The Almighty Five Tones in Thai Lesson (click on the words)

The biggest problem for us foreigners who learn Thai is that we are not used to phonetic languages. In many Asian languages a word that is spoken with a different pronunciation can have a different meaning. In this episode we focus on the five different tones that are used in the Thai language. As an example we use the word “mai”.

Here are the different meanings and uses of the word:

The word mai:

  • is used to form other words if you say it with a middle tone
  • means “new” if you say it with a low tone
  • means “no” if you say it with a falling tone
  • is used at the end of a sentence to make it a question if you say it with a high tone
  • means “silk” if you say it with a rising tone

We also have a podcast lesson for this that I will post tomorrow together with some more updates regarding the site and premium content.

 
icon for podpress  Learn to speak the five tones in Thai: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (Right Click & Save Target As)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 10:54 am and is filed under Learn Thai Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “The Almighty Five Tones in Thai Lesson (click on the words)”

  1. Steve Says:
    July 2nd, 2008 at 8:07 am

    Hi. I am enrolled at Thai language school in Bangkok and am trying to use your site which may be helpful to better understand the tones.

    #4 or “high tone” you wrote as ม (mau maa) and it looks like you placed two markers above it # mehan agat and # may tri

    ม is a low class consonant and to make a high tone would it not be a “may to” ้ ” above?or maybe “may tri” alone? Additionally I double checked this by using my Thai keyboard to duplicate the way you wrote it and the keyboard does not allow the combination. I also looked up this “mai” to ask a question and many places write ไหม .

    Thank you

  2. Jo Says:
    July 2nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    Hi Steve, we focus on spoken Thai. The version you are talking about and as Thai schools still teach is the written Thai version that you can find in books and dictionaries (ไหม).

    Languages change and so did Thai in the last couple of years. The question word ไหม is not pronounced like it is written anymore.

    Our fourth tone is the correct version of mai according to the pronunciation (and this little lesson just focuses on that).

    One of the major benefits of our premium course is that we teach real Thai how it is spoken right now in Thailand and not some dictionary Thai. We also point out differences like these in our lessons (when a word is written different to its pronunciation).

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