Learn Thai

Start at the alphabet

The Thai on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 210 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded Thai voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random. This is the shorter, starter size of on-ramp; most languages here have about 480 cards.

• 44letters
• 10digits
• 16pronunciation rules
• 100core words
• 20everyday phrases
• 20sentences

Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the on-ramp teaches them:

• ไ- — this vowel is WRITTEN BEFORE the consonant but SAID after itไป — to go
• เ- — a long “ay” as in “play” — also written before its consonantเพลง — song
• แ- — a wide flat “a” as in “cat” — also written before its consonantแม่ — mother

Your first Thai phrases

The first phrase and sentence cards of the on-ramp, each spoken in a recorded voice:

• สวัสดีครับ sà-wàt-dii khráp — Hello. (man speaking)
• สวัสดีค่ะ sà-wàt-dii khâ — Hello. (woman speaking)
• สบายดีไหม sà-baai-dii mǎi — How are you?
• ผมเป็นนักเรียน phǒm pen nák-rian — I am a student. (man speaking)
• ฉันเป็นครู chǎn pen khruu — I am a teacher. (woman speaking)

What Thai actually costs a beginner

The script's own trick is the vowels written before the consonant they are said after — ไ, เ and แ all sit to the left of a letter that comes first in the mouth. On top of that, Thai puts no spaces between words, so reading is partly the skill of finding where one word ends and the next begins. And the tone of a syllable is not a symbol you look up: it falls out of the consonant's class, the length of the vowel and any tone mark, together. All of that is on the audio, because a tone is copied and not read.