How does Thai writing work?

Thai script at a glance

• Type: an abugida. Consonants are the backbone; vowels are signs attached around them.
• Consonants: 44 letters, two of which are obsolete. They fall into three classes (mid, high and low) that help decide the tone.
• Vowels: Thai schools traditionally count 21 vowel symbols that combine into 32 vowels, short and long.
• Tone marks: four marks for five tones.
• Direction: left to right, top to bottom.
• No spaces between words, no capital letters.
• Numerals: its own digits, ๐sǔun to ๙gâao, used alongside the familiar 0 to 9.
• Who uses it: standard Thai, and also Isan, Southern Thai and Northern Thai speakers, and Thai temples for Pali chants.

Every letter has a name made of its sound plus a keyword, the way English once had "A for apple": กgaw is called ก ไก่gaw gài, "g as in chicken". That's how Thais spell words out loud, and why you'll hear children chanting the alphabet as a list of animals and objects.

Where the vowels go

This is the first surprise for English speakers: a Thai vowel can sit on any side of its consonant, but you always say the consonant first.

• After: มาmaa (come). The vowel ◌าaa follows the มmaw, as in English.
• Above: ดีdii (good). The vowel sits on top of the ดdaw.
• Below: ดูduu (look). The vowel hangs underneath.
• Before: แม่mâe (mother). The vowel แ◌ae is written first, but said after the มmaw.
• Around: เสือsǔea (tiger). Three pieces wrap around the สsǎw: one before, one above, one after.

The trick is to find the consonant first, then collect the vowel pieces around it. Vowels also come in short and long pairs, and the length changes the meaning, so the script marks it: เข้าkâo (to enter) is short, ข้าวkâao (rice) is long.

No spaces between words, and where spaces do appear

Thai runs its words together. "Where's the bathroom?" is written as one unbroken string: ห้องน้ำอยู่ที่ไหนhâwng-náam yùu tîi-nǎi, three words with nothing between them. Readers find word boundaries from the shapes of syllables and from knowing the words, which is why reading speeds up so much as your vocabulary grows. Computers need dictionaries to do the same, which is why Thai text can wrap in odd places on websites.

Spaces do appear, but they work like punctuation:

• between phrases and sentences, where English would use a comma or a full stop
• around numbers and foreign words
• between items in a list, and between a first name and a surname

Thai traditionally has no full stops or commas, though question marks, exclamation marks and quotation marks are common today. Two native marks are worth knowing. The repetition mark, ไม้ยมกmái-yá-mók, says the word before it twice: เด็กๆdèk-dèk means "kids", and you'll see it in every chat. The abbreviation mark, ไปยาลน้อยbpai-yaan-náwy, shortens a long name: กรุงเทพฯgrung-têep is short for Bangkok's very long ceremonial name.

How tones are written

Thai has five tones (mid, low, falling, high and rising) but only four tone marks, and the marks don't map one-to-one onto tones. A syllable's tone comes from three things:

1. The consonant class. Each consonant is mid, high or low class: 9 mid, 11 high and 24 low.
2. The tone mark, if there is one: ไม้เอกmái-èek, ไม้โทmái-too, ไม้ตรีmái-dtrii or ไม้จัตวาmái-jàt-dtà-waa.
3. The syllable type. A live syllable ends in a long vowel or in m, n, ng, y or w; a dead syllable ends in a short vowel or in k, p or t.

So the same mark can give different tones. ไม้เอกmái-èek on a mid-class letter gives a low tone, ไก่gài (chicken), but on a low-class letter it gives a falling tone, ไม่mâi (not). ไม้โทmái-too gives a falling tone on mid-class letters, ได้dâi (can), and a high tone on low-class ones, ม้าmáa (horse). Even without a mark, class matters: มาmaa (come) has a mid tone, but put a silent หhǎw in front and หมาmǎa (dog) has a rising one. The rarer marks are easier: ไม้ตรีmái-dtrii always gives a high tone, as in โต๊ะdtó (table), and ไม้จัตวาmái-jàt-dtà-waa a rising one, as in ก๋วยเตี๋ยวgǔay-dtǐaw (noodle soup).

It sounds like a lot, but it's a closed system: once you know the classes and three or four rules, you can say the tone of any word you read. Our Thai tones page and the Read Thai course teach it one rule at a time.

