Required Prerequisite Knowledge
To understand this article, you will need the following prerequisite knowledge:
- Thai Consonants and Their Classes
- Thai Vowels and Short/Long Vowels
- Ability to read basic syllables such as “กิน”
You don’t need to be perfect with these, but you will need to be able to recognize consonant class and vowel class (ie short or long vowels) to determine a syllable’s tone.
Introduction
Each Thai syllable has a tone associated with it. Thai people learn to read tones in school but largely do this unconsciously as native speakers.
If you’re learning Thai, you will have to learn a method to figure out a syllable’s tone at least until you get an intuitive feel for it.
It’s a bit complicated but let’s get into it.
5 Tones in Thai
There are 5 tones in Thai. You might struggle to recognize and reproduce them but that will come with exposure, deliberate practice, and time.
Mid Tone 
Low Tone 
High Tone 
Rising Tone 
Falling Tone 
Identify First Consonant Class
Each consonant will have an associated class. These classes are only used to help determine the syllable’s tone. There are 3 main classes, but the Low Class is split into Solo and Paired which is important to remember as they have different tone rules if there is no tone marker.
Low Class Paired consonants have a matching High Class sound equivalent while Low Class Solo consonants do not.
**Warning: The list below shows classes but not all of the consonants for each class. Just a few examples.
- Low Class
- Solo: ง, น, ม, ย, ร
- Paired: ท, ค, พ, ฟ, ฮ
- Middle Class: ต, บ, ป, จ
- High Class: ข, ฉ, ผ, ฝ, ส, ห
When you read a syllable, you will need to identify the first consonant and its associated class.
Live and Dead Syllables
If there is no tone marker, then you need to determine if a syllable is Live or Dead before referencing the tone chart (or simply remembering the rule once you’re more familiar with it).
Generally speaking, Live syllables are drawn out more when spoken as well.
These are the general rules to determine Live or Dead Syllables:
- If there’s a tone marker, we don’t care if the syllable is DEAD or LIVE. Skip to Chart #2.
- If there is a final consonant and its class is Low Solo, the syllable is LIVE.
- No final consonant? If there is a long vowel, the syllable is LIVE.
- Otherwise, syllable is DEAD.
Tone Markers
There are also 4 tone markers in Thai. Two of them are very commonly used while the remaining two are less common and can only be used on Middle Class Consonants.
| Mai Eek |  |
| Mai Tho |  |
| Mai Dtri |  |
| Mai Jatawaa |  |
Referencing the Charts
Once you have determined whether there is Live or Dead, the Tone Marker, and identified the First Consonant Class then you can reference one of the two following charts to determine the tone.
Just use the charts for now, but later on you can challenge yourself to use only your memory.
We have a great app to help test you that can be accessed here. Thai Language Bee app will take you from complete beginner, to identifying tones, and finally texting common Thai words.
Chart #1 (No Tone Marker)
| High Class | Middle Class | Low Class | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live | Rising | Mid | Mid |
| Dead (with Short Vowel) | Low | Low | High |
| Dead (with Long Vowel) | Low | Low | Falling |
Chart #2 (Tone Marker)
| High Class | Middle Class | Low Class | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | Low | Falling |
| Falling | Falling | High |
| N/A | High | N/A |
| N/A | Rising | N/A |
General Things to be Aware of
There is something tricky with Dead syllables with Low Class consonants. Note how the tone depends on if the vowel is Long or Short.
You will only rarely see Mai Dtri and Mai Jatawaa so focus only on Mai Ek and Mai Tho at first.
Put a ห character in front of a first consonant turns it into a High class consonant. The ห character is silent in this case.
Quick Method Summary
- If there’s a tone marker, we don’t care if the syllable is DEAD or LIVE. Identify the tone marker and skip to Chart #2.
- If there is a final consonant and its class is Low Solo, the syllable is LIVE.
- No final consonant? If there is a long vowel, the syllable is LIVE.
- Otherwise, syllable is DEAD.
- Reference the Charts. Chart #1 if no tone marker.
Conclusion
That’s it!
It’s a lot to digest at first so try to not get too overwhelmed. It really becomes like 2nd nature with enough practice and you will barely think about it when reading and writing Thai.
However, to get to that point you will need to practice and spend conscious time learning how to read tones using the method outlined in this article.
Good luck 🙂
If you enjoyed this article then check out my other article on the basic phrases you will need while traveling in Thailand or if you just arrived here.