The number of people I meet who tell me they can’t learn to read and write Thai is well….most Thai learners.
They say that “It’s too hard” or that “it’ll take forever”. I would say most of the other learners would say this too me (especially the older guys for some reason). And it’s bullshit. Anyone at any age can learn to read and write Thai fairly quickly.
But I’ll give 5 legitimate reasons why Thai is difficult to learn the script anyway.
Then I’ll tell you why you need to learn how to read and write. And why these obstacles aren’t really as bad as they seem.
No punctuation and No Spaces Between Words
This is likely the biggest hurdle to mentally get over for learners. The fact that Thai has no punctuation marks to indicate where a sentence ends and how there are no spaces to indicates where a word begins and ends either.
This makes reading almost anything feel completely overwhelming and inaccessible early on when you’re learning.
But!
Don’t be so quickly discouraged.
You quickly will learn to recognize the common words clusters within a sentence and you will get used to the common syllables so that you could usually sound out the sentence correctly even if you don’t know the words being used.
Some be patient in your confused and overwhelmed phases. The more often you try and make mistakes, the quicker you will improve.
The Letters Have Classes to Indicate Tones
Tone is an integral part of the Thai language, and the script reflects this through letter classes. Thai letters are grouped into high, middle, and low classes, which determine how the tones are applied in a word. So not only do you need to learn the 44 consonants and 16 vowels, but also to what group do the consonants belong to.
Yay! Not hard at all.
Ok, that was a bit sarcastic.
To be honest, I didn’t even focus on the groups for the consonants at first as I also didn’t focus too hard on tone to be begin with.
This seems to be the best way for native English speakers because you will naturally pick up the tone over time with exposure. Otherwise, native Mandarin speakers are usually able to hear and do the tones much quicker to begin with.
I guess the key is to try and speak with a Thai “accent” and sound. The tones will happen naturally that way, but some people never get this as they try to keep the same American or English accent with Thai. Don’t be worried about sounding “weird”.
Just go for it.
Spellings are Often Irregular
To be fair, most writing systems have exceptions and irregular spellings including English. And of course, Thai often has irregular spellings that are not immediately intuitive.
Certain vowels are simply not written, final consonants can be silent and seem almost random, and foreign words don’t quite phonetically match what you would expect as they usually have some Thai accent and inflection.
Some of these exception spellings literally seem random to me although surely there is some underlying reason.
Additionally, borrowed foreign words like “motorcycle” and “beer” have clusters of silent letters that make them hard to remember the correct spelling although they typically are easy to read and recognize.
Luckily, that’s exactly why I made Language Bee. So that I can drill these tricky spellings and get to the point where I can text confidently.
Certain Sounds Have Multiple Versions of Letters
Thai script includes multiple letters for certain sounds, which adds another layer of complexity. This is why you must learn the letter sound and word associated with the letter (think goh-gai). You can’t simply say “t” because this could be any of roughly 6 characters with a “t” sound (or close to a t sound).
It’s not all bad though, because most of these words for each character are useful and commonly used words. Not all of them, but most (I’m looking at you ภ, which associated word means “Junk Ship”).
Luckily, vowels don’t have this issue and you don’t need to learn associated words to say them.
Just know that whenever you ask someone to spell something like their name, the name of a night market, etc, then you will need to know the consonants and their associated word.
Don’t skip learning this or you will have a blind spot and you will reach a point where finally need to sit down and learn these.
| Letter | Name (Thai) | Transliteration | Sound | Tonal Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ต | ตอ เต่า | to tao | Unaspirated “t” | Middle |
| ถ | ถอ ถุง | tho thung | Aspirated “th” | High |
| ท | ทอ ทหาร | tho thahan | Aspirated “th” | Low |
| ธ | ธอ ธง | tho thong | Aspirated “th” | Low |
| ฏ | ฏอ ปฏัก | to patak | Hard “t” | Middle |
| ฐ | ฐอ ฐาน | tho than | Aspirated “th” | High |
Thai Script is Based on Sanskrit and Old Khmer Language
Thai script has its roots in ancient Sanskrit and Old Khmer, which gives it a complex and historical structure. This makes the script look like those weird unknown Pokemon to the normal native English speaker or really anyone coming from a language with a Latin script.
Additionally, many old spellings have retained their complex old spelling as simplifying them would be considered disrespectful and the original words are considered beautiful.
This especially applies with words related to the monarchy and Buddhism and this can make some words almost torture to learn their spellings.
The Thai script also integrates diacritical marks, which can indicate vowels, tones, or modify consonants. These marks, when combined with the base characters, create a wide range of syllables. For most people, understanding and memorizing these combinations can be daunting, especially when they interact with the tonal system of the language.
Over time, certain letters in Thai have become silent in modern usage but are still written to preserve historical or etymological significance.
For instance, silent letters often reflect a word’s origin, whether it is derived from Sanskrit, Pali, or Khmer. This adds another layer of complexity for learners who must remember to write these silent letters even though they are not pronounced.
So in some way, you could say that learning the Thai script isn’t just memorization but also involves an appreciation of the cultural and historical depth it carries.
That’s the nice way to look at it at least.
Each letter and diacritical mark reflects centuries of linguistic evolution and cultural values, making the script not just a tool for communication but also a window into Thai heritage.
Anyway.
Conclusion
While learning Thai presents unique challenges, you are lying to yourself if you think you can’t learn to read and write confidently.
The reality is that all languages pose unique challeges that learners will need to deal with. Thai has certain aspects that are much easier than other languages.
For example, the actively used vocabulary is much higher in English than Thai. The grammar and sentence structures of Korean are leagues more complex than Thai. Learning French with natives can be hard as natives are notorious for being inpatient with non-native learners, while Thais are extremely kind and outgoing generally.
Learning to read and write could be done in a single week of actively learning or over the course of a month being a bit less intense with your studying. That time will pass anyway, so might as well spend it learning something useful.
Anyway, if you are interested to get started with learning, then you can get started here.