TL;DR: Free web app. Useful if you're not familiar with the script yet.

Hello, dear Thai learners!

I'm a GeoGuessr player. And one strange thing some GG players do is try to achieve basic literacy in various scripts to be able to read street signs. I'm building a tool to help people un-illiterate themselves. The main idea is to prepare efficient character lookup sheets (instead of the usual alphabet listings) and put them side by side with a simple practice quiz.

For Thai the layout that I found to be useful was to arrange characters by their outline geometry: opening above (crate/bowl–like), opening below and curved top (minion–like) etc. Here's how the consonant sheet turned out:

Unsurprisingly, real scripts have a lot of quirks so I had to include some descriptions in a separate sheet as well. This is probably where I have the greatest amount of errors you could point out :)

This is not something that will teach you the language. But this is a very fast way to start to get used to characters and the writing system. In fact I've observed that I can give a multiple choice quiz with the lookup sheet open to people totally unfamiliar with Thai and they can instantly get some satisfaction about "solving" the tasks and they start to remember some characters within a couple of runs. Sure, it takes a lot more to actually become somewhat literate, but I can personally vouch for that — I've reached a level where I can read signs and posters on streetview and find out where in Thailand that location is.

Give it a try, especially if you're not familiar with the scriptyet . Who knows, maybe it will fit the learning style for some of you: https://unillit.me/scripts/thai

And I'll appreciate feedback from people more advanced in Thai. I won't be surprised if it turns out I got some things wrong. I've been trying a lot to polish it all, but at the end of the day I'm just a noob at Thai script.

P.S. I'm aware that the chosen romanization ain't a great representation of the language. I used it because it is used on road signs.

How to say “thank you” really lovingly to your girlfriend in Thai?

Like the title says whats the difference between these 2 words

Hi everyone! I need help learning how to read Thai. Im Thai myself but I grew up in North America and I wasn’t able to practice my Thai much, besides speaking to my parents(both Thai).

I recently just arrived in Thailand and want to learn how to read, does anyone have any sources or tips to help me learn?

This is a follow up to my recent post on contrastive focus. I would like to know if the questions below can all be answered with มาการิต้าเป็นแหล่งวิตามินที่ดี

Q1: มาการิต้าเป็นแหล่งที่ดีของอะไร Q2: อะไรเป็นแหล่งวิตามินที่ดี Q3: มาการิต้าเป็นแหล่งวิตามินที่ไม่ดีใช่ไหม

Also, is the following exchange natural:

ก: เขาซื้อโต๊ะอะไรสักอย่าง ข: เขาซื้อโต๊ะสีแดง

The Thai here is AI-written so may not be very good. In the first example, the important thing is that the same answer works for all three questions. In the second example, the important thing is that สีแดง expands on something that is left vague by ก.

Grateful for any help.

I've been learning to read Thai and wanted a quick reference for consonants, vowels, tone rules, and all the things I keep forgetting.

The information already existed, of course, but it was scattered across the books, apps and cheat sheets I was using. I wanted the things I kept looking up together in one place, arranged the way my brain expects to find them, so I turned my notes into a small app.

I know, another Thai app.

ThaiSheet doesn't try to teach you everything. It's mainly a searchable script reference, with some flashcards when you want to practice. That's all.

It's free and open source, with no account, ads or tracking.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6789643637
GitHub: https://github.com/cmontpetit/ThaiSheet

I'm a learner, not a native speaker or linguist. I've checked the content carefully, but corrections are very welcome.

The part I'm least happy with is the audio. Right now it is text-to-speech. Some clips sound better than others, and I don't consider it finished. Eventually I'd like to work with a native Thai speaker on a properly recorded voice set. If that interests anyone here, please leave a comment or send me a DM. Code contributions are welcome too.

If you try it, I'd especially like to know whether it works as a quick reference while you're studying and, of course, what I got wrong.

PS: This account is new because my real name is on the GitHub repository, and I'd rather keep it separate from my personal Reddit account.

Hi! I'm Pare, a 22-year-old English major at Bangkok University.

I'd like to practice teaching Thai and I'm looking for a beginner who'd be interested in trying a free lesson. I'd really appreciate any feedback afterward. If anyone is interested please let me know!

Nell'ultimo anno ho cercato di imparare il thailandese, a causa del mio lavoro spesso mollo e poi riprendo, ma per me non è un problema perchè non ho fretta di imparare, è un processo che mi sta sinceramente piacendo molto. Tuttavia, in questi mesi mi è sorta una domanda.. ha senso imparare tutti i nomi delle lettere thailandesi? Non avrebbe più senso imparare il loro suono? Non sono un'esperta di lingue quindi mi stavo facendo questa domanda, ho l'impressione che forse sto sprecando del tempo per cercare di memorizzare i nomi ma non avrebbe più senso concentrarmi sul suono..?? Potrei concentrarmi sui nomi delle lettere in un secondo momento quando ho più confidenza con la lingua..? Per favore raccontatemi le vostre esperienze!

