You’re used to  just 26 letters in the English language, but in the Thai language you’ll have to learn 44 consonants พยัญชนะ, phayanchaná) and 15 vowel symbols that comprise 32 vowels (สระ, sara).

It is read left to right, with vowels sitting on top and below consonants.  The alphabet also has 5 tones to learn: low, mid, high, falling, rising. The ‘mid’ tone has no tone mark, so essentially there are 4 to identify.

Thai is a tonal language. The tones correlate with the vowels and indicated in the script by a combination of the class of the initial consonant (high, mid or low), vowel length (long or short), closing consonant  (dead or live) and, if indicated, one of four tone marks.

Once you immerse yourself in the Thai Alphabet day-in-day-out you’ll soon become used to its form.

It’s not easy to study Thai, but the sooner you start, the sooner you finish 🙂