Learning Thai the Easy Way!

The following are all the Middle Class consonants.

ก จ ฎ ฏ ด ต บ ป อ

Of these the consonant อ should be specially noted. When this occurs as an initial consonant and is immediately followed by the low class letter ย it is always silent but the tone of the syllable still follows the tone rules for a syllable having an initial middle class consonant in the normal manner.

There are only four words plus a number of compounds where the silent “ อ ” occurs, and you will notice that they all take the low tone.

Tone Rules for Middle Class Consonants

(1) Syllables beginning with a middle class consonant and having no tone mark take the Mid Tone unless they end with K, P or T sounds or in a short vowel.

(2) Syllables beginning with a middle class consonant and having no tone mark take the Low Tone if they end in K, P or T sounds.

(3) Syllables beginning with a middle class consonant and ending with a short open vowel take the Low Tone. There are not many words of this type.

(4) Syllables beginning with a middle class consonant and having the tone mark 'mai ayk' ( -่ ) over the initial consonant take the Low Tone.

(5) Syllables beginning with a middle class consonant and having the tone mark 'mai toh' ( -้ ) over the initial consonant take the Falling Tone.

(6) Syllables beginning with a middle class consonant and having the tone mark 'mai dtree' ( -๊ ) over the initial consonant take the High Tone. There are very few of these words.

Syllables beginning with a middle class consonant and having the tone mark 'mai judtawah' ( -๋ ) over the initial consonant take the Rising Tone. There are very few of these words.

EXAMPLES

Read through the following words and note the tone of each.

Mid Tone

Low Tone

Falling Tone