Thai numerals

Thai has its own digits: ๐sǔun 0, ๑nùeng 1, ๒sǎwng 2, ๓sǎam 3, ๔sìi 4, ๕hâa 5, ๖hòk 6, ๗jèt 7, ๘bpàet 8 and ๙gâao 9. Everyday life mostly uses 0 to 9, but you'll still meet Thai digits on banknotes (next to the familiar ones), on official documents, where government guidelines ask for them, and on some price boards, menus and temple signs. Learn to read them; it takes ten minutes.

One number you'll see everywhere online: 555. Five is ห้าhâa, so 555 reads "hâa hâa hâa", and that's Thai for "hahaha".

Looped and loopless fonts: why signs don't look like your textbook

Most Thai letters start with a small loop, which Thais call the letter's หัวhǔa, its head. Textbooks, newspapers and official documents use looped fonts. Since 2010, government agencies have been told to use TH Sarabun, a looped font, for official documents.

But walk down any street and many shop signs, adverts, logos and TV graphics use loopless fonts. They drop the heads and simplify the strokes, and the letters start to look like Latin ones: in many loopless fonts กgaw looks like an n and รraw like an S. Google's Noto fonts describe their loopless Thai as suited to headlines, packaging and advertising, and the looped version as suited to longer texts. Some computers even show Thai in a loopless font by default.

For a learner this is the biggest gap between the classroom and the street. Two tips:

• Learn in a looped font, as Thai children do. The loops show you where to start each letter and help you tell similar letters apart.
• Then train your eye on real signs. Read the same word in both styles: a 7-Eleven sign, a café menu, a BTS station name. After a few weeks your brain matches the two styles automatically.

A short history: from Sukhothai to your phone

Thai writing was adapted from the Old Khmer script, which itself goes back to scripts from southern India. That's why Thai, Lao and Khmer writing look like relatives: they are. The traditional starting point is the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription, a stone pillar from Sukhothai dated 1292, which says that King พ่อขุนรามคำแหงpâw-kǔn raam-kam-hǎeng devised the Thai letters in 1283. Prince Mongkut, the future King Rama IV, found the stone in 1833. In the late 1980s some scholars argued that it was a much later creation, and the debate has never been fully settled, though a 1990 scientific study of its surface found it to be as old as other Sukhothai inscriptions. UNESCO added it to its Memory of the World Register in 2003.

Compared with Khmer, Thai made some practical changes early on: consonant clusters are written in a row on the line instead of stacked under each other, and tone marks show the pitch. The script has kept evolving since, and today it's typed on phones by millions of people every day.

Read your first real sign

Every BTS station, mall and hospital in Thailand has this sign: ทางออกtaang-àwk, "exit". Let's read it.

1. ทtaw is a low-class consonant that sounds like t. ◌าaa after it is a long aa. งngaw at the end is ng. Together: ทางtaang, "way". A low-class letter in a live syllable with no tone mark gives a mid tone.
2. อaw is a silent consonant: it carries the vowel when a syllable begins with a vowel sound. The next อaw is the vowel aw, and กgaw at the end is k. Together: ออกàwk, "out". The silent อaw is mid class and the syllable ends in k (dead), so the tone is low.
3. Put them together: ทางออกtaang-àwk, "way out". You've just used consonant classes, live and dead syllables and a letter that plays two roles. The same silent อaw starts อร่อยà-ràwy (delicious) and อาหารaa-hǎan (food).

Next time you're on the BTS, look for ทางออกtaang-àwk and the exit number after it. Our free Read Thai course works through real signs, menus and LINE messages like this, one rule at a time.

How to type Thai

Phones and computers all include a Thai keyboard: add "Thai" in your language or keyboard settings. The standard layout is called Kedmanee. It spreads 44 consonants, the vowel signs and the tone marks over the normal keys and their shifted versions, so it takes some practice. A few tips:

• On a phone, Thai predictive text and voice typing do much of the work.
• On Windows in Thailand, people often switch between English and Thai with the key to the left of 1.
• Type in the order you see the letters: a vowel written before the consonant, such as แ◌ae, comes first, then the consonant, then any vowel above or below it, and the tone mark last.