Thai Language Lessons: Tone Rules Explained

[tranle23]

I speak Vietnamese so hearing the tones is simple for me, but I can't hear the difference between the mid tone and the low tone. XD

[wusak1]

Shocked! ! Thai Language Lessons website: th.cxx.ca

[KinChampagne]

O_O I can't differenciate the difference between the mid and low tone.. (tears)

[ematt1603]

i come to thai so much! speak a little basic! but you just blew my fkin mind!!!

[theeranartphoonsi]

I am Thai, but I think Thai language is so easy if you try the best . English is hard for me because it total different Thai about time emphasis and verb chang follow time but Thai are not.

[takadi]

Sounds so much like vietnamese. Middle tone sounds like the falling tone in vietnamese, high and low tone is the same, rising is similar to "hoi", the last one however sounds almost exactly the same as the first mid tone

[pantamitKUY]

I'm thai people.I think my language is veryveryvery hard!

[xpaderom]

Thanks again. This is awesome.

[iraqistarship]

hey, good video! when you talk about voiced versus unvoiced stops, though, i think you mean aspirated (puff of air) vs. unaspirated (no puff of air). voicing contrasts are like pin (unvoiced) vs. bin (voiced). aspiration contrasts are like pin (aspiration occurs for stops at the beginnings of English words) vs. spin (stops are usually unaspirated in all other contexts, including finally--like the p in up)

[SilverYoshi111]

for future vids, i am color blind and it is very hard to tell the lavender from the blue, you should keep one section white or make it darker blue

[hentaisexfreak4life1]

awesome video here wow cool indeed

[CWJ0725]

high and rising sound almost the same?



[cherinming1]

อ๋อคำเป็นคำตายนี่นา เคยคิดว่าภาษาอังกฤษยากเเต่ภาษา­ไทยก็ยากเหมือนกัน ^___^

[GomerfromIsaan]

Thank you for posting. I have been teaching myself how to read Thai for years and read a few textbooks yet did not know some of these rules. Also, I lose track of which consonants are which class. This is a great refresher.

[Kubangpasu]

daymn, writing so hard than speaking. im a southern thai dialect speaker anyway and it's difficult to write :""""""""""""""""""""(

[skelanth]

This (and the other videos you've posted on Thai) is an excellent instructional video. I have long had an interest in Asian languages - currently speaking basic Mandarin (making tones less daunting), and conversational Japanese, the next two on my list are Korean and Thai - having found your videos, I will certainly be able to make very good use of them! Thank you VERY, VERY much for making these!

[Mangkon]

@ ashoka10 -

At minute 01:53 you say that a Dead Syllable consist of any word ending with an unvoiced consonant. But what you putted in the schedule does say the opposite thing. Namely that a Dead syllable consist of any word ending with an voiced consonant. Thesame rule as for the Live Syllable. Is this a written mistake? Can you please clarify this, otherwise i might get confused.

Thanks in advance!

[caketaster]

my Thai's all right but tones have always stumped me. great to see a video like this on youtube, maybe now i'll finally crack it and be able to read tones properly!

[MsDjessa]

pinangjawa Way harder than chinese, even harder than vietnamese!

[r6j1g7]

Why would anyone in their right mind make a language this complicated -___-

[gomez164]

@r6j1g7 You do realise how difficult English is in itself?

[Conlangingftw]

@r6j1g7 I believe that English is just as hard as Thai. 

[dswarthout]

@r6j1g7

I agree. If people were aware of the multitude of rules in English that we use without actually knowing them, they would be truly amazed. Check out Steven Pinker's book, The Language Instinct for some fascinating discussions of language, its acquisition and use.

[darkdisaster202]

lololol kii xD

[payasongbaliw]

it feels difficult to us because were not a thai ^_^

[Krittayot95]

Very helpful and understandable ! Thanks

[tvphotog]

Please start using a wind screen for your microphone. You're popping your P's and you breathing is causing a low roll-out on the mic. A very unprofessional quality.

[MaiSuphakit]

คนสอนเก่งจัง

[112ddd211]

awesome vid, thanks!!

[raitaiboo1]

Thanks so much for this video! I had already learned about the tone markers and how to read them but I was having issues with understanding kham bpen vs. kham dtaai and this REALLY helped a ton!

