Thread: Stupid silent letters and more BS

How the hell are we supposed to read Thai when some of the letters are silent or missing?

Let's take an example:
รถยนต์ (rot-yon, i.e. car)

รถ - ยนต์, the small thing above the last letter mean don't pronounce, so we are left with:
รถ - ยน

now, how are you supposed to find out how to pronounce those two parts? Do you have to learn it all by heart or is there some secret set of pronouncation rules?

Please share the rules if they exist.

^
not so bad really.

every other country has to deal with the ridiculousness of English spelling.

wait........weight......castle.......thorough..... .. and so on ad infinitum.

If you already know the words it's quite easy. I guess it's quite difficult if you've never heard the words before, but you can get an idea of the sounds and then get a Thai to correct you.

Originally Posted by Silent Ninja

How the hell are we supposed to read Thai when some of the letters are silent or missing?

Any good Thai Teacher would be able to explain this to you but it would take many lessons to explain more than just the basic rules.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

every other country has to deal with the ridiculousness of English spelling.

Not to mention different ways of pronunciation, that seems to change depending on what letter is at the front of the word. On the face of it, the Thai language is difficult to learn but relatively easy compared with the English language, which has borrowed many words from other countries IMHO.

How about the letters you don't pronounce that don't have a garand above them?

เกษตร

Anyone know how to pronounce that one?

Or, how about this one:

เปลา

Plao or pela?

Or this. One word or two. If it's one word does the "double ro reua" rule apply?

นครราชสีมา

IMHO there are many words in Thai (as in English) that you can only "read" if you know how to pronounce the word in the first place. "Sounding out" words based on the spelling is almost impossible.

Originally Posted by buad hai

"Sounding out" words based on the spelling is almost impossible.

not sure about that Buadhai.
Thai is far, far more phonetic than English is.

^I guess I'm just dumb, then.

^
absolutely not.

we aren't getting any younger and it's bloody difficult to learn but i find myself able to sound out far more Thai words based on phonetics than a newcomer to English would ever be able to do once you ave gone beyond simple one syllable words like ............cat, mat and shat.

^Were you able to sound out the three words in my post?

The first one is: Kaset (a brand name).

The second one is: plao (as in nam plao), but can be pronounced differently.

The third one is two words. But, you'd have to know that to pronounce it properly: Nakorn Ratchasima.

only the second one is truly phonetic.
the sara 'ao' plus a pl.

Of course there are lots of words that can't be sounded out, just saying it is nowhere near the level of difficulty as English.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

^
not so bad really.

every other country has to deal with the ridiculousness of English spelling.

wait........weight......castle.......thorough..... .. and so on ad infinitum.

huh??

^
You of all people should understand the difficulties involved with english spelling Willy.
I kind of agree with what you do really.

Just spell it as you see it in your little mind.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

^
You of all people should understand the difficulties involved with english spelling Willy.

That above post was actually a subtle, and humouress way of agreeing with you.

I kind of agree with what you do really.

Just spell it as you see it in your little mind.

no u juz bein plain nasty!

I still think that Thai is not very phonetic and that very few Thais are able to sound out words that they don't know; especially names. I asked Ms. B to explain the pronunciation of เกษตร. She couldn't. Then I asked her to "sound it out". It came out something like "kettoro" (it's actually "kaset"). But, she added that since she didn't know if it was one word or two, sounding it out was problematic.

I learned how to read Thai not by phonics, but by word recognition (Rosetta Stone). I can sound out words that I know. But, if I don't know a word trying to sound it out almost always ends up badly.

It's quite amusing sometimes to try sounding out words.

In one of my books I was trying to get my head around something and came up with "Beengkopos"

turns out it was the Thai spelling for Bangkok post.

^ sounds spot on, (provided you remove the garbled welsh accent! )

^^one of the easiest ways to learn reading Thai is to read the English words that are translated into Thai, it isn't long before you realise why Thais speak English the way that they do.

Originally Posted by buad hai

I learned how to read Thai not by phonics, but by word recognition

That's how English is learnt by native speakers, and that's how I try to learn Thai. I just wish they used spaces.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

Thai is far, far more phonetic than English is.

Only about 95% more.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

I just wish they used spaces.

I'm always stymied by their odd fonts.

Why do they love that font that makes their letter look like:
n taw tahan
k haw heep
u naw nuu
s raw reua

Originally Posted by Texpat

Why do they love that font that makes their letter look like:

Because it's cool for their text to look like phasah farang.

^
I hate the 'f' word.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

I hate the 'f' word.

Me too, but that's what most of the numpties think we speak.

Some of you may use this already but I find it quite good for pronunciations.

Thai to English dictionary & transliteration