1. Thai uses a simple sentence structure: Subject, Verb, Object. If the subject is a pronoun, you can leave it out if the context is clear:

I live in Rayong –> live in Rayong –> yoo tee Rayong.

2. Adjectives ALWAYS follow the noun, no exceptions.

I have house big –> mee bahn yai.

3. Verbs are not conjugated; past, present, and future all use the same word; you use time words to indicate the tense, and the time word always FOLLOWS the verb.

Tomorrow, are you going to the market? –> you go market tomorrow? –> khun bai talad prungnee mai?

You indicate past tense by putting “already” (lay-ow) at the end of a sentence or by using a time word (such as “yesterday”).

I ate –> I eat already –> gin [with a hard G] lay-ow.

Future is indicated with “will/shall” (ja).

I shall eat in 2 hours –> dee-chun ja gin ny song? cheu-mohng. [The word for 2 in Thai is "song?" with a rising tone, which is why I put a question mark. In English, questions rise at the end of a sentence: "Are you going shopping?" has a rising tone.]

4. Plurals are either generic or specific, as in English. With generic plurals, you double the noun.

teeth –> tooth tooth –> faan faan. (This is also true in Malaysian and Indonesian.)

Specific plurals follow a specific pattern, and surprisingly, we do the same in English in certain circumstances. In English, we can say “I have 3 children”, but in Thai, you have to say

I have child 3 person –> mee dek sahm? kohn

The “child” is the noun, “person” is called a “classifier” or “group word”. An example of this in English is “The farmer has three head of cattle”.

5. Questions are asked by making a statement and then plopping a question word on the end.

When are you going to the market? –> You go market when? –> khun bai talad teenai?

What is that? –> that what? –> nee arai or ahn nee arai. ["ahn" means "thing". "ahn nee arai" means "thing this what?"]

You can also ask a question by pretending you are Canadian, and sticking “eh?” on the end of a statement. In Thai, “eh?” is “mai?” with a rising tone.

This is good, eh? –> ahn nee dee mai?

6. Negatives are formed by putting “mai” (pronounced “my!” with a falling tone) in front of an adjective or verb.

not correct –> mai! chai don’t go –> mai! bai not good or no good –> mai! dee not pretty –> mai! suay

7. Don’t be afraid to learn the Thai alphabet, those funny looking characters are just our letters drawn differently. Thai letters always have a noun attached. For example, “G” is “gah guy”. “Guy” is the Thai word for chicken and it begins with that letter. Thai consonants have an implied vowel, which we don’t do in English. A “K” in English is just a consonant, but in Thai, a “K” has an implied vowel “ah” or “oh”. You can override the implied vowel by writing a specific vowel.

Thai has several “K”s, several “P”s and “F”s, etc. They use the noun attached to distinguish. We say “B is for Baby”, “C is for Car”, which is the same thing, but in English we can say the letter name by itself, “B”, “C”, “D”, etc. In Thai, you always say the noun so you can distinguish one “K” from another, one “P” from another, because all the “K”s are called “kah”, all the “P”s “pah”, etc.

By the way, English has 3 “K”s: “K”, “C”, and “Q” all make “K” sounds: “kitten”, “cat”, “quit” all have a phonetic “K”. We also have 2 “J”s: “John” and “George” both have phonetic “J”. And we also have 2 “S”s: “Cecile” and “Sam”. And two “Z”s: “amuse” and “zoo”. Arrgh! English is stupidly designed.

So English has some of the same peculiarities as Thai, and these result from the same reason: the historical roots of the language.

Many of the Thai letters are exactly the same as their English equivalents; they are just drawn differently. A hard “G” in English is a hard “G” in Thai, but it is drawn in a different fashion.

8. One other oddity: Thai vowels can appear above, below, behind, and in front of a consonant, but they don’t wander around. A vowel is always pronounced AFTER the consonant, no matter where it is drawn. Oh, and ALL Thai words begin with a consonant, no exceptions. There are a few vowels that are written in front of the consonant, but the beginning of the word is the consonant, not the vowel, because the vowel is pronounced AFTER the consonant, even though it is physically placed in FRONT of the consonant.

And now that you are thoroughly confused, let me leave you with this final mind-blowing thought.

You have been brainwashed since the age of 6 or 7 to accept the English alphabets as normal and natural. We actually have four separate and distinct alphabets, each of which is drawn differently, and each letter in each separate alphabet HAS THE SAME NAME AS IN THE OTHER THREE ALPHABETS. This is very, very stupid, but you accept this as natural because you have been brainwashed. A six year old does not question why the language is that way. I am referring to upper and lower case printing and writing. There are 4 different ways of writing an “A”, a “B”, a “C”, etc. Thai only has one, which makes far more sense. There is no upper and lower case in Thai, and there is no “writing” and “printing”; the Thai word for both [kee-an] translates as “drawing”. So you have to learn one Thai alphabet. Thai people have to learn four English alphabets.

I hope you found this useful, and I wish you fast progress with your Thai. You can use Speak Easy Thai to build your vocabulary quickly. I have had many, many people thank me for writing Speak Easy Thai and making it available so cheaply. In the 45 years I have been programming in Canada, France, and Australia, nobody ever thanked me for my work, but in Thailand, it has been a frequent occurrence.
wedding gifts