ขอบคุณมากค่ะ ^_^

[kfrfairy]

GOOD THING! THANKS~~~

[Viviankazune]

:O omg *gives up learning Thai*

[raitaiboo1]

@Viviankazune Don't give up!

[Thaibiohazard123]

To foreigner who trying to learn thai langauge.

I'm thai. I just want to tell you guys that not to worry much about it.

Thai people who learning english have many problems with Eng Grammar too! but you know what , We always think that .... "just make it understandable is good enough"

So you guys should think like that too. Actually , I hate english grammar...fuckin hate it....I've many problems with it but... just trying to speak even it's not completely right. it's okay , isn't it?

[dmn322]

From what I know, what you called "voicing" is actually "release." Voicing is the difference between b and p. Release is when you fully articulate a plosive consonant at the end of a syllable.

[dmn322]

From what I know, what you called "voicing" is actually "release." Voicing is the difference between b and p. Release is when you fully articulate a plosive consonant at the end of a syllable.

[Chipinjack]

I just wanted know what the 5 symbols looks like....because they differ from the symbols used in Pinyin Chinese...for instance....a high tone symbol in Thai / means a rising tone in Chinese

[kuj4z]

Mid and Low sound the same... i'm confused

[PirawitChatlaem]

ขอให้สนุกกับภาษาไทยนะครับ

i hope you will happy with thai. ^^

ตอนนี้ประเทศไทยมีคำสแลงเยอะมาก­ๆ ^^

now thai language has a lot of slang.

[martinegelund]

i's hard but not harder then chinese!

[waritgreen]

Im a 14 yearold thai boy and i stll find writing difficult. But speaking it ain't so hard cuz its such a flexible language. You don't ned to speak all those polite words to everyone, just say what you think is polite and not too rude. Maybe throw a joke in sometimes.

[OM3N1R]

Mai Jattawa (aka +) is very rare.

you should make that clear

otherwise a great video!

[OM3N1R]

It is actually really easy if you have a good teacher.

I can read now after 4 years 100% but I always forgot "mai to" and "mai tree"

when I write Thai.

The most important factor is to be surrounded by Thai constantly.

[vita10052007]

@OM3N1R Also we Thai still confuse as same as you but we everyday read and write Thai so we can remember the words mostly used. Some new words or some diferrent voice we have to check its properly spelling; for example "raj" we write ร้าจ or ร๊าจ even this time I still think that ร๊าจ is correct but actualy ร้าจ is correct. Because every alphabet has its different tone when put vowels and tonal tones. My child is always confused and I have to say "this alphabet is a strange one not normal"

[bonbonwen]

much more complicated than chinese. *rubbing hair*

[lbb2r]

@bonbonwen howw..???? if u work hard, u can learn the entire alphabet in 3 months....i did it....yet three years later i only know 1,300 hanzi.....

[radislander1]

i am fuucking colord blind why you highlighted lavenda and blue its almost the same got damm it

[vita10052007]

This is an expert teacher exactly but this lesson we Thai study after we can read and write Thai very well. I remember when we studied about the rules every student in class got bored and our eyes were closed half and unconcious at last. I want to recommend the beginners to study Thai language in other easier way for not become defeated by this difficult rules. This rules is good for checking out the different of tone of each alphabet.

[kimubaya]

内容が気になる…和訳欲しいな…

[NitroZTH]

Even your accent some words wrong , but it's enough for using in Thailand.

Because your accent is better than some Thai people!

You know , ever Thai people always use this , but they aren't many people who can memorize all of these rules!

Greeting from Thailand.

[buchamyai]

well learn buc hae lol

[plenoinarak]

I think is this not the most difficult thing in Thai Language.

The Most difficult is "The Way We Speak !!"

Thais sentence can be construct in many way.

And can have revolution by itself depend on an era.

Teenager Style, Senior Junior Style, Monk Style, King Style,

Familiar-Unfamiliar Style, Male-Female Style

And Thais create new word by themselves for this year like "เหวง" "Wheng"

[Mangkon]

@plenoinarak

Everyone thinks that there own language is the most difficult thing to learn. Every baby can learn the language which they got taught. If you are dedicated to it, and have a certain feeling for languages than everyone can learn it.

I think (by the way) that the Thai grammar is really easy comparing to (for example) the Dutch, French or German grammer.

