How Thai writing works

Thai is an abugida: a consonant works with vowel signs and sometimes an unwritten vowel to form a syllable. Writing runs from left to right, but a vowel can appear before, after, above, below or around its consonant. A vowel written on the left is still pronounced after the initial consonant.

Here are crow and come: the vowel า sits to the right of its consonant. Tap play and listen. These pages have no test.

The traditional alphabet has 44 consonant letters. Two are obsolete in ordinary modern spelling, leaving 42 in current use. Many letters share a consonant sound but belong to different spelling groups used for tone.

Thai has nine basic vowel qualities with short and long partners, plus diphthongs and special vowel spellings. Traditional charts often list 32 vowel forms, assembled from a smaller set of written signs. That is not 32 unrelated vowel sounds: you will learn useful spelling patterns in small groups.

Thai has no uppercase/lowercase distinction. Spaces usually separate phrases or larger chunks, not every word. Native Thai digits exist alongside familiar 0–9 digits. The course begins with a clear looped font; modern signs may use less familiar letter shapes.