Thai/Adding vocabulary with word association

If you can, please help by adding Thai script to the table below.

Learn by association

Here are some Thai words that sound something like English words, and so can be easy to remember. It helps if you create a vivid image in your mind connecting the meaning of the word with the sound. Concentrate on it for a few seconds, and test yourself or at least revise it later on, to fix it in your memory. It may help if you use stories.

Some of the associations presented are slightly 'off the wall'. Some have a lavatorial humor to them. This is not intended to offend. For me such things make the learning 'more fun' ( mor fun = DENTIST )("fun" is pronounced more like "fan").

This will give you a head start, but you still need to learn pronunciation and tones.

When considering a link between meaning and trigger images within your mind, do note that recalling human faces, animals of all kinds and sometimes plants is far easier than remembering inanimate objects such as table, stone, bed etc. So when you create an association, do include something living with notable physical features (doesn't have to be grounded in reality!) in the scene. Doing this will enable you to achieve at least 90% instant two way (from definition or from pronunciation) recall from a list of 1,000 common words, and more.

The Thai language contains a few alphabet letters which sound basically the same. Consequently, words with different spelling but with the same vowel length and tone may be pronounced the same way while having a different initial consonant. Fortunately, in Thai every letter has a word associated with it and these are depicted on all Thai alphabet tables. To differentiate the words in your mind, simply add the meaning of the initial consonant to something in your association. For example:

- ท or toh is called ท ทหาร or toh tahaan and ทหาร means soldier or army. To know the word you are creating a link for begins with ท, simply add something of a military nature to your scene. This could be anything associated with soldiers such as uniform, rifle, vehicle, warrior, medal etc. This categorization process will serve you well in terms of ease of recall down the road, regardless of word similarity, once you have over 500 words memorized.

The reason for this is because categorization = organization. Your mind can be the most organized filing cabinet or the most untidy one. Imagine you are a clerk at an office and your job is to fetch files from a huge cabinet and put others back for your boss 8 hours a day. If the files are not stored systematically, you will eventually find the file you require but it may take you all day to find that one file your angry boss told you to find in the morning.

It is therefore recommended that for every word you create an association for, you should embed the meaning of the initial consonant into the scene in a subtle fashion. When it is time to recall a meaning or a pronunciation, your mind will be able to immediately eliminate all the irrelevant files and concentrate on searching more efficiently through relevant information only.

When a word with the same initial and final consonant sounds similar to another but has a different meaning because there is a long vowel instead of a short vowel, you may distinguish the two in your mind by thinking of a long path, long rope or long anything to depict a longer sound and vice versa for short vowels.

Notes on spelling

These are given in romanised spelling, but it is recommended that you learn to read and write Thai using Thai characters.

There is no official standard way to write Thai in Roman characters, except perhaps the Royal Thai General System ( As used by Thai-Language.com). Pronouncing Thai correctly can be a challenge. As in most languages pronunciations vary regionally. One of the most common confusions arises, because many Thais find it difficult to pronounce the 'R' sound and pronounce 'L' instead. This page tries to present actual English words which sound as close as possible to how the Thai word sounds.

Most dictionaries and language courses provide some very contrived 'Romanised' spellings. These are groups of Roman characters, which are supposed to represent a Thai sound. Since these groups of Roman characters often don't appear as real English words anyway, the student is still left trying to puzzle out how they should sound ( hence the great value of taped conversations which accompany some language courses ).

Suggested associations

These are only suggestions - take what works for you, and make new ones, as long as it works.

