The Thailand Language

I'll be the first to admit that I was never very good at learning the Thailand language. I was never truly into languages as I should have been (not until recently); both my mother and father spoke Spanish and I could speak it as well but I never really cared to. I lived in Thailand for over 4 years continuously and I am married to a Thai woman, I should have been a Thai language professional by now!

However, I do know enough of the Thailand language to get by. If I don't completely know certain Thai words then I cheat and ask my wife. But for those of you who can't cheat or are looking for some extra help then I'll guide you in the right direction.

For starters, the Thai language is tonal. You have five basic tones which are, high, low, rising, falling, and neutral. As a Westerner you'll make sounds from parts of your neck and mouth you didn't think possible. To some people the Thai language sounds a little nasally.

The written Thai language is not exactly like other Asian languages of Japanese or Chinese. Thai words actually have consonants and vowels.

There are about 11 different Thai language dialects (my wife speaks 3 of them). Some popular ones being, Isan which is practically Lao; Nyaw Language which is also Northeast Thailand, Lu in the north, and many other small dialects. However, I am only referring to the standard Thai language (Siamese) of central Thailand as that is what is taught through out all of Thailand and is common to all.

Depending on who your speaking with, the formality of your spoken Thai words will change drastically.

In general when you speak Thai the ending will have a kap (for man) for ka (for woman), sa-wa-dee kap. If you want to be really formal then you can say sa-wa-dee KRAHP. The krahp is for being very polite and used when talking with high respect. If you were speaking Thai with religious leaders or members of the Royal Family you would be much more formal than even this.

As with many other languages, the Thai language states things backwards like white house, it would be house white. The object noun comes first followed by the describer.

When they want to say something plural they say chicken, chicken, not chickens.

Common transliterated Thai words

• You = koon (koon also means shrimp, lol!)
• hello = sa-wat-dee
• never mind = mai-bpen-rye
• sorry = kaw-toht
• how are you = sa-by-dee-mai
• good luck = choke-dee
• don't understand = mai-ko-jai
• water = nam-pow
• toilet = hong-nam
• very good = dee-mak-mah
• I want = ow
• love = rock (or) luck
• eat = gin-cow
• white = cow
• 1 = noung
• 2= song
• 3 = sam
• 4 = see
• 5 = ha
• 10 = sip
• 20 = ye-sip
• 50 = ha-sip
• 100 = neung-roy
• 200 = song-roy
• 000 = neung-pan

Serious about Learning the Thai Language? If this fun software helped ME learn the Thailand language then it absolutely work for YOU. Read my review.

The 5 Mai's

In the Thai language you also have the famous five mai's. They all sound very close to the same but have different meanings (like homonyms in English). The five are all pronounced with just a slight different tone (5 tone as stated above). The five different meanings are: no, question, a type of bird, wood, and a certain food.

On the flip side Thai people (and Asians in general) have a real problem with R's and L's. A word like central will get hacked to pieces and come out centan. Many Thai don't really care about the way English is suppose to sound and are really quite happy pronouncing it the way they think it should be said.

If you would like to teach English as a second language to the Thai students, you'll learn on so many different levels.

There is a great deal to know about the Thai language you should really get a good resource to help you out.

It's always better to completely know a language by being able to read, write, speak and think in Thai. To do that you will need a good teaching program if you're serious about it. The following are a list of site to help you get started and some are to REALLY learn the language.

My personal favorite starter and one of the best free tools out there, www.thai-language.com

Believe it or not Rosetta Stone does help you speak the language but it's not the best at getting you to write it.

I will add a couple more Thailand language links later but right now I'm trying out a few Thai language products, and I want to make sure they are good before I recommend them - so for now I'll stop.

Return from Thailand Language to Thailand Tourism and Living in Thailand