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The language of the central region and Bangkok, called 'standard Thai', is spoken throughout the country as an official language and a medium for education and mass media.

The national language of Thailand is Thai but distinctive dialects are spoken in different regions of the country: in the north in Tak province to the Burmese border, in northeastern provinces toward the Lao and Cambodian borders and south from Chumphon province toward the Malaysian border. Thai is written in its own alphabetic script which was first introduced during the Sukhothai period some 700 years ago.

		Pronunciation guide
		Consonants
		Vowels
		Tones
		Essential rules
		Numeral classifiers
		Pronoun
		Polite particles

Thai is a tonal language. The pitch at which a syllable is pronounced can vary its meaning. Different tones, such as low, rising, and falling, affects not only a word's pronunciation, but also the meaning. Tones cause the complexity of pronunciation in Thai. However, Thai grammar is easy to comprehend because there are no complex verb tenses and noun endings to confuse students of the language.

Pronunciation Guide
In the Thai language there are a few sounds which do not exist in English and can cause some problems. But generally speaking, the considerable bulk of Thai sounds have a reasonably close equivalent in English. There is one more rule to be aware of. You have to remember that every ending sound is omitted in Thai.

Consonants
There are 20 consonant sounds in Thai. Consonants are generally pronounced as in English at the beginning of a word. On the other hand, there are only a few sounds that are difficult to pronounce.
b, d, f, k, l, m, p, s, v, w, y are pronounced in the same way as in English.

g as in get

j is similar to /t/ in rapture or culture

ng: in English, we use this single sound only at the end of a word such as wrong, song and thing. However, 'ng' can also occurs at the beginning in Thai: job: ngaan and snake: ngoo

The sounds 'k,p,t' are not released at the end of a word while in English, you feel a slight puff of air when pronouncing them. In Thai, you may feel that words ending in 'k,p,t' all sound the same: baht: baat and sin: bahp

The 'h' combination with 'k,p,t,c,s' means that it is pronounced with a puff of air such as phaa , and thaa

r is almost closely similar to 'r' in run but flapped. Many Thais have difficulty pronouncing 'r' which is a trill sound. In everyday use, they would rather substitute an 'l' sound instead. Thus, school, pronