Tai–Kadai → Southwestern Tai (close to Lao; long contact with Khmer, Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese)
Loan strata: Pali/Sanskrit/Khmer
Writing System
Thai abugida with 44 consonant letters grouped by class (high/mid/low), tone marks ( ่ ้ ๊ ๋ ), inherent vowels, and no spaces between words in native style.
Consonant classes drive toneLive vs dead syllables
Typical Word Order
SVO; analytic grammar; classifiers after numerals; particles for mood/politeness at clause end.
Medium: tones + script are new; grammar is compact once tone rules and classifiers click.
5 tonesTransparent morphology
Quick Overview
Thai is a tonal, mostly analytic language. Word order is SVO, tense/aspect are expressed with particles and adverbs,
and nouns don’t inflect—classifiers do the heavy lifting with numbers and quantifiers. The script encodes tone through a
combination of consonant class, tone marks, and syllable type (live vs dead).
Sound & Spelling Tips
Five tones: mid, low, falling, high, rising. Tone changes meaning (maa can be “come,” “dog,” etc.).
Live vs dead: long vowels or sonorant codas (m n ng y w r l) → live; short vowels or stop codas (p t k) → dead.
Vowel maze: vowels may appear before/after/above/below consonants but read in a fixed order.
Politeness particles:ครับ (male) / ค่ะ (female) soften and formalize speech.
Grammar Snapshot
Verbs: no conjugation; aspect with particles like กำลัง (progressive), แล้ว (perfective/already), จะ (future).
Nouns: no gender/case/plural; use classifiers with numerals (หนังสือ 3 เล่ม “three books”).
Questions: sentence-final ไหม (yes/no), question words in-situ (อะไร, ที่ไหน).
Negation:ไม่ before verbs/adjectives; ไม่ได้ for inability/past-not.
Dialects & Variation
Standard (Central) Thai dominates media; Northern (Lanna), Northeastern (Isan; close to Lao), and Southern Thai vary in phonology and lexicon.
Formal vs colloquial registers differ mainly in particles and vocabulary.
History (Very Short)
Old Thai inscriptions (Sukhothai) → Ayutthaya court language → Bangkok standard.
Extensive Pali/Sanskrit and Khmer loans in religion, administration, and culture.
Sample & Breakdown
วันนี้ผมไปทำงานครับ wan-níi phǒm pai tham-ngaan khráp “Today I’m going to work.” (polite male)
เธอกำลังอ่านหนังสืออยู่ “She is reading a book.” — progressive with กำลัง … อยู่
Common Phrases
สวัสดีครับ/ค่ะ (Hello)ขอบคุณครับ/ค่ะ (Thank you)ขอโทษครับ/ค่ะ (Sorry/Excuse me)เท่าไหร่ (How much?)ห้องน้ำอยู่ไหน (Where is the bathroom?)
ได้ไหม (can/may?) • อร่อยมาก (very tasty) • ไม่เป็นไร (no problem)
Interesting Notes
Reduplication: softens or pluralizes (เร็ว ๆ “quickly”).
Relatives as address:พี่/น้อง/ลุง/ป้า used for polite address based on age/gender.
No verb “to be” with adjectives: adjectives behave like stative verbs (อากาศร้อน “weather [is] hot”).
Tone Wizard (Lightweight Rules)
Type a Thai syllable (e.g., มา, หมา, ไม้, หนัง). The wizard detects consonant class, tone mark, and a live/dead guess to suggest a tone.
This is a learning aid, not a full parser.
Heuristics: live if long vowel or sonorant coda; dead if short vowel or stop coda (p/t/k). Tone rules combine consonant class + tone mark + live/dead.
Classifier Wizard (Numerals + Nouns)
Pick a noun type and number to get a natural Thai “number + classifier + noun” phrase. Useful for UI labels and SEO examples.
Pattern: [Noun] [Number] [Classifier] or [Number] [Classifier] [Noun]. With 1, many speakers use หนึ่ง or omit it; with people, ผู้ชาย/ผู้หญิง may precede.
Learning Tips
Memorize consonant class groups with mnemonics; tones become predictable.
Shadow 30–60s daily to internalize particles (ครับ/ค่ะ/นะ/สิ/ซิ/เถอะ) and rhythm.
Build a classifier deck: 20 most common cover most daily needs.