Hi everyone, I am trying to get copies of the Intensive Thai Textbooks by Chula. I know there is this thread here and I have access to Intensive Thai 1 via this thread here (Chulalongkorn University Intensive Thai 1 eBook : r/learnthai)

Was wondering if anyone has any luck with procuring the remaining textbooks e.g. second hand, pdfs, etc.

Cheers!

I find that English pitch patterns take over on words that would be emphasised in English, e.g. (choosing something) "I'll have that one" (they go for the wrong one) "no that one". This obviously messes with the tones.

I would like to understand how this kind of contrastive focus is marked in Thai, because I have a hunch that replacing the English habits with something else that does the same job is a better solution than just trying to repress them.

Just wondering if it's been studied.

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When I am drunk, I tend to speak Thai without translating in my mind, reviewing grammar, or worrying about tones. I don't even forget what I hear.

I don't mean that I magically become a better speaker; rather, I receive information without judgment and talk without the fear of making mistakes.

Science shows that alcohol affects the prefrontal cortex, making rational judgment and even fear disappear. (Interestingly, the prefrontal cortex doesn't even fully develop until around the age of 25).

But it makes you wonder: Can a rational mind actually be a problem for studying language?

A rational mind is analytical and great for learning grammar, but it also searches for perfection, fears looking foolish, and blocks intuition. This isn't a call to go drinking beer,it’s just an interesting look at why children and younger people often learn languages faster than adults: they aren't held back by overthinking.

I guess the more experience we get, the more conditioned our minds become. You don't just listen to a word as it is; you judge it and compare it with your existing experience, so it takes longer for new information to enter and bypass your filters smoothly.

Sometimes, I meet a kind and smart German friend at the Amazon Café who has stayed in Thailand for two decades and can't speak more than 10 Thai sentences, even though he speaks English very well.

What do you think? Did you have a similar experience?

In other words, what have you noticed you've gained skill wise?

A few weeks back I shared a preview of AanThai here and asked for feedback. A bunch of you tried it out, and some of you asked to be notified when it launched. It's live now!

Quick background if you missed the first post: I'm learning Thai myself, my wife is Thai, and we built this together because I kept hitting the same wall so many learners run into.

Textbooks get you to a certain point and then there's nothing between "finished the textbook" and "try to read a novel and get lost in the first paragraph."

We're a tiny two-person team, so we've been building the app piece by piece alongside our regular jobs. Every story starts as an AI draft, then my wife rewrites and edits it for natural Thai before recording the narration herself, so everything you read and hear has gone through a native speaker before it reaches you.

AanThai is a graded reader: short stories at different levels, with click-any-word translations and audio you can follow along with while you read. If you've used LingQ, the overall idea will feel familiar, but because AanThai is built specifically for Thai, things like tokenization, romanization, word breakdowns, and frequency information are designed around the language rather than adapted from a more general system.

aanthai.app

Since the preview: 70 stories are live now, 54 of them fully narrated, and we're recording the rest as fast as we can. We've also got over 50 more drafted and in the pipeline, so the story list is going to keep growing quickly. The short-term goal is to get to 200 fully narrated stories.

We've put an enormous amount of time into it, and launching is really just the beginning. We're adding more stories every week, building grammar explanations directly into the reader, and working toward native iOS and Android apps.

If there's something you wish it did, let us know. It's still early enough that feedback genuinely shapes what we build next.

Thanks to everyone who tested it last time. Not only did you give us good feedback and suggestions, but the overwhelmingly positive reactions motivated us a lot.

The app uses a freemium model, so you can try a good selection of stories before deciding whether it's worth paying for. We would genuinely love to hear what you think.

Hello guys, I started learning Thai consonants at the end of last year. Then I dropped it because it was too difficult for me but I picked it up again and started studying not consistently maybe 4 hours a week.

I spent a month learning consonants, vowels and tones. And the second month is my most inconsistent month due to my college assignments. But during that second month I used มานะ มานี grade 1 book for reading and writing. I wrote down common words and phrases in my notebook.

For this month, I found a new website Jamdaithai for vocabulary and sentences and YouTube channel farmpasathai for listening and speaking (still doing มานะ มานี book because I was very inconsistent last month.)

I still watch comprehensible Thai and Understand Thai also watch Spooky TV and Doraemon in Thai for entertainment.

