดิฉันปรารถนาค่ะ! Welcome to Thaipod101.com’s ตัวอักษรไทย Made Easy!
The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn the Thai alphabet: ตัวอักษรไทย!
In the last lesson you learned the consonants ก, ด and บ. Do you remember how to write them?
In this lesson, you’re going to learn two more consonants plus some short vowels.
Ready to start? Then let's go!
The first consonant in this lesson is ช (chaaw cháang). Do you recognize the name of this letter? ช้าง (cháang) means "elephant". This is a low class consonant. As the initial sound of a syllable it makes a "ch" sound. When it's the final sound of a syllable, ช makes a "T stop" just like ด. This means any syllable that ends in ช will be a dead syllable.
ช may take some practice to write well, so let's try together. Start with a clockwise head then add a small curve and line going down similar to a question mark. Then the line goes to the right and back up. When it gets to the top you add a little tail that sticks out to the upper right.
The other letter that we're going to learn looks very similar to ช. This is another low class consonant. It's called ซ (saaw sôo). The word โซ่ (sôo) means "chain". ซ makes an "s" sound like the S in "sun" when it's the initial sound of a syllable. And when it's the final sound of a syllable it also makes a T stop, which is a dead sound. Can you spot the difference between these two letters? That's right. ซ just has a small indentation at the top.
Let's practice writing ซ. Follow along with your pen and paper.
We've previously learned 2 long vowels. Do you remember them? They were สระ อา and สระ อี. Now we're going to learn the short versions of these vowels.
This is สระ อะ (sà-rà à). It makes the sound อะ "à" which is similar to the A in "hat". สระ อะ is written as two small curls after a consonant.
For example, we can write น and สระ อะ to make นะ (ná), which is particle used at the end of many sentences.
Okay, your turn to write it. สระ อะ
One more word with this vowel, and a trick to watch out for: how do you think you would write the word มัน (man) which means "it"? Did you guess something like this? Actually, สระ อะ is only written this way when it comes at the end of a syllable.
When this vowel comes in the middle of a syllable, like in มัน (man), we need to write สระ อะ differently. In that case, we draw just one curl above and between the initial and final consonants.
We have a special name for this symbol. it's called ไม้หันอากาศ (máai-hǎn-aa-gàat).
Let's practice writing มัน....
ม, ไม้หันอากาศ, น, มัน (man).
The other short vowel is สระ อิ (sà-rà ì). it makes the sound "i" like the Y in "happy". สระ อิ goes above a consonant just like the long vowel สระ อี. The only difference is สระ อิ doesn't have a vertical line.
Okay, now you write it. สระ อิ
Now that we know some short vowels we can add a new tone rule!
This rule will be about syllables with dead endings.
A dead syllable occurs when it ends with a short vowel or one of the stopping sounds of K, T, and P.
So the tone rule for this lesson is...
Low class initial consonant + dead ending with a short vowel = high tone.
The same pattern with a long vowel is different, so be careful!
One example that we already had was นะ (ná). It has an initial low class consonant, and it has a dead syllable consisting of a short vowel. So it is high tone, นะ. High tone starts at a high pitch and rises very slightly, นะ.
How about the word นิด (nít), which means "tiny".
It is also high tone because it has an initial low class consonant, has a dead ending, and the vowel is short.
Now you write it. น, สระ อิ, ด...นิด.
You learned two new consonants in this lesson -- let's do a quick quiz to see if you can tell them apart.
Here are two words. One says ชัด (chát) which means "clearly". The other says ซัก (sák), which means "to wash clothes". Can you tell which is which?
ซัก is the one on the top.
And ชัด is on the bottom.
Did you get them right?
Now it's time for Pradthana's Points.
Say the name of each consonant, vowel, and other symbols as you practice writing words in Thai. If you get used to doing this, it will help to understand the answer whenever you ask somebody how a word is spelled.
In the next ตัวอักษรไทย Made Easy Lesson you'll learn how to write a "very" important Thai word. See you there! สวัสดีค่ะ!

Comments

Hide