How to Read Thai Tones, the Rapid Way (Lesson 72½ / Summary)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 เม.ย. 2013
- [This video is a somewhat hurried overview, useful if you've already completed the entire course].
You might want to slow it down or pause it regularly to digest the concepts if it's your first viewing. Otherwise it's a very useful quick summary. If you''d like a one-page handout spelling out the process then please contact me via the website www.learnthaionline.com.
This lesson explains how to figure out the tone of a word using the Rapid Method. It's a lot simpler than you think.
As usual, I've eradicated anything and everything that is unnecessary, so there's only a little that you need to know. With practice the Rapid Tones become second nature, it's just an extra one second of thought to determine the tone for each word that you read. Read the Cheat Sheet at the end.
If you haven't done so yet then please watch Learn the Top 25 Letters in 25 Minutes ( • Video ) BEFORE watching this video.
I don't know whether you should watch this after lesson 2 or after lesson 3.
In lesson 3 you will practice reading short words and that will help to understand this "tone" lesson better - but then you won't know why a word has a particular tone. However, if you watch this lesson first, you may struggle a bit to remember how to read the basic words used as examples. Chicken-and-egg. .
Try both ways, and maybe come back and watch this again after watching lesson 3. Please let me know which way you think is better.
The minimalist Rapid Method is designed for busy people who don't have the time or inclination to "study". The courses are based on reading authentic (colloquial) Thai texts, and using this as a basis for learning to speak and understand everyday Thai with minimal effort.
In this lesson, you will begin to learn how the consonants and vowels you learnt previously are combined together to form words. We also introduce the concept of "tones". It's a kind of bridging lesson to set the stage for subsequent lessons, where you will practice reading (recognizing) simple Thai words.
The lessons get progressively more complicated, building up on what you've learnt in previous lessons. With a combination of visual mnemonics, stories and judicious repetition, you will remember everything you need to know without any effort.
By the end of the course, you will be able to read virtually any Thai word and pronounce them accurately and clearly with the correct tones.
Don't worry if you don't understand or remember everything covered in this video. We will go through each of the points many times in the workshop video series - and you'll get a chance to practice for yourself. This course is designed to be repeated; and a lot of the details and subtleties will make sense the second time round... :)
[Note. At 5:50, the word หา (with a singing, 'question' tone) means "to look for" or "to visit". I said "five" by mistake. The word for "five" is ห้า (with the surf tone mark, which makes the girl excited). TH-cam doesn't allow editing of videos, so the mistake will just have to stay in, I'm afraid...]
UPCOMING Intensive Six-Day RAPID READ THAI Bootcamps 2019
- JULY 15-20
- OCTOBER 7-12
(Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm)
in Chiang Mai
cost: ฿42,000
If you can't attend a workshop then you can also study by yourself online at your own convenience (cost: ฿14,000)
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TONES CHEAT SHEET
If there's a tone mark then follow these rules:
1. Dagger: ladyboys = emphatic, boys/girls = sad
2. Surfer: boys/girls = emphatic, ladyboys = uncertain
3. Bowtie = always uncertain
4. Flag = always question
If there is no tone mark, check the ending sound first.
1. If it's singing then girls = question, otherwise no tone
2. If it's dead then girls/boys = sad, but
3. fat ladyboys = emphatic, thin ladyboys = uncertain.
That's it!
![How to Read Thai the Rapid Way - The Top 25 Letters in 25 Minutes (Video Workshop Lesson 1) [HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PudbUSW1HI8/mqdefault.jpg)
This is some soul reaver level of narrator, thank you 🙏👍👍👏👏🙌
Once again. Amazing video. I have watched several different Thai reading videos produced by different people and this is by far the most fun, easiest to remember, and fastest. Bravo
Quite liking this tone system you've made. Helps a lot more than high, low, rising etc.
ห้า or the number 5 is falling tone. หา with a rising tone means to find; look for; seek; to search.
Khop khun!
Really good, just one thing; from 18:05, the tone of the last three words, ค้น ล้อ น้อง should be a bit more high (as in, 'What?') and less rising than how the teacher says it.
Thank you for your feedback. I tend to be lazy about my "uncertain" tones. The best way to say it correctly is to physically make a quizzical face: "what!?" You should NOT think in terms of "high" or "rising" because then it sounds very contrived (and incomprehensible to a Thai person). Technically, "uncertain" tones do tend to have a kind of rising squeak. (This doesn't apply to short words, coz there's no time!) Tones are quite fluid in Thai and are actually quite different depending on the region or the individual. So don't worry about it too much. The primary aim is to know how to derive the correct tone from the spelling of the word.
This is my very first video I ve watched on how to learn thai and I started watching at 8 mins in. Lol this method is 55555
I'm glad you like it, but you need to watch the other videos first. Go to the website www.learnthaionline.com and follow the correct sequence. (This video is actually a very quick summary of the how the tones work in Thai, for people who have already completed the entire course.)
Appreciate the lesson, very informative. However, I still think it would be really nice with at least a 1:1 mapping of your own tone interpretations and the standard high/low/rising/falling tones. It would make it easier for me to use both yours and other training methods. Can you post which of your tones correspond to the typical high, low, rising and falling? Thanks
Sure - but BEWARE if you try to speak using the "linguistic" description of tones you will sound like an affected opera singer (even foreigners who are fluent have this bizarre way of speaking because of it)...
question = "rising"
uncertain = "high"
emphatic = "falling"
sad = "low"
no tone = "mid tone"
As soon as you consciously try to sing a tone, you will sound contrived. Use the tones (or intonations) we already have in English and it will feel and sound natural.
Great videos. Thank you so much for making them available. I just wanted to point out a mistake on the video when you say หๅ is the number five when it actually means find. The number five has the exciting tone and is spelled as ห้ๅ
I'm glad you like them. Yes you are absolutely right.
It's an old video and youtube doesn't allow editing of videos, so I made a note in the description about the mistake instead.
@@LearnThaiRapidMethod Sorry, I had not read the full video description. Again, great videos. I'm recommending them to everyone I know who is interested in learning Thai. Cheers!
The word for 5 is ห้า and has what you call the excited tone. The word you have called 5 is actually a word for visit.
Yes, you're absolutely right! Thanks for pointing it out. I checked this video I don't know how many times and I never noticed. TH-cam doesn't allow me to edit videos, so I'll have to produce a new one after I've changed it. หา (with a question tone) means "to look for" and is often used to mean "to go see" or "to go visit" someone, e.g. ไปหาหมอ "to go see the doctor".
This the wierdest way I've heard of anyone teaching the Thai language and tones. He is obsessed with Lady Boys. WTF
the concepts are so bizarre that they stay in the mind
At 19:50, the 'ladyboy' (low class) letters cannot be used with that tone sign. 'Lock' can be spelled either, ล้อค or ล็อค, but never ล๊อค
Yes you are right. Thanks for pointing that out. I was looking for an example of some words with the bow tie tone mark and my dictionary (thai2english) spelled it this way (ล๊อค). But I see that the usual spelling is ล็อค (with the "squeeze" mark), so it's not really a good example to use in the video. Either way, it comes out as an "uncertain" tone. It's an English word and you'll usually find that words from English (or sometimes Chinese) tend to have arbitrary spellings (and tones).
BTW, any letter can have this (bow tie) tone mark, even ladyboys. This mark is quite rare and tends to be used in foreign loan words, and often as a fun spelling - which may or may not be correct, but it's creeping into the language regardless.
For example, ดนตรีพ๊อพ is the spelling for "pop music". And a word like "note", which is usually spelled โน้ต is often spelled โน๊ต because it's kind of cool. The tone is the same either way.
Nevertheless, there is absolutely no reason to use the "bow tie" mark on a ladyboy to get the "uncertain" tone - the "surfer" mark does that already to ladyboys!
It's creative and funny, but as a native Thai, I want to notify that you pronounce ค้น ล้อ น้อง really, really wrong... I think you're having some troubles with the consonants in the low group. Apart from that, you're doing all right :)
+Helegriel Lyradin Thanks. Can you explain what is really, really wrong about the pronunciation? I checked with other native speakers and dictionary recordings and my pronunciation seems to be correct (but with a British accent of course 555). I'm also exaggerating the pronunciation a little using the intonation that we make in English when we are "skeptical" or "uncertain" about something...