English Word	Thai Word	In Thai Sounds Like	Typical Dictionary
Crazy	บ้า	Bar / Bah	Ba
Noodles (*1)	บะหมี่	Barmy	Ba Mee
Pig / Pork	หมู	Moo	Moo
Chicken	ไก่	Guy	Gai
Crab	ปู	Poo	Pu / Bpoo
Vegetable	ผัก	Pack	Pak
Mushroom	เห็ด	Head	Het
Onion	หัวหอม	Who uh hom	Hua hom
Chili	พริก	Prick	Phrik
Hot (spicy)	เผ็ด	Pet	Phet
Cool	เย็น	Yen	Yen
Cold	หนาว	Now	Nao
Excrement	ขี้	Key
Hair	ผม	Pom	Phom
Ear	หู	Who	Hu
Eye	ตา	Ta	Taa
Eyebrow	คิ้ว	Queue	Kiu
Mouth	ปาก	Bark	Pak
Tooth	ฟัน	Fan	Fun
Doctor	หมอ	More	Mor
Dentist	หมอฟัน	More fan	Mor fun
Finger	นิ้ว	New	Niu
Arm	แขน	Can	Khaen
Back	หลัง	Lang	Lang
Leg	ขา	Car	Kha
Armpit	รักแร้	Rack Ray	rakrae
Drive	ขับ	Cup	Khap
Car	รถ	Wrote	Rot
Traffic Jam	รถติด	Wrote Tit	Rot Dtit
Go	ไป	Bye	Bai / Pai
Go away		Bye, Bye (*3)
Come	มา	Ma	Ma
Here	นี่	Knee	Ni
Come here	มานี่	Ma knee	Ma ni
Dog	หมา	Ma	Ma
Horse	ม้า	Ma	Ma
Ghost	ผี	Pee	Pi
Day	วัน	Wan	Wun / Wan
Two	สอง	Song	Song / Sorng
Four	สี่	See	Si
Five	ห้า	Ha	Ha
Seven	เจ็ด	Jet	Chet
Eight	แปด	Beht	Bhet / Paet
Ten	สิบ	Sib	Sip
Many / Much	มาก	Mack (*3)	Muk / Maak
Colour	สี	See	Si
White	สีขาว	See Cow	Si Khao
Black	สีดำ	See Dam	Si Dam / si Dum
Pink	สีชมพู	See Chom poo	Si Chomphu
Blue (light blue)	สีฟ้า	See Fah	Si Fa
Rice	ข้าว	Cow	Khao
Fried Rice	ข้าวผัด	Cow Pat	Khao Phat
Sweet Corn	ข้าวโพด	Cow Pot	Khao Phoht
Bean	ถั่ว	Too uh	Thua
He / She / They	เขา	Cow	Khao
Cigarette	บุหรี่	Boo ree	Buri
Ash Tray	ที่เขี่ยบุหรี่	Tikka Booree	Thi Khia Buri
Cigarette Lighter	ไฟแช็ก	Fire Check	Fai Chaek
Don't / Not	ไม่	My	Mai
Know	รู้	Roo	Ru
Bad Smell / Stink	เหม็น	Men	Men / Menh
Lemon / Lime	มะนาว	Mah Now	Manao
Scorpion	แมงป่อง	Man Pong	Mang Pong
Frog	กบ	Cop	Kop / Kopf
Bird	นก	Knock	Nok
Leaf	ใบ	Buy	Bai
Lane	ซอย	Soy	Soi
House	บ้าน	Barn	Baan
Village	หมู่บ้าน	Moo Barn	Moo Baan
Hotel	โรงแรม	Wrong Ray em (*4)	Rong Raem
Shop	ร้าน	Raan (long "a" sound)	Raan
Mountain	ภูเขา	Poo Cow	Poo Kao
Who	ใคร	Cry	Krai
Gold	ทอง	Tong	Torng
Straight Ahead	ตรงไป	Trong Pie	Torng Bpai
Meet	พบกัน	Pop Gan	Pop Gun
See	เห็น	Hen	Hen
Watch (as in TV)	ดู	Do	Doo
Beach	ชายหาด	Chai Haat	Shai Hart
Sand	ทราย	Sigh	Sai
Powder / Flour	แป้ง	Bang	Bpairng / Paeng

(*1) Ba Mee are egg noodles, as opposed to plain noodles, which are called G'why Tee ow(ow as in ouch) among other things.

(*3) Some Thai words are repeated for emphasis. So for example if 'go' is 'bye', then 'go away' is 'bye, bye'. Usually this is not an unfriendly 'go away', but if the person you are with is trying to get you to get a move on, they may say 'bye, bye'. note I have put a comma between the first bye and second bye, this is because there is a slight pause between them. Also the word for 'many' is 'maack', if there are really a lot, then a Thai may say 'mack mack'.

(*4) I will admit that the 'Room' bit of 'Wrong Room' is stretching it a bit, but it is easy to remember as a start point for learning, and who knows how to pronounce 'Raem' anyway, if they've never heard it spoken.

Use stories

Making up little stories can help you remember the words. At first this takes a little thought, but later becomes second nature, especially where the association has a touch of humor to it.

Here are some examples of the kind of story you can make up to help you remember.

'His old CAR was beginning to ROT'.

'She decided to exercise her LEGS, instead of taking the CAR'.

'There was no need to order them to "COME HERE", they came as soon as they saw the MONEY'.

'The Chinese love to BET, their lucky number is EIGHT'.

'You can SEE FAR when the sky is BLUE'.

The pronunciations are approximate and it takes practice to get them right. Although dictionaries show both 'DOG' and HORSE' as sounding like 'MA', they are in fact pronounced differently (different tones), hence the Thais know which one is being referred to.

Remembering tones

Tones are often difficult to learn for Westerners. There are several ways to help remember the tones:

If it's too difficult, try your best but don't worry too much. Context will help people understand which meaning you intend.
With constant practice and exposure to the language you may start to imitate the tones subconsciously.
If you have trouble remembering which tone has which meaning, you might like to try using visualisation - imagine the thing high in the air, or falling or rising, or eye level (medium) depending on the tone.

Suggested images:

Thai word & tone	Image (meaning in bold)
glai (falling tone)	Visualise a model plane. The plane glai (glides) down to crash near my feet.
glai (medium tone)	The plane glai (glides) far away from me at eye level.