[PlakraHoSayHo]

so wut

[Divadada101]

Wow! Excellent job, very detailed. Your Thai pronunciation is better than a lot of Thais who post " Teaching Thai videos". I am going to recommend your videos to other people.

[AfricanLionsHunter]

Your English is very good, just like a native.

[johnbugden1999]

Please make more!! Very helpful

[marjavanderhagen]

Wow, this is really good!!! I try to speak and read the Thai language for one year now. I am exercising every day. You're providing the clearest explanation of Thai Tone Rules I've ever seen. I just studied your video about two hours. After finishing the Tone video I saw you have four more about Thai alphabet. But now I am tired. Tomorrow I will do another one. Thank you so much!

[alaneddie1]

how to write (Angeline) in thai

[beinspired88]

That was excellent job... You know better than some Thai.... Wow

ค่าบ doesn't sound right to me tho

[shinobi2050]

its headache..,.,.,. soo much to take in... maybe its for the advance learner. to me I cant even read Thai Alphabets :(

and then how can I remember the Low ,mid, high in alphabets when the difference is so little

I guess I should learn just the alphabets first, then try to remember the different class and ,., and then come back to this lessong

Good video tho

thanks mate

[hughweilun]

i just started looking into thai yesterday, i understand mandarin but need something more basic to start, where should i look?

[balacyclan22]

2 : 33UR EXPLAINING THE MEKO'S RIGHT?!

[nate8910]

it aint hard for me...im thai ง่ายมากๆ

[YangSunWoo]

I learned Chinese tones in Taiwan within a week, but now... Thai seems so much harder with all these specific rules for changing tones.

[thaitanium15]

haha, try and say "who sells chicken egg" in Thai.

[nate8910]

@thaitanium15 kai kai kai gai chai mai?

[thaitanium15]

haha, yes. It wasn't a literal question though. But good job.

[tumsabai1]

@thaitanium15

khrai khai khai gai ( middle, rising, low, low)

No problem!!!

[thaitanium15]

@tumsabai1

Good job, but it wasn't a literal question... haha.

[Qurylenko]

we memoriza those tones well

[pinangjawa]

OMG never know it's so hard... it's even harder than Chinese.

[OM3N1R]

@pinangjawa

I made the same effort to learn both Chinese and Thai. I found Chinese is harder! I learned to read Thai in 6 months and that really helps with the pronunciation. It is pretty much impossible for foreigners that are not children to become proficient in reading Chinese.

This is nothing against either language, just my personal experience.

But anyways, both languages are pretty tough.

[lbb2r]

@pinangjawa i disagree...care to give reasons?

[prudduck]

wow really hard this is gonna take a while!

[usr1011]

Thank you for the very helpful video.

But there's just one problem. You are right that an unvoiced final consonant makes a dead syllable, but you are wrong in your explanation of the terms voiced and unvoiced. Technically, voiced and unvoiced have nothing to do with the "puff of air that leaves our lips." The "puff of air" you are referring to actually has to do with the terms "aspirated" and "unaspirated."

Voice and unvoiced has to do with whether or not your vocal chords are vibrating.

[OM3N1R]

Man. Whoever you are!

Awesome vids.

please continue!!!

[armourer84]

"ใครขายไข่ไก่"

"Khrai Khaai Khai Kai"

The phrase that can test the foreigners with the Thai's tone lesson.

[twinklestarrz]

TONES!!! *screams* ... *runs and hides* ;p

[OM3N1R]

Thanks man! Helpful Vid!

[xenophonia]

Hey, these are absolutely great - keep 'm coming!

[Kharami888]

GOOD JOB, thanks for keeping it simple!

[jilly809]

am going to thailand and this seems really hard to understand and speak

[beogradwill]

The reason why English is so universal is because it is the most sensible and easy to learn language which dispenses with nonesensical BS about gender and different types of address depending on status....'you' is 'you' whether I address a king or a beggar. And so it should be too. Maybe that is why notions of democracy and equality came out of the English speaking world....only to be perverted by neocons of dubious heritage.

[psunjka]

Kako si ti zavrsio na tokelau majke ti

[Carlibra57]

Top 5 Languages:

1. Mandarin 2. English 3.Hindi 4. Spanish 5. Arabic

You don't think he and she refer to gender? The notion of democracy came from Greece. Equality was a French idea. Man, you need to go back to school and learn.

