Thailand's Missing Vowels

One of the most common complaints by those learning to read the Thai language is that there are so many missing vowels. While most are written down, some are completely omitted, leaving the reader to guess what they are. Fortunately, there are two simple rules that you can use to help you remember what the missing vowel sound is.

There are only two sounds that these absent vowels can make: โอะ (o) or อะ (a). Which one is said depends on whether you are looking at a single consonant or a consonant pair. For example, if you see the word, นก (bird) or ลม (wind), the missing vowel is โอะ. This applies for every single consonant pair that you see.

Try reading these Thai words:

A) ขน (body hair)            B) ตก (to fall)           C) นม (milk)           D) ฝน (rain)

On the other hand, you might see a lone consonant. This occurs in words such as พนัน (to gamble) and สบู่ (soap). In these cases, you notice that the second consonant has a vowel attached to it (here, อะ and อู respectively). The first consonant is left all by itself, signifying that the missing vowel is an อะ. So in effect, these words should be read as พะ - นัน and สะ - บู่. NOTE: A single consonant with no vowel will always be at the beginning of a word. If found at the end, an อะ will always be added.

See how you go when reading these words:

A) ทหาร (soldier)           B) ตลอด (throughout)           C) ชนิด (type/variety)

Some confusion may result when reading words with no written vowels. These are seen quite often, including the common words ถนน (street) and ผสม (to mix). In this case, the first consonant is left alone while the latter two are kept together. This is the only way this can logically work. Thus, ถนน is said as ถะ - นน and ผสม is said as ผะ - สม. As mentioned before, the initial consonant is the only one that can possibly be connected to อะ since there aren't any vowels written here.

Practise reading these Thai words to spot the pattern:

A) นคร (city)         B) พนม (mountain - Khmer loan word)         C) ถลน (to bulge - of the eyes)

EXCEPTIONS

As in any language, Thai has its exceptions when it comes to reading words that seemingly have missing vowels. The most common are listed below:

• The silent ห. Occasionally, the Thai consonant, ห, is used to change the tone of the word and isn't actually pronounced. In these cases, it's found at the beginning of the word and has no vowel attached. After some practice, you'll easily spot whether it's spoken or silent though. Some examples here are หยด [yot] (drop of liquid), หมด [mot] (empty/finished), หมา [maa] (dog) and หลัง [lang] (behind). I'll go over how this changes the tones in a later lesson.
• The silent อ. Similarly to ห, a silent อ can also be found at the start of some words. Luckily, there are only four to remember here: อย่า [yaa] (don't do something), อย่าง [yaang] (type/style), อยาก [yaak] (to want to do something), อยู่ [yuu] (to live/exist).
• ว switching roles. Since this character can be both a consonant and a vowel, reading some words can get confusing unless you have a Thai person to point out the pronunciation. For example, สวน (park/garden) is said as suuan instead of sa - won (i.e. not like สะ - วน). Just to be confusing though, สงวน (to preserve) is said as sa - nguuan (สะ - งวน) and not song - won (สง - วน). This is tricky as there is nothing to indicate whether it's said one way or the other. If you're confused, I'd suggest getting a Thai friend to read the word aloud.
• Missing vowels that don't seem to be missing. In some Thai words, each consonant seems to be connected to a vowel. This can't be further from the truth though. For example, words such as เฉพาะ (specifically) and แพนก (division/department) follow their own rules. For both, you need to detach the initial consonant from the main cluster and add an อะ to the end. Thus, เฉพาะ should be pronounced like ฉะ - เพาะ. Likewise, แผนก should be pronounced like ผะ - แหนก. Again, you'll need to remember these words by heart as there is no clear rule to distinguish them.
• รอ หัน (raw han): Some Thai words are written with two ร's in a row. Some examples include กรรม [gam] (karma), ธรรมดา [tham - ma - daa] (ordinary) and สวรรค์ [sa - wan] (heaven). Here, the double ร follows a simple set of rules. If it is found between two consonants, it makes an อะ sound. If it is found connected to a single consonant, it makes an อัน sound.

Of course, there are more exceptions but these are quite rare. For the vast majority of Thai words, the above rules and explanations should help you read and pronounce everything in the correct manner. Don't be scared by the length of this post though! With a little determination and practice, these rules will be committed to memory anyway so you'll automatically say each word in the right manner. Good luck!

Here are some Thai words (all exceptions, of course) for you to practise your reading:

A) เสมอ (always)         B) ยุติธรรม (fair/just)          C) สมควร (suitable)         D) หยุด (to stop)

If you have any questions about what I've written or anything else to do with the Thai language, please leave a comment in the box below. I'll be happy to answer all questions that get asked (either here or in a separate blog post if it requires a lengthy answer).