Learn Some Thai Before You Travel

By Gaeree Teo

Your holiday trip in Thailand will be more rewarding if you can understand and speak some Thai. For instance, if you need to go to the bathroom, you could simply say horng-naam tee-nai (bathroom where?). Or, if you wish to go to the airport, you only need to say bpai sa-naam-bin (go airport). Armed with some Thai, you wont get lost and you wont get to pay exorbitant prices.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482826784

Gaeree Teo

Gaeree Teo has been a frequent visitor to Thailand, learning how to speak simple Thai while getting around places and talking to people. As he has pointed out, the objective of this book is simply to help visitors to get more out of their trip.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Gaeree Teo.

ISBN:        eBook            978-1-4828-2678-4

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Contents

Learn Some Thai before You Travel

Foreword

Pronunciation

Some frequently used words and phrases

Making Simple Statements

Asking Simple Questions

Useful Words and Phrases

Numbers

Colours

Time and Day

People and Places

Food and Drinks

Animals and other living things

At the Airport

At the Hotel

At the Restaurant

At the Clinic or Hospital

Simple Words and Phrases

English-Thai Dictionary

Learn Some Thai before You Travel

Put together and written by:    Teo Choon Teck Gary

Foreword

When you visit a foreign country, it is certainly an advantage if you are able to understand what the local people say and, even better, if you can speak a little of their language.

This book is about simple Thai words and phrases. As a visitor there for a holiday, you are not expected to speak Thai using full sentences. We all know that is not possible.

Thai is a tonal language. Getting the correct sound will not necessarily make people understand what you say. You have to apply the correct tone(s) because a wrong tone may produce a word with a totally different meaning from what is intended. This is particularly the case when the word has only one syllable. It is therefore very important that you go through the pronunciation and tone guides given in the opening section.

Enjoy your learning and have a pleasant trip!

Pronunciation

When speaking in Thai, it is important to apply the correct tone(s). This is because using an incorrect tone may result in saying something that is entirely different from what you intended to say. For instance, if the syllable ‘paa’ is pronounced with a low tone (mid-level pitch), it means ‘par’, which is a term in golf. If it is pronounced with a falling tone (pitch falls sharply), then it means ‘cloth’.

paa    par (term in golf)

pâa    cloth

Notice that the mid tone is unmarked while the falling tone has the pitch mark 6279.png .

There are three other tones (with pitch marks) used in Thai.

Guide to Thai tones

Thai uses up to five different tones for each syllable.

The ‘mid tone’ is the normal speaking tone where the voice is pitched at a level that is not high or low, but somewhere near the middle of one’s vocal range. Syllables with the mid tone are not marked.

To use the low tone, you have to drop your voice as low as you can. This will keep the pitch below the normal speaking level. You would sound monotonous if you say a string of words using the low tone.

The high tone is spoken with the pitch mainained at a level slightly above the normal level. This tone is not often used in English. The following underlined words would most likely be spoken with a high tone.

It’s too far!