[thecritiquevirtuoso]

You're disgusting... everyone knows that English is perhaps the most diluted, over-simplified, unsophisticated of all the indo-european languages.

[thecritiquevirtuoso]

did you forget about "thou" and "thee"? These used to be informal addresses intended only for close friends, etc. much like German "du" and "dich"

[pakhavit]

The chicken(ก-ไก่) Pick (จ-จิก) kid (ด-เด็ก) Dead(ต-ตาย) on ( บ-บน) mouth(ป-ปาก) Jar (อ-โอ่ง)

the chicken pick kid (to) dead on (the) mouth (of) jar ไก่จิกเด็กตายบนปากโอ่ง = mid class

[EquuleusPictor]

My head spins ...

[kuj4z]

the tones are like vietnamese

[polaromonas]

Great video! And I have to agree with other Thais in here that this video has a very good explanation for such a complicated thing. I watched this video and the first thing that came in my mind was "How did we Thais Learn Thai?? It's just ridiculously difficult!"

[lov2us]

agree,

seems like we imitate the sounds and learn more naturally before actually analyse all this!

[xmiind22]

damn thats pretty complicated i mean eaven japanese is easier!!

[SWMTD]

oh! u should not compare Thai with Japanese. Japanese pronunciation is easier than English.

[xmiind22]

maby becuse here in sweden we hafto learn english in school and i think its damn easy but im gonna try to learn japanese next year in collage. maby eng is easyer^^

[SWMTD]

haha, pronunciation is the only easy thing, Japanese is a difficult language. As I am Chinese, kenji give me a little bit help of understanding.

The Japanese grammer is horrible.

[tamsenmc]

I think the Japanese grammar is quite beautiful...

I also love Kanji. <3

[PeeteyP]

There's a mistake at 3:05- what's called "voiced" is really "aspirated"

Otherwise, an excellent video.

[wahahehohu]

Katiusha, I think you're just envy of our language coz it is so beautiful. Oh, and your native tongue is vietnamese? HAHAHAHA.. I pity you man, vietnamese is probably the ugliest language of all. I suggest you should do some good things in this life so that you can be born as some other nationality other than vietnamese..LOL

[alifshinobi]

wahahehohu, you know the remark that you've just made about Vietnamese can indicate that Thai people are rude and perhaps low-class. And as a Thai(Amer.) myself, I want to clarify that not all Thais are like wahahehohu. Learning to respect others is what I've been taught in Thai culture, and your immature behavior has just proven yourself an ignorant. Beside Thai, Vietnamese is a beautiful language.

[wahahehohu]

Oh, I've just realised that Katiusha's comment is gone. Tn this case, my comment up there would look like I'm a Vietnamese hater, which I'm not. I just replied to Katiusha who was making fun of Thai language.

[BADGERGIRL23]

I may be pretty wasted but this dude just totally put me off learning the beautiful thai language. That shit looks complicated dude.

[tmsouth1]

great video to help learn some of basics. We adopted our son from Thailand and he is now 14 and wants to learn some Thai so this should help some. Thanks

[kienarak]

Your video is so great! Although I am a Thai, I have never known that Thai language has so many rules like this. To tell the truth, I don't know even what the dead syllables are. lol. I think a way to learn it is to read and listen as much as possible. Then, you will not have to be worried about the rules anymore :)

[bfn1964]

I had to learn all these rules cause I'm not a native Thai speaker but I know these rules better than most Thai!. This sorta equates with why many Thai students know English grammar better than I. Still for a non-Thai to speak clearly and fluently you need to learn these rules. It becomes second nature after a bit of practice!

[KanamyUzumaki]

Daaaaaaaamn it's too difficult for me to pronnunce it ;______________;

[peerah]

Thank you for putting this up. We learned these stuffs in elementary school but most didn't pay much attention to it, including me! I even forgot most of these. So this is kind of a nice revision for me. I believe that I now know the theory less than you do.

The tonality though, is something that Westerners would find hard to understand. I'm studying in the US and I have tried explaining the basis of this to my friends but they wouldn't comprehend! They all said everything sounds the same.

[learningthai]

Really great video ashoka! Have a look at our tones lesson and tongue twisters. :)

[vanrooj]

Great instructions! I have learnt this different to you...

