Thai for Beginners Consonants b as in baby ch as in chin d as in dolf ft as in fun g as in gold h ay in honey j ay in fet k as in kiss I as in love m as in money n as in need P ay in preity i rolled like the Scottish r 5 ay itt SOX fl as in tender w as in woman ¥ as in you ng us in ringing dt us in stop bp us in spol bin - fly chita - name duu - look fai - fire gin - eat haa - five jet - seven kon - persen ling - monkey mii - have naa - rice field pan - thousand tian - study sli - four tam - do wan - day yaa - medicine ngaan - work diaa - eye bpai - go The /dt/ sound lies between the /d/ and the //. Similarly, the fop! is between /bf and /p/. (In linguistic terms, they are both unvoiced and unaspirated.) Unlike English, /ng/ frequently occurs at the heginning of words in Thai. Thai people often do not pro- nounce the Af, replacing iF with A’ Crian? will sound like ‘lian’) When dig Af is part of a consonant cluster, itis offen dropped com pletely. Ckrap’ will sound like ‘kap”.)10 Guide to Pronunciation Practice saying the words below while your teacher listens: Then have your teacher say the words and sec if you can hear the tones correctly. Mid Low Falling High Risin; _—————— maa - a maa maa te come hry dog mai mai mai mati mat inile Hes ne, Hot righi? sith glai = gla - - for near sai sai sai : sai akind uf fish ta wear intestine clear yap pa paa paa = paa fo take atone tent. we split ctonh elilf a kaao kaao kaao - kaao fishy news rie white : wat - wat - avold temple 2 sta sua 5 dual shirt fiver os yas yaa vat - mnedicrne don sramdueothier, wavs HS