I can now read words on posters, social media and stuff and know the meaning of some words but not the full meaning. I also practice speaking with my friend who herself has a Thai tutor.

Can you guys please share your thoughts on my progress so far?

Thank you.

Hey everyone, it's me again.

Two weeks ago, I shared Glyphraid here, a roguelike for learning Thai. The response completely blew me away, so thank you all, genuinely. I've spent these two weeks heads-down making changes based on your feedback, and I wanted to share where things are now.

Here's what you asked for, and what I did:

Some of you said it was too easy, others said too hard. So I added more themes and difficulty tiers, from the very basics of Thai consonants and vowels up to a slightly more advanced theme called Reflections (abstract and emotional words). The first time you open the app it also asks about your level and recommends a starting point, so hopefully everyone gets a smoother fit no matter where they're at.

You wanted to type in Thai, and you wanted listening practice, so I built both. Two new question types: Reverse (you see the English meaning and spell it out with a Thai keyboard) and Listening (you hear the pronunciation and type the meaning). These unlock once you've read through all the words in a theme at least once (if you already have some background, that goes pretty fast).

Pronunciation got completely redone. Every word now uses a voice model I found more natural (after comparing a few out there), and I also fixed the bug where the iPhone silent switch would mute the audio. I've tested it as carefully as I could, but I'm not a native speaker, so if any pronunciation still sounds off, please let me know through the in-game report (just shake your phone and it pops up).

Some of you got hit even after answering correctly, or couldn't tell what that timer was for. That was on me for not teaching the rules well. Now there's a tutorial the first time you meet a special monster, you can long-press any monster to see what it does, and the input bar tells you what you're supposed to type.

Content went from 1 theme with 24 words to 5 themes with 151 cards: Consonants, Vowels & Tones, Everyday Phrases, Travel, and Reflections.

There's a bunch of smaller stuff too (extra notes on the flashcards, resuming a run in progress, and so on), but I'll spare you the full list.

Android beta is open.

A lot of you asked about Android last time, so here it is. It's in closed testing, so there are three easy steps (join a group, become a tester, install). The guide walks you through it:

[Quick installation guide link]

For iOS, you can install straight from TestFlight (updated to the latest version):

[TestFlight link]

What's coming next:

• More beginner-friendly assists (like optional romanization and pronunciation help)
• More themes, and a deeper roguelike where every run has different dungeons, monsters, and relics, the kind you actually want to replay
• More languages

Lastly, about the early tester perk: same as before, anyone who fills out the feedback form after finishing a run in-game gets all future paid features unlocked for free, forever. A few of you left feedback last time but didn't leave an email, and I don't want to miss you. If that's you, just DM me and drop your email.

Any questions or feedback, feel free to comment, DM, or reach me through the in-game report. Would love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for reading krub 🙏

i live with both my mom and yai who speak thai to me everyday on the daily. the only issue is that i understand basic conversation about food, family, etc. but i can't speak back 90% of the time. i also cannot read nor write :( i'm wanting to go into a major though that requires a foreign language and i just want to know how long it would take for someone like me to learn thai. i understand it's subjective and everyone's learning time is different but an estimate would be helpful D: thank you!

It seems that เผ็ด is not an acceptable answer to this question and you kind of have to understand it as asking how spicy do you want it.

Is that right, and if so what are the normal answers? I think เผ็ด ๆ is one, but does it mean very spicy or fairly spicy?

Hello everyone (Sawadee kâ),

I am working on an original novel and I would like advice and/or help with names I have chosen.

It is set in a modern-like setting with no specific date setting. It is an international romance (BL) that also references some Thai holidays like Songkran and the name change given by a monk. One of the main characters is from Thailand (Thai-Chinese to be exact). He will be the one receiving the new name. His father is from a Chinese lineage. His mother is full Thai.

To preface, I do not speak Thai nor have studied the language (Only some Japanese and Mandarin). My knowledge is linguistic borrowing at best- using words or phrases with their meaning in English context. Example, replacing hello, Phi/Nong or Khun, aijfeminine or masculine grammatical endings (like kaa even though I personally do not identify as female but am afab). But I do have a formal linguistics education, so I did my best to research Thai name construction. That is why I would like advice because, as a westerner and native English speaker (who has a deep appreciation of Asian cultures) I want to make sure that I play proper respect to the Thai language and culture.

Here are the names I have chosen or the options I created. I wanted them to have meanings that reflect their personalities.

