🔤 ThaiBridge Spelling Guide ระบบถอดเสียงไพบูลย์
Paiboon romanization accurately represents Thai pronunciation for English speakers.
🔎 Look up a word
Type Thai, or the romanisation as you think it sounds — tone marks are optional, and sawatdee, khop khun and gai all work. You can search in English too.
🔊 Hear All Thai Sounds
Hear all Thai sounds with sample words and native pronunciation
🎵 The Five Thai Tones
Thai is a tonal language with 5 distinct tones. The same syllable with different tones can mean completely different things!
Mid Tone
(no mark)
คา
kaa
"to be stuck"
Level, in the middle of your normal speaking voice. Hold it flat.
Low Tone
à
ข่า
kàa
"galangal"
Starts below your normal voice and stays low and level.
Falling Tone
â
ค่า
kâa
"value, cost"
Starts high, then drops sharply.
High Tone
á
ค้า
káa
"to trade"
Starts above your normal voice and stays high, tense, often lifting a touch at the end.
Rising Tone
ǎ
ขา
kǎa
"leg"
Starts LOW, dips a little, then climbs up high.
💡 Tone Learning Tips
- Mid tone: Like a calm, flat "hmm" - one steady note.
- Low tone: Like a deep, flat "oh" when you are unimpressed - drop down and stay there.
- Falling tone: Like a firm "No!" - begin up high and come straight down.
- High tone: Like an excited, high "Hi!" - start high and keep it up; never dip first.
- Rising tone: Like a surprised "Really?" - start low and let it climb.
Play the five words above one after another: the consonant and vowel never change, so the only difference you hear is the tone - and each one is a different word.
🔠 Consonants
Thai has 44 consonant letters, but many share the same sound. Here are the ThaiBridge Spelling romanizations:
| Thai | ThaiBridge Spelling | Sound Description |
|---|---|---|
| ก | g | unaspirated k (between g and k), like the k in "skin" - no puff of air |
| ข/ค/ฆ | k | k as in "kite" - with a puff of air |
| ง | ŋ | ŋ as in "sing" - also starts syllables in Thai |
| จ | j | j as in "jam", but softer - no puff of air |
| ฉ/ช/ฌ | ch | ch as in "church" |
| ด/ฎ | d | d as in "day" |
| ต/ฏ | dt | unaspirated t (between d and t), like the t in "stop" - no puff of air |
| ถ/ท/ธ/ฐ/ฑ/ฒ | t | t as in "top" - with a puff of air |
| น/ณ | n | n as in "no" |
| บ | b | b as in "boy" |
| ป | bp | unaspirated p (between b and p), like the p in "spin" - no puff of air |
| ผ/พ/ภ | p | p as in "pan" - with a puff of air |
| ฝ/ฟ | f | f as in "fun" |
| ม | m | m as in "mum" |
| ย/ญ | y | y as in "yes" |
| ร | r | r (rolled) |
| ล/ฬ | l | l as in "love" |
| ว | w | w as in "way" |
| ซ/ศ/ษ/ส | s | s as in "sun" |
| ห/ฮ | h | h as in "hat" |
⚠️ Tricky Consonants
- dt - Unaspirated, between English 'd' and 't'. No puff of air.
- bp - Unaspirated, between English 'b' and 'p'. No puff of air.
- ng - Can appear at the start of syllables (unusual for English speakers)
- r - Rolled or trilled, often softened to 'l' in casual speech
- Final consonants - At the end of a syllable, Thai only has 8 sounds: k, t, p (cut short, not released), n, m, ŋ, and i/o from ย and ว. So ด, ต, ส, ช all end as t, and ล, ร end as n.
