Practice: the letters you do not say
What you will be able to do
Read a word that carries letters nobody pronounces, and give it the number of syllables it actually has rather than the number it looks like.
The killer mark ์ sits above a letter and means that letter is not said; often the letter before it goes quiet as well. Some letters are silent with no mark at all: the leading ห and อ, and the ร in สามารถ and in สร-. And a consonant sitting at the end of a syllable is a final, not a syllable of its own.
How many syllables does this word have?
จันทร์
The mark over ร silences it and the ท in front of it as well, so everything after จัน goes quiet: the word is jan, Monday. Two is what you get by pronouncing ทร as a second syllable, which is precisely the syllable the mark removes. Three gives ท and ร a syllable each. Four gives a syllable to every consonant written, which is the reading the mark exists to prevent.
How is this word read?
ศุกร์
The mark silences the ร, which leaves ศ, the short vowel and ก as the final. ศ is high class and the syllable is dead, which gives low: sùk, Friday. sù-gawn is the word read as though the mark were not there, with กร taken as a second syllable. sùk-rá gives the silenced ร a syllable of its own. sǔk has the right sounds but a rising tone, and a dead syllable with no tone mark never rises.
Which letter in this word is not said?
สัตว์
The mark sits over ว, so ว is the letter that goes silent, and the word is sàt, animal. ต is not silent: it is the final consonant of the syllable, and it is what makes the word end in a t sound. ส is the initial, both pronounced and the letter whose high class gives the syllable its low tone.
How is this word read?
เสาร์
The mark silences the ร, leaving เ-า sitting on ส. That vowel ends in a w sound, so the syllable is live, and a high-class initial in a live syllable rises: sǎo, Saturday. sǎo-rá reads the silenced ร as a syllable. sao puts a mid tone on a high-class initial, which never happens. sào is the tone a high-class initial takes in a dead syllable, and this one is live.
How is this word read?
สามารถ
This word carries a ร that is silent with no mark at all. It drops out, and ถ becomes the final consonant of the second syllable, sounding as t: sǎa-mâat, able. sǎa-maa-rót and sǎa-mâa-rót both keep the ร and turn ถ into a third syllable, which is exactly the extra syllable the silent ร causes. sǎa-màat splits the word correctly but tones it low; ม is low class and the syllable is dead with a long vowel, which falls.
How is this word read?
สร้าง
The ร in สร- is silent with no mark, so ส carries the vowel directly. The máai thoo is written over that silent ร, as marks always are after a silent leader, but the tone is read off ส — and máai thoo on a high-class initial gives falling: sâang, to build. sà-râang and sà-raang read สร as a leading pair and insert a short a that is never said. sǎang ignores the tone mark altogether and reads the syllable as though it were unmarked.
What does this mark do to the letter it sits on?
◌์
This is ทัณฑฆาต, in everyday speech การันต์, and it kills the letter beneath it: that letter is not said, and often the one before it falls silent too. It is not a tone mark, so it cannot make a syllable rise — the four tone marks are separate signs. It does not turn a letter into a final n either; ร does that on its own, with no mark, as in อาหาร. And it does nothing to vowel length.
How is this word read?
การันต์
The everyday name for the mark carries the mark itself, on the ต at the end, so the ต is silent: gaa-ran. gaa-ran-dtà is the word read as though its own mark were not there. gà-ran shortens the first vowel, but ก carries a long า. gaa-rán puts a high tone on รัน; ร is low class and that syllable is live, which gives mid.
How is this word read?
ถนน
Two rules run at once. ถ takes a short a and hands its high class forward to น, and the second syllable นน carries the implicit o with the second น as its final. A high-class initial in a live syllable rises: thà-nǒn, road. thà-non leaves น on its own low class, which is the commoner half of the error. thǎ-non rises on the first syllable, which is dead and short and therefore low. thà-nawn replaces the implicit o with an aw that is nowhere written.
How many syllables does this word have?
ประเทศ
ปร is a true cluster taking a short a, and เ-ศ is the second syllable with ศ as its final, sounding t: bprà-thêet, country. Three is what you get by splitting the cluster and giving ป and ร a syllable each. Four adds a syllable for ศ as well, but ศ is a final rather than a syllable. One would need the whole word to be a single syllable, and เ-ศ is built round its own vowel.
What is the ห at the front of this word doing?
หมา
The ห is not pronounced at all. It is there so that ม, a low-class letter with no high-class partner, follows the high-class row, and a high-class initial in a live syllable rises: mǎa, dog. The same letters without it give มา, maa, to come. So it is neither sounded as an h nor blended into the m, and it says nothing about where the word came from.
How is this word read?
อยาก
The อ is silent and only puts the syllable on the middle-class row. A middle-class initial in a dead syllable gives low: yàak, to want. à-yàak reads the silent อ as a syllable of its own. yaak drops the tone altogether, and a dead syllable with no mark is never mid. yâak is the real trap: that is ยาก, the same letters without the leading อ, and it means difficult.
What sound does the last letter of this word make?
อาหาร
A ร at the end of a syllable is not silent here, and it is not an r either: Thai has no r sound at the end of a word at all. It collapses to n, so the word is aa-hǎan, food. ng would need ง written there. t is what ถ does at the end of สามารถ, but ร does not join that group.
What should you do with that letter and the one before it?
A word on a notice ends in a letter with the killer mark above it.
The mark kills its own letter and often the one in front of it, so the safest move is to read the word without both and check whether what remains is a word you know — that is how จันทร์ becomes jan and ศุกร์ becomes sùk. Sounding them out is the extra syllable the mark exists to prevent. The s reading belongs to ทร alone, and only where no mark is written. And the mark carries no tone, so there is nothing to move onto anything.
Common mistake
Saying syllables that are not on the page. จันทร์ is one syllable, not two or three, and ศุกร์ is one, not two. When a word ends in the mark, read it without that letter and the one before it and see whether what is left is a word you already know.