PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

                           VOWELS

a  (–ะ)  Sounds like ‘father’ (short sound)

aa  (-า)  Same as ‘a’ only drawn out longer

eu  (อื or อึ)  Denotes a sound that’s not used in English. Somewhat like an “ugh!” but with an ‘e’ sound thrown in

euh  (เ-อ)  Similar to the ‘eur’ in the Frenchman’s ‘chauffeur,’ or the ‘ur’ in ‘burn.’

eua (เอือ)  ‘eu’ with an ‘aa’ sound added to it.

e  (เ-ะ)  Sounds like ‘set,’ ‘men,’ ‘left’ (short sound)

ay  (เ-)  A hard ‘a’ like ‘apex,’ or ‘pay’ (long sound)

i  (อิ)  Similar to ‘dip’ or ‘sip’ (short sound)

ee   (อี)  As in ‘seem,’ ‘peel,’ ‘seek’ (long sound)

o  (โ-)  Sounds like ‘open’

aw or au  (-อ)  As in ‘saw’

ai   (ไ-  or  -าย)  Like ‘pie,’ ‘fly’

ae   (แ-)  As in ‘bat,’ ‘fan,’ ‘tab’

oo   (อู / อุ) As in ‘room’ or ‘spoon’

ew  (อิว)  Sounds like ‘pew,’ ‘few’

ao  (เ-า)  As in ‘how,’ ‘cow’

                                   SYLLABLES

dt  (ต)  Represents a Thai syllable that’s sound is between the English ‘d’ and ‘t’—make a ‘d’ sound with your tongue behind your upper front teeth

 g  (ก)  A hard 'g' as in ‘gas,’ ‘game,’ ‘gut’

 ng  (ง)  As in sing, but often used at the beginning of  words, unlike in English. This is a favorite of Ken’s.  As any Thai schoolkid can tell you, the letter's name is 'ngaw ngoo.'  Ngoo means 'snake,' as evidenced in its snake-like shape: ง

 pb  (ป)  Represents a Thai syllable that’s sound is between the English ‘p,’ and ‘b’—it is an aspirated ‘b’

          The Thai words listed in the following section are generally understood by Thai people – as differentiated from the many Thai people in the tourist industry who interact with foreigners. To compile a list of words that tourist industry workers—or those that regularly interact with English-speakers—would understand would be a giant patchwork endeavor, as some of those folks are nearly fluent in English.

        Syllable emphases often change when an English word is adapted into Thai. In this first edition, we've chosen to forgo adding punctuation notation (that which designates emphasized syllables), partly because all the added symbols tend to complicate the text. Optimumly, the reader can get together with a Thai person to hear best how their words are pronounced.                                        
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                                 Scratch Pad

1. Adjectives follow the noun or pronoun they modify

2. Adverbs follow the verbs or adjectives they modify. One exception is numbers which usually come before the noun or classifier.

3. Qualifier words add depth to verbs. They can also sometimes be used as stand-alone verbs.

4. yak  =   'would like to' - used before verb or by itself, often as an answer to a question

5. ja or jak  =  'will' or 'going to'  - used before a verb

6. dai  =  'can', 'able to' - used before or after a verb. May also be used by itself.

7. tawng  =   'must', 'necessary to' - used before verb
Example: tawng kan = 'have to', or ‘tawn kan pai' = have to go.

8. kamlang  =  'on-going'           kamlang ngaow = being sad

9. yang  =  'yet' - used in front of an adverb or adjective - to add emphasis

10. kwam  =  'state of' - used before a verb or noun kwam sa-art = cleanliness

11. kee emphasis - used before noun/verb:
kee hung = jealous / kee kiat = lazy
kee itcha = envious / kee neeo = stingy
kee mao = drunk / kee hooie = talkative

12. kawng possession - used before a noun or person, or between nouns - to indicate who possesses who/what.
kawng pom = mine   /   kawng kao - his   /   jaow kong – the owner

13. koee  =  'ever'  –  used before verb

14. mai koee = 'never'  –   placed before verb.