Learning Thai the Easy Way > Reading Thai > Consonants 1

There are 44 consonants in the Thai language which are grouped into three different classes. Blue is low, green is middle and brown is high. It is important to remember which class each consonant belongs to as that will determine which tone to use. However, don't make the mistake in thinking that consonants in the low class have only low tones.

Each letter is named after something. For example, Gor Gai. "Gor" is the sound that letter makes and "Gai" is a chicken. You will see that a lot of letters have the same sound so in the end you will only have to learn 21 sounds. However, some letters change their sound when they come at the end of a word. In total there are only eight final sounds. There are also some letters which we do not use much.

Click on the letter to hear the sound that letter makes.