Step 4: reading your first words
What you will be able to do
Read real Thai words out loud using only the letters from steps 2 and 3.
Every word below is built from the seven consonants and eight vowels you already know. Read them out loud rather than silently: Thai is a tonal language and reading it in your head skips the part that matters. Work left to right, but remember the rule from step 3. In เก, the vowel is written first and read second, so it is gee. จาน has something new: a consonant at the end. น closes the syllable. A final consonant is one of the three things, along with consonant class and vowel length, that decides the tone of a syllable, which is where the next part of the track goes. If you can read these six aloud without hesitating, you have the mechanism. Everything after this is more letters and the tone rules, not a new idea.
- กาgaacrow
- ตาdtaaeye
- ดีdiigood
- ปูbpuucrab
- จานjaanplate
- เกgeeto be bent
Common mistake
Resist transliterating in your head. The moment you convert Thai into roman letters to read it, you have added a step you will have to remove later.