🔤 Vowels
Thai has short and long vowel pairs. Length matters - it changes meaning! Short vowels are pronounced as phonic sounds. There is a distinct Thai accent not to be confused with the many English accents!
| Thai | ThaiBridge Spelling | Sound Description |
|---|---|---|
| อะ | a | short "a", like the u in "cup" |
| อา | aa | long "aa" as in "náa" (น้า) |
| อิ | i | short "i" as in "bit" |
| อี | ii | long "ee" as in "see" |
| อึ | ʉ | short - say "oo" with lips spread, not rounded. Bite molar teeth & exaggerate it |
| อื | ʉʉ | long ʉ, as in Thai chʉ̂ʉ (ชื่อ, name) - Bite molar teeth, lips spread & exaggerate it |
| อุ | u | short "u" as in "tuk tuk" |
| อู | uu | long "oo" as in "moon" - Pronounced "muuun" |
| เอะ | e | short "e" as in "ed" |
| เอ | ee | long "ay" as in "day", held steady without the "y" glide at the end |
| แอะ | ɛ | short, like the "a" in "bat" - Stretch mouth wide like a smile, open slightly, tongue on bottom lip, more exaggerated than "e" |
| แอ | ɛɛ | long "ɛɛ" as in "mɛ̂ɛ" (แม่) meaning Mother, or like how a sheep goes "mɛɛ!" |
| โอะ | o | short "o", like "go" cut short |
| โอ | oo | long "o" as in "go" |
| เอาะ | ɔ | short "aw" |
| ออ | ɔɔ | long "aw" as in "awwww" |
| เออะ | ə | short "er" as in "bird" |
| เออ | əə | long "errr" as in "birrrd" |
| เอีย | ia | "ee-a" as in "Mia", as in mia (เมีย, wife) |
| เอือ | ʉa | ʉ sliding into "a", as in rʉa (เรือ, boat) |
| อัว | ua | "oo-a" as in "tuna", as in wua (วัว, cow) |
| ไอ/ใอ | ai | "ai" as in "Thai" |
| เอา | ao | "ow" as in "now" |
| อำ | am | short a + m, like "um" in "hum", as in nám (น้ำ, water) |
⚠️ Hard Stop on Short Vowels
When a syllable ends with a short vowel, there's a hard stop - the vowel is cut off sharply, like the break in "uh-oh". For example:
- gɔ̀! (เกาะ, island) - The vowel stops abruptly
- à!-rai (อะไร, what) - Hard stop on the first syllable
- àat-dtà!-maa (อาตมา, a monk's word for "I") - Hard stop on "dtà"
In fast, natural speech a soft (~) syllable can lose its hard stop and flow into the next one - see Stressed & Soft Syllables below.
Note: The (!) symbol is shown here for learning purposes - it's not part of standard ThaiBridge Spelling.
📏 Short vs. Long Vowels
In ThaiBridge Spelling, doubled letters = long vowels:
- a (short) vs. aa (long)
- i (short) vs. ii (long)
- u (short) vs. uu (long)
- e (short) vs. ee (long)
- o (short) vs. oo (long)
- ɛ (short) vs. ɛɛ (long)
- ɔ (short) vs. ɔɔ (long)
- ʉ (short) vs. ʉʉ (long)
- ə (short) vs. əə (long) - The schwa sound!
The combined vowels ia, ʉa and ua are written the same whether short or long.
🎵 Stressed (-) & Soft (~) Syllables
The Paiboon+ system in the Three-Way Dictionary (Becker & Pirazzi) shows stress between syllables:
- A syllable followed by - is stressed - said clearly, with its full tone.
- A syllable followed by ~ is soft - said lightly; in natural speech its tone drifts to mid.
- The last syllable of a word is always stressed.
- The written tone mark stays on a soft syllable - the softening is heard, not spelled.
มหาวิทยาลัย má~hǎa-wít-tá~yaa-lai (university) - "má" and "tá" are soft, the rest are stressed.
Across ThaiBridge's lessons every syllable is joined with a plain - to keep things simple, so there it only separates syllables and doesn't mark stress. The ~ is taught here and on Vowels & Syllables.
📍 Thai Tone Markers
These marks appear above Thai consonants to modify the tone:
| Marker | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| ่ | Mai Ek | Low tone on mid- and high-class consonants; falling tone on low-class |
| ้ | Mai Tho | Falling tone on mid- and high-class consonants; high tone on low-class |
| ๊ | Mai Tri | High tone (used with mid-class consonants) |
| ๋ | Mai Jattawa | Rising tone (used with mid-class consonants) |
📚 Reference
The ThaiBridge Spelling system used in this app is based on the Thai-English English-Thai Dictionary by Benjawan Poomsan Becker (Paiboon Publishing).
This dictionary is highly recommended for serious learners - it includes tone marks and classifiers for every entry.