Four Tonal Marks -่ -้ -๊ -๋

My ek, my to, my dri, my jatawa

These Tonal marks NEVER CHANGE BUT there are Consonant Markings

Sang ek, Sang toe, Sang dri, Sang jatawa -- they change visually.

High/Mid - Sang ek -่ (L) , Sang toe -้(F), Sang dri -๊(H), Sang jatawa -๋(R)

Low - Sang toe -่(F), Sang dri-้(H)

Is this correct what I'm saying? Keep up the good work!

[steve171274]

Only the thais could have thought this up!

[Nirodho]

great videos!

[sebjunk]

Really appreciate these videos. Thank you for putting in the time and effort to produce them. They are very easy-to-follow and well thought out. I just came back from a long 3-month stay in Thailand and was unable to learn much Thai due to the relatively complex writing system. These are a huge help - Thanks again.

[Anakolov]

Something isn't right here.

For High-class consonant with a DEAD sound, the word will be of a low tone without the need to add mai-ek. So, ข่ะ is wrong. The correct one is ขะ

Low-class consonant is a but more complicated.

Low, Dead, Short :

คะ has a high sound without the need to add mai-to. (ค้ะ is therefore wrong)

Low, Dead, Long :

คาบ has a falling sound. When mai-to is added (ค้าบ) it'll have a high sound. (your example is therefore right)

[ashoka10]

Hi,

These examples are meant to give all possible scenarios of consonant class and syllable type - tones marks or not. Although mái èk is moot with a dead ข, this lesson is meant to illustrate that a tone mark will override any live/dead rules. Hence, my warning that most these words are gibberish. We would not see this in real Thai words, but it gets people used to the habit of noticing a tone mark before analyzing the other factors that could influence the word's tone.

[mikesocoo]

พูดไทยเป็นเหรอ?

[ashoka10]

ผมเชื่อว่าสามารถพูดภาษาไทยพอดี บางทีสำเนียงไม่ใช่ยอด :)

[mikesocoo]

ผมเชื่อว่าผมสามารถพูดภาษาไทยพอ­ดี this is the correct way

[tjtothemax]

To ashoka10 & mikesocoo,

"ผมเชื่อว่า ผมสามารถพูดภาษาไทยได้ดีพอ"

would be more correct if I understand your words correctly.

พอดี = just enough; just right

ดีพอ = good enough

"ผมเชื่อว่า ผมสามารถพูดภาษาไทยได้ดีพอ"

= I believe that I can Thai good enough.

ผมเชื่อว่าผมสามารถพูดภาษาไทยพอ­ดี doesn't sound right to me นะคะ, as a native speaker.

Anyway, I'd like to say that your Thai is very good นะคะ, คุณ ashoka10. Your videos must be very useful for learners of Thai language.

:))

[mikesocoo]

๕๕๕๕๕๕ ผมไม่ค่อยเก่ง

[ashoka10]

Thanks for your corrections, they are appreciated. I'm still in the learning stage myself, and have put these videos up to help people understand Thai in the same manner that I found helpful myself. I should put up some sort of disclaimer that I'm *not* a native or fluent speaker :)

[thaichaiwat]

excellent!! keep doing this ~~~ support!!

[vita10052007]

@ashoka10 You are very patient about learning Thai. May I correct a little about this sentence, "ผมเชื่อว่าผมสามารถพูดไทยได้ดี­พอ บางทีสำเนียงอาจจะไม่ดีเท่าไร" ฟังดูแล้วมันราบรื่นกว่า ภาษาอังกฤษของฉันก็เหมือนๆ กับคุณเรียนภาษาไทย คือยังไม่ราบรื่นเหมือนพวก native speaking Your name is an Indian word อโศก คุณเป็นคนอินเดียเหรอ Anyway, I like your posts.

[chitsfarang]

@vita10052007 

[rouledemin]

@ashoka10 , you mean....คุณเชื่อว่าสามารถพูดภา­ษาไทยได้ดีพอ บางครั้งเสียงวรรณยุกต์ก็ไม่ใช่­สิ่งสำคัญที่สุดใช่ไหมคะ

[crimibone]

thanks for posting!

[NapoLoso]

woow, thanks for the video, great lesson, please post more soon.