Pronunciation
วรรณยุกต์ 5 tones
Thai is a tonal language — the same syllable means different things at different pitches. Master these 5 tones and you will be understood immediately.
1
no mark
สามัญ
Mid tone
2
่ mai eek
เอก
Low tone
3
้ mai tho
โท
Falling tone
4
๊ mai dtri
ตรี
High tone
5
๋ mai jàtdtawa
จัตวา
Rising tone
Tone rules at a glance
The actual tone of a syllable is determined by three factors: consonant class, vowel length, and tone mark. This table shows the resulting tone for live syllables (ending in a long vowel or sonorant).
| Class | No mark | ่ (mai eek) | ้ (mai tho) | ๊ (mai dtri) | ๋ (mai jàtdtawa) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | Mid | Low | Falling | High | Rising |
| High | Rising | Low | Falling | — | — |
| Low | Mid | Falling | High | — | Rising |
Dead syllables (short vowel + stop final, or stop final alone) follow different rules. The full tone system becomes clear once you know the consonant classes — see the Alphabet page.
Thai has no verb conjugation.
Instead of changing verb forms for past/present/future, Thai uses
time words (เมื่อวาน yesterday, ตอนนี้ now, พรุ่งนี้ tomorrow) and
aspect particles (แล้ว completed, กำลัง ongoing, จะ will).
Tones carry the grammatical weight that other languages put on inflection.