Thread: simple Thai words beginning middle and end

a, arm ace ant / ran rain bat,
b, bat bet bear / rabbit / cab cub
f, fill flame / after nifty / staff
--------------------------------------
as in the examples above, could someone list the Thai alphabet symbols and a few words that have the letter at the start, the middle and the end.
As near as I can figure the first letter has a kaw sound, but it's name is the same as chicken kaw kai, is that correct? or is the sound kawkai?

Go to a shop and buy a children's Thai alphabet book ,20bht

Have those alphabet charts and have watched the Thai alphabet videos.
Does the first letter make a gaw sound, or gaw kai?

Don't forget that Thais will write it as 'k' but it sounds like /g/ as in giggle. gaw gai

Originally Posted by pounderbloodlust

As near as I can figure the first letter has a kaw sound, but it's name is the same as chicken kaw kai, is that correct? or is the sound kawkai?

Originally Posted by BugginOut

Don't forget that Thais will write it as 'k' but it sounds like /g/ as in giggle. gaw gai

Good question from "pounderbloodlust" which brings up an essential concept for beginners to understand.
"BugginOut's" answer is incomplete/wrong, in part because he relies on transliteration.

Many Thai consonants have a different sound when they start a syllable, or when that same letter is at the end of a syllable.
ก, "gaw-gai", at the start of a syllable has a hard "gee" sound.
But at the end of a syllable, ก is a "k" sound pronounced with a glottal stop.
("Glottal stop means there is none of the soft "...uhhh" that we hear in English, for example, in "milk".)

There are plenty of books and web sites that explain the details for each letter, but the important point is that the same Thai letter can have two separate sounds, depending on whether it appears at the start of a syllable or at the end.
A learner must memorize both sounds for each consonant.

Anyone who depends on transliteration will have a very difficult time learning the correct sound: might as well just learn the actual Thai alphabet.

- K4
Chiangmai

When learning the thai alphabet, don't worry about the how it is written....for example, while ก is, indeed, gaw gai, just know that when it begins a word, it has the sound like the word gai..chicken.

Lean the name of what the letter represent..ก is gai, จ is jaan, for example. This, again, only works for beginning consonants. Ending consonants may or may not sound the same, as was already said.

Learning to read thai is a challenge but great fun.

Best example is gik...or special friend/fuck buddy...

กิ๊ก

Spoken as gik. First gaw gai, said as a G, second gaw gai as a K.

May I say that we are talking about syllables, where obtains C(V), CV, CVC, V, VC. Words may have one or more syllables. (Maybe there are words with no syllables, but I haven't heard them yet.) Relevant to consonant sound is position either at start of syllable or end of syllable. Here is a great resource for many facets of thai language learning: <go to thai-language dot com> (I am not allowed to post the actual link.) Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Best example is gik...or special friend/fuck buddy...

กิ๊ก

Spoken as gik. First gaw gai, said as a G, second gaw gai as a K.

very useful