There are several words that start with อ fused together with another consonant letter. So how do you pronounce a silent letter with another consonant letter?

Well, it’s the same as any two ‘unpronouncable’ fused letters. You must open your mouth wide to jump from the first sound to the second, i.e. by making an ะ sound.

So องุ่น is pronounced อะ-งุน, just like is สบาย pronounced สะ-บาย or ขนม is pronounced ขะ-นม.

Obviously, there are a few two-letter words that start with อ and have no vowel (in which case it’s the invisible or default ‘o’ vowel), like อก (chest/breast), อม (to suck), อบ (bake), อด (refrain from) and องค์ (organ/bodypart).

And don’t forget the four words where อ changes the ladyboy (ย) back into a boy for tone purposes:

อย่า
อย่าง
อยาก
อยู่

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Note: For tone purposes, it’s the first consonant that determines the sex of the word (or compound syllable in this case). But also note that this only applies if the second consonant is a ladyboy (which it is, most of the time, anyway)…

So องุ่น is a dead boy (sad).

ขนม is a singing girl (question)

But in สบาย, the second consonant in the fused pair is a boy – so we don’t give precedence to ส and so the sex for the whole thing is a boy: บ (i.e. singing boy = no tone).

How Thais (and Asians) pronounce their “R”s and “L”s

In the European languages like English, German, Italian, French and Spanish, the sounds for “L’ and “R” are quite distinct. This is because the position of the tongue is either at the extreme front end of the mouth (pushing quite forcefully against the top teeth) for the “L” or at the general back part of the mouth for the “R”. The French “R” is with the back of the tongue almost being swallowed at the back of the mouth, while the German “R” is vibrated very vigorously in the middle of the mouth. The English “R” is produced with the tongue floating just beneath the palate towards the back of the mouth.

So the “L” is a very different animal from the “R” because the “L” is a strong tongue-pushing-at-the-front sound and the “R” is a vibrating or rolling tongue sound nearer the back.

However Thas (and Asians in general) produce an “L” by positioning the tongue very lightly against the palate well behind the teeth just in front of the middle of the mouth.

While the “R” is in the same position but with the tongue allowed to drop a little so that it “floats” ever so slightly below the palate.

The Asian “R” becomes an “L” simply by touching the palate with the tongue.

That’s why L and R sound so similar to our Western ears – because they are very similar. And when Thais (and Asians) speak a little lazily, or fast – which is usually the case – when pronouncing “R” it’s usually easier to let the tongue touch the palate instead of leaving it “float” just below it – which results in an (Asian) “L”.

At the end of a syllable, Ls and Rs aren’t fully enunciated. Instead you simply close down your palate and push your tongue down. The resulting sound is very like our English “N”.

That’s why อาหาร and บิล are pronounced “ahaan” and “bin”, respectively (not “ahaar” and “bill”).

Tones the ‘Thai’ Way

Tones are actually dead simple in Thai.

At least, it should be. Unfortunately, the traditional Thai system seems arbitrary and overly complicated, and the terminology is unnecessarily confusing (e.g. high class / high tone), which leads one to assume that there must be some matching relationship between class and tone.

Well there isn’t! None at all.

There is also a great deal of irrelevant information that has to be learnt… For example, for two of the tone marks, the class of the letter is irrelevant. And in general, it does not matter how long or short the vowel is, except in one special case. You also don’t need to know about initial and final consonant sounds, nor the actual names of the letters, etc.

The Rapid Method

Less is more.

My ‘Rapid’ system is designed around the absolute minimum amount of information required (on a need to know basis) to be able to read easily and accurately. And as often as possible, I’ve wrapped up the information in stories and pictures in such a way that several linguistic elements can be conceptualized as a single, easy to remember unit.

For example, both boys and girls are sporty, so they can surf down the wave with ease “yeah!” – this is one item of information, but it represents two separate combinations in the traditional Thai tone table; and the whole concept of the surf mark is wrapped into a single picture story so that you conceptualize the surf mark as a single unit that plays out in your mind like a short youtube movie)!

The Conventional Thai Consonant / Class Tone System

If you learn the tone system the conventional ‘Thai way’, you would be required to memorize and understand the consonant class tables below:

For syllables with a tone mark, the following rules apply:

Tone Mark	Class	Tone
known as ไม้เอก	low mid/high	falling low
known as ไม้โท	low mid/high	high falling
known as ไม้ตรี	(any)	high
known as ไม้จัตวา	(any)	rising

For syllables without a tone mark, both the initial consonant class and whether it’s a ‘live’ or ‘dead’ syllable are important.

For ‘live’ syllables without a tone mark, the tone rules are (relatively) simple:

Initial Consonant Class		Tone
low/mid		middle
high		rising

But for ‘dead’ syllables, you need to be aware of whether the vowel is short or long:

Initial Consonant Class	Vowel	Tone
low	short long	high falling
mid/high	(either)	low

It’s a bit complicated, right?

Having to keep all this mind when deciphering each word is quite a complicated mental juggling act. This slows down your reading quite considerably.

Nevertheless, if you put enough effort into it then you can memorize these rules, along with the class each consonant belongs to.

Or you can dispense with these tables entirely by doing it the ‘Rapid’ way, which is simpler and hence quicker and easier.

English is a ‘Tonal Language’ – surprise, surprise!

In Chiang Mai, a woman came to the course who could already read after a fashion and speak fairly fluently – but she came because she had a great deal of confusion about the tones, and so never bothered to “read the tones” – previously she simply tried to recognize the tone from memory of her spoken Thai.

The ‘Rapid method’ clarified the whole issue for her.

The main confusion, I think, is that the ‘Thai method’ uses the same terminology for classes and tones: high tone, high class – mid tone, middle class – low tone, low class (plus rising and falling tones)…

There is absolutely no relationship at all between the class and the tone!

Letters have sex!

That’s why I created a completely different way to classify the consonant classes:

• ladies (for high class, because they are higher class creatures!!!)
• ladyboys (for low class, because they are kind of lower class riff raff – not politically-correct and certainly insulting, but then this mnemonic is only for those who’ve already learned the ‘class system’); and
• boys who are very simple non-descript creatures and who kind of float (fart) around in the middle…

English Tones

I also changed the tonal system – it may be technically accurate to describe them as high/low/falling/rising (in terms of tonality), but no native speaker ever thinks like that. When we ask a question, for instance, we never consciously make a rising inflection. It just happens naturally. Similarly, a Thai person never thinks: “Because the word ‘three’ has a rising tone, I have to deepen my voice and allow it to rise to a reasonably high squeaky pitch…”

So here is how to say the (four) Thai tones correctly using ‘English tones’:

1. The so-called “rising tone” is our question: “Why?”
2. The so-called “high tone” is when we ask a question while feeling unsure or skeptical: “Are you sure?” “Is that the new iPad?”
3. The so-called “falling tone” is our emphasis or excitement: “Yeah!”
4. The so-called “low tone” is our sad or relaxed feeling: “Oh dear….”

And I don’t like to refer to a 5th tone, but it could be considered a flat, boring, monotonous sound as in the shipping forecast!

That’s all there is to it.