I would say, to my ears, you pronounced the 4th tone of ค้น ล้อ น้อง as ขน หลอ หนอง which are the 5th tone. The 4th tone is supposed to be, well, high and without the waves in the sound? lol I don't know how to explain it right. Its like when you are monotously saying the 1st sound, only higher... It's not really like when you sound uncertain in English? You don't need to go low and then high; just go high.
Hm I don't know about the native speakers you know if they are from what particular region, but there's no way ค้น ล้อ น้อง are pronounced like that in standard Thai.
+Helegriel Lyradin Thanks for your feedback. I have no idea what a 4th or 5th tone, or a 1st sound, is. I have asked many Thai people about tones in the past but most Thai people think that Thai is a monotonous language with no tones! English people also don't realize that we use tones in English, but the sound we make when we are skeptical about something is the same as the tone for words like ล้อ. Thai people usually can't speak English properly because they don't understand English tones 555.
I'll ask some Thai people to check this video again regarding the wrong pronunciations and I'll re-record the 'uncertain ladyboy surfer' sounds if necessary. :)
I agree. It would be impossible to use the word 'tone' to describe the 5 levels of sounds in Thai, since there is no concept of them in western languages. We have the tones when we show emotions; these 5 levels of sounds are just something else entirely.
I don't claim to be so good at English, but the skeptical sound you made is not in the same tone of ล้อ. If anything, ล้อ's tone is the same as your ก๊อก ล็อค (It's spelled like this. ล can't be used with the 4th intonation mark since the consonant is in the low group) which are the 4th tone as well, and you pronounced those two right! :D
Thanks for your responses. You're doing fine and we can understand what you're saying all right. (I'm teaching a westerner to speak Thai too and I know we're wired differently lol!) I'm just a bit worried if your viewers will get them all wrong too... That would be quite sad. I hope your Thai friends can help you :)
I didn't get the girl, the boy, and the meditating lady boy! It made me more confused 😓
Okay, I think you need to slow down a little. This is an advanced lesson and you won't really understand it fully until after you've finished the main course. This video is just a preview of the Rapid way to understand tones.
Briefly, you need to know the sexes of all the (consonant) letters. You will know this by the time you finish the main part of the course.
Then you need to follow a logical sequence in your mind:
1. Is there tone mark? If not then check the final sound of the word. If it sings and the consonant is a girl then you have a "question" tone; otherwise it has no tone.
If the ending is cut off (dies) in some way then if the consonant is a boy or girl then it's a "sad" tone.
Otherwise for "thin" dead ladyboys, it's an "uncertain/surprised" tone; but for "fat" dead ladyboys, it's a "forceful, energetic, exciting" tone.
("thin" means the vowel is short, "fat" means the vowel is long - this is the only time it matters).
2. If there is a tone mark then:
"dagger" - same as dead words above, except both "fat"& "thin" ladyboys are "energetic".
"surfer" - boys & girls are "energetic", but ladyboys are "surprised"
"bowtie" - always "surprised"
"flag" - always "question"
Gary Orman ok, so the "sexes" are the classes - - high, mid, and low, am i correct? These fat and thin are the long short vowels.... Took me a while to digest what it is all about....
Very strange!
The correct spelling is ล็อค, with no tone mark.
Yes, you are right. It's an English word, so you can spell it ล็อค or ล๊อค or ล็อก (which could be a lock or a log). And no doubt you'll find one or two other spelling variations... :)
RapidLL As far I am concerned the tone mark ๊ can only occur on the letters ก จ ด ต ฎ ฏ บ ป อ, same with ๋.
hanzimaster Right again! Technically, the only letters that don't produce an "uncertain" tone are what I call the boys and girls (also known as mid/high class letters). So the only way to get it (for a boy or girl) is to use the "bowtie" tone mark. The first two tone marks ("dagger" and "surfer") are the ordinary tone marks used for nearly everything. You can get an "uncertain" tone for ladyboys by using the "surfer" tone mark - so you obviously don't need the "bowtie" for ladyboy words. The "dagger" makes boys & girls sad, the "surfer" makes them exciting. So you have to use the less common "bowtie" to make the tone uncertain. Similarly with the "flag" tone mark. Strangely enough, the question tone only occurs for singing girls. So you'd expect there to be not so many words with this tone.
You're only going to find the "bowtie" and "flag" tone marks on foreign words anyway, usually Chinese words as well as some English words.
