Thai Fact Check is an ongoing series written by Morgan Shupsky who will use her personal experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer to fact check everything that you may or may not want to know about Thailand.
Morgan Shupsky, 134 YinD
After three months of trying my very hardest to get a grasp on the spoken Thai language and finally feeling like I was getting somewhere, I decided that I was ready to take on the written Thai language. All of my 4th grade students told me reading and writing “isn’t too hard,” so I thought I was up for the task. I spent the entirety of May learning how to read Thai, memorizing the symbols and their accompanying sounds, learning the many, many rules – most of which seem to have no rhyme or reason at all. Then, I learned how to write the symbols, no faster than a toddler learning their first language. Now that I’ve put in my 100+ hours, I’m here to debunk the myth that this written language “isn’t too hard.”
The Thai alphabet has 44 consonant symbols, 16 vowel symbols, 32 vowel forms and five different tones. I’ve grown very close to all of these symbols and have come to admire some of them and really dislike some others.
ว – This guy, wor-wan, started off as a humble little w, minding his business and switching to o when he was at the end of a word. Fine. No problem. Then he decided he wanted more and took on the additional role of being a vowel too. Can’t blame him for being ambitious but I do blame him for confusing me every time I’m trying to find the start of a word because wor-wan decided he wants to be a vowel instead of a consonant.
ฑ – Tor-montoh is the ivy-league version of tor-tahaan ท, which really isn’t fair at all since tor-tahaan (which FYI, means soldier) didn’t have the option to go to college since he was a little busy SERVING HIS COUNTRY. While tor-tahaan was under fire, tor-montoh swooped in, added an extra little curve to her tail and took over the “t” territory even though she’s literally only used in like 5 words.
ร – Don’t even get me STARTED on ror-ruea. He is horribly indecisive and confused about where he is supposed to be at any given time. He just shows up in some words and then decides to be a silent consonant? And sometimes he doubles up and turns into “-er”? Or how about when he makes the “n” sound?? Ror-ruea how about you stay in your place and just be an r when a word needs an r.
อ – Or-aang is like the baby that all the consonants have to babysit. He kinda serves a purpose but everyone would probably get on just fine without him. He tags along with a bunch of words just for the heck of it and usually just makes everyone more confused, except for when he’s a vowel, then he’s very useful, but he switches back and forth and like I said – confusing.
ห – Hor-heep here is in the top 1% and wants everybody to know it. She lives such a high-class lifestyle that even being placed in front of other consonants makes them high class too! Hor-heep, not everyone wants to be high class! Stay in your fancy lane and leave the other consonants alone.
ง – Ngor-ngoo, I’m sorry about this one and didn’t want to add him to this list, but he is the bane of most students’ existence because the ‘ng’ sound is so hard for us English-speakers to say. Ngor-ngoo sends me into a nervous sweat every time I have to say a word he starts, which earned him his place on my roast list.
I don’t want to give off the impression that ALL the symbols are problematic. In fact, if you ask any of my students if reading and writing Thai is hard at all you’ll get a resounding “MAI CHAIII” (“NOO”) in response. I’ve tried asking them to teach me and it usually starts with them confidently going to the board to start explaining before exchanging unsure glances and admitting, “well it isn’t too hard.” It usually ends with them giving up and singing “Baby Shark.” Anyway, now onto my favorite symbols! The hardworking and consistent symbols that carry every written sentence on their backs.
ต – Dtor-dtao is a fun guy. He’s like dor-dek, but he has a fun little hat and I think he’s more fun to say. Pretty unproblematic, the only change is that when he’s at the end he changes to a “t.” But hey, the final consonant barely matters anyways so more power to him – work smarter, not harder.
ป – Bor-bplaa is consistent as a bp sound except in the final position when she switches to p. She’s fairly similar to บ bor-baimai, but I’ve recently learned that I can’t say the “b” sound and can only say the “bp” sound. So bor-bplaa moved right up on my list since she’ll be what I’m saying for both ป & บ for quite some time!
ม – Mor-maa is just doing her thing. She doesn’t change, she’s a natural leader, usually starts the word and no matter her position in the word, she holds firm in being an “m”. She’s also fun to draw, and I can always count on her when I need to find the spaces in a sentence.
ฮ – As the humble cousin to ห, you can imagine hor-nokhook has a difficult life putting up with hor-heep always stealing his spotlight. But he just minds his business and comes in when he’s needed. He also makes a lot of very important loanwords possible, like “hot dog” (ฮอตดอก) and “ha ha ha”
(ฮ่าฮ่าฮ่า), really a pillar of the Thai vocabulary.
As I mentioned earlier, 16 vowels and 32 vowel forms are used when writing in Thai. Just to remind everyone, English has FIVE vowels, sometimes six if you wanna throw y in there. You can’t hate the vowels though because all 32 of those forms are what make the Thai language so sing-songy and beautiful. Plus, without the vowels people wouldn’t be able to make famous Thai sounds like “oiy!” “oooeee” or “ooooo”whenever literally anything happens.
Hit your head on the very low doorways? “oiy!”
Weather is exceptionally super-hot one day? “ooooeeee”
Hear some community gossip at the market? “ooooo”
Without these vowels a solid 90% of the sounds I hear all day would be thrown right out the window. Without further ado, now onto the vowels – the unsung heroes that guide all the other symbols and have to deal with all the special requests and stipulations they impose.
–ะ – Sara-a makes words shorter, which usually makes them easier to say, and she’s fun to draw. Win, win, win. Shoutout to Sara-a.
เ–า – Sara-ao: She sounds good, looks good, and never changes. She’s really out here doing it all. Her efforts are not going unnoticed.
เ–ียะ – Sara-ia is trying to do way too much. I know life as a vowel is tough but four symbols and three variants? Hate to give her a hard time, but girl come on.
ใ– and ไ– – Sara-ai mai muan and sara-ai mai alai: The elegant, super tall twins who make every word sound and look better. They make up many of the words that the Thai language could not do without: “jai” (heart), “mai” (no), “chai” (yes), just to name a few. Only good things to say about these two.
There are obviously many, many more Thai symbols that are working hard every day to make the Thai language possible, and I have the same love-hate (but mostly love) relationship with all of them. While I have my gripes with many of the symbols, I do have immense respect for each and every one of them for creating the complex language of Thailand. That respect extends to every resident of Thailand who regularly communicates with this alphabet and can fire off text messages in seconds that would quite literally take me an hour to craft. I hope my rant did not deter you from learning how to read and write Thai If anything it should make you realize that these are just a bunch of fun little symbols coming together to make words. They are strong, I can’t lie, but they are no match for a Peace Corps Volunteer 😉
THAI FACT CHECK – Is it true that reading Thai isn’t that hard? YES! …..yes-ish! Maybe no. Jury’s out on this one. Learn to read Thai and then let me know what your answer is 🙂
Sticky Rice 
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