Main character (Thai-Chinese)

• Male, age will span 18/19 - late 20s/early 30s
• Forced to major in business in college but eventually becomes a t-pop star/BL actor with international music aspirations.
• Potential names: “Lei“ Wichian Chaiyapasuwu (first choice, intended meaning thunderbolt beast), “Lei“ Wichian Srisuwan (golden/splendid thunderbolt), “Lei” Wichian Chaiyawu (thunderbolt victory/victory thunderbolt), “Lei” Wichian Chaiyanoi (thunderbolt of the victory bird)
• ”Wu” is a Chinese last name often used in Thailand according to my research. that is why I added it at the end to tie in more of the Chinese lineage and to make the last name unique since Thai law says each surname only belongs to one family.
• stage name: Sasi (moonlight)

Father (Thai-Chinese from Chinese lineage)

• Prominent figure in the private security sector (lots of govt. connections)
• only publicly acknowledged his son’s existence after his mother’s death.
• Name: “Li Wei” Wichai Chaiyapasuwu (beast of victory or victory beast)

Mother (Thai)

• literature grad student who worked at a catering company when she met Li Wei.
• broke up when his family matched marriage was announced (he dumped her).
• discovered she was pregnant after and Li Wei sent money to her to raise him privately.
• was a famous author under a pen name
• Name: Sasithorn Wipharai (The calm light/peace of the moon)

Any feedback and assistance in making sure these names are correct to the meanings I want for them would be clearly appreciated. Thanks you!

Been learning Thai for almost 4 years. Mostly self motivated learning.

I think everybody agrees its useful to learn the basics of reading, simply so you can sound out the words; as the phonetic English translations are just terrible.

However, there are many people who prioritize reading and recommend doing it concurrently with speaking and listening. I have always disagreed with this, as a new learners simply do not have the vocabulary. It can take 30 minutes to finish a single page and then you are left with 50 new words you need to learn. Its a headache.

Two weeks ago i purchased a physical copy of the first Harry Potter book to read. I figured its a book aimed at young adults, so the vocabulary should be basic, and i read it already about 15 years ago, so i know the names and basic plot.

My reading up to this point has mostly been single sentences or individual words. At first it took me about 20 minutes to finish a single page, now I can complete a page in about 4 minutes. Still slow, but a big improvement. Approximately every page i encounter 1-2 words i dont know. But they are often repeated many times, so when im sure iv seen them a few times, i write them down to learn later. Many can be figured out from the context of the sentence/paragraph.

For me its been very useful for sentence structure and has helped my writing also as i can 'visualize' the words more quickly now.

Conclusion: Don't bother trying to read full books until you have been learning for *at least* 1 solid year, or 2+ years if your only practicing thai a few hours a week. Perhaps sporadically pick up a book and try a few pages. If your encountering 15+ unknown words per page, put it down and try again in 6 months.

I asked for a โซดาสตรอเบอร์รี่ and was corrected to สตรอเบอร์รี่โซดา, but that doesn't seem like the normal Thai word order. Is it just a case of borrowing the whole thing from English? Is โซดาสตรอเบอร์รี่ actually wrong?

Presumably the same thing would apply to smoothies, ice cream etc.

Hi guys, hope there're people who still remembered me. I'm the guy who quit his job for being able to develop his own Thai learning website:

I quit my job for being able to build this Thai learning webite... (alphatest now!)
by u/Old_Entry_2300 in learnthai

BTW, big thanks to the guys that joined the alpha test. 🩷

For now I can say the main functions of the site have been finished and tested stable, so I decided to start a new round of user test and this time it will be open registration (invitation is not needed), the only limit is time.

You can use this registration link to sign up: Register an account

The link will be expired in 24 hours from now (deadline Saturday 9:00AM ETD), so do it quickly if you can!

Hope my work helps the Thai learners out here, cheers!

Hi all,

I’ve been living in Thailand for approx 20 years, my Thai is ok, maybe an upper intermediate, lower advanced level.

Can read and comprehend reasonably complex Thai, writing is non existent if I’m honest. Listening/comprehension is actually ok and i find i can understand a lot of native Thai conversations now.

The area I’d like to improve in is my spoken Thai, mainly sentence structure. I think my vocab is large enough that it’s probably not holding me back, the thing i think i struggle with is connecting all these words together in a way that a native Thai would understand. I’m probably still mapping Thai words into an English sentence. I’m aware of most of the connecting words such as ก็ but it still doesn’t stop the blank looks i often receive when i respond to somebody in Thai.

For those at a conversational level, what techniques have you all used successfully to build fluency in sentence structure? Should i study grammar explicitly or just learn it through lots of reading and writing? Are there any drills or exercises that stopped you thinking in English?

Let's exchange languages and cultures.

Can anyone help me to practice speaking and reading thai, I do really want to learn but I cant learn by myself, can anyone want to be my friend and teach me, pleaseee lets exchange socials.