Nevertheless, many young people create their own spellings and often use these tone marks for the fun of it, especially when using online chat or sending SMS. These spellings are becoming part of the mainstream language, such as มั้ย for ไหม.
In the Rapid Method, we don't really care about these things as we're not expected to spell/write Thai - just read and understand and speak the language :)
If the Thais want to spell their words in special ways, then we should still be able to recognize the words and pronounce them correctly - right?
There is really no point using a "bowtie" mark on a "girl" letter, as the same effect can be achieved by a "surfer" mark on a "ladyboy" letter.
ข๊=ค้
ฉ๊=ช้
ฐ๊=ฑ้
ถ๊=ท้
ผ๊=พ้
ฝ๊=ฟ้
ศ๊=ษ๊=ส๊=ซ้
hanzimaster Yes are right as always, and in a Thai school you will be taught the same principles. But you are missing the point. The Rapid Method is simply to learn how to read Thai, not to write/spell Thai words correctly, or even understand why words are spelled the way they are. It doesn't deal with the grammar or "linguistics" of the Thai language because it's irrelevant for our purposes.
In the same way as we don't bother to understand why "colour" is spelled "color" in USA, or why "read" isn't spelled "reed" (for the present tense) or "red" (for the past tense), or why "pane" isn't spelled/spelt as "payn". Or why we should care if I sent you a text saying "good nite"...!
If Thais choose to spell (or mis-spell) a Thai word for effect then we still need to be able to read it. The Rapid Method is based on "need to know" - it eliminates or ignores everything that isn't immediately relevant.
think your ideas wont work! how do you achieve second nature as it comes when you have so many variables to remember! better that you stick to the concept of initial low mid and high consonants concept to determine the 5 basic tones of a word!
In the traditional way of learning Thai, tones can be VERY complicated if you have low, mid, high consonants and high, mid, low, rising, falling tones with something like 25 different tone rules to memorize. Most people who try to learn this either give up or manage to read very slowly. They also speak in a strange sing-song manner that many Thais don't understand.
But if you think in terms of the four basic scenarios and the three types of tones (question, exciting or flat) then it's MUCH easier and quicker and becomes second nature after about a month of practicing to read Thai.
Many people who can already read come to my workshops because they can't understand or remember the tones. After just one day they are usually able to read faster and easier using the Rapid concept of tones.
your system is so much better! thanks :)
Sorry man, the tone mark "mái dtee" that only use in a middle class of thai consonants.
You may be right, linguistically. But the Rapid Method makes an unnecessarily complicated mass of rules simpler by throwing out what isn't important and boiling the rest down to plain, single ideas. That's why I don't bother with all the "mais" and the ek, to, tree and (four) marks; and I also throw away high/mid/low classes and high/mid/low/falling/rising tones. What a mess!
The "bowtie" mark (ไม้ตรี) can be used for any sex (/class); and are used in any sex (/class) for some slang words, e.g. ค๊าบ or ค๊อฟฟี่ช็อป or ล๊อค (check out any LINE chat group and you'll see plenty more examples...) LOL
Don't study academic language text books or listen to the linguistic experts coz they'll only confuse you.
Yes - you are right. However, it is not at all useful to think in terms of falling, rising, high/low tones. If you do then it kind of causes a mental interference and the sound you make is very unnatural, more like a sick cow!
But if you think of the tones as ENGLISH intonations, the so-called "rising tone" is very like asking a question like "Why?" or "How?"
Similarly for the so-called "falling tone", which is our emphatic stressed sound or when we express excitement as in "Yeah!" or "Great!"
I don t understand why they re all fat thin or dead?? Thanks for the amusement though haha
1. A *dead* word is when the sound is cut off (strangled?) like "cut", "stop", "dead" (while a *singing* word can be sung, like "sing", "doe", "far", etc.)
2. A fat sound is when the vowel is long, like "harp", "like" and a thin sound is when the vowel is abrupt, like "pip" or "stop". This only matters for dead ladyboys (thin dead ladyboys are pronounced as a surprise: "what!?"; but fat dead ladyboys are melodramatic: "helllpppp!")
For girls and boys - regardless of whether they're fat or thin - the tone is sad, depressed: "Oh dear...."
Thanks was nt expecting your reply. It s definitely a different way of looking at learning it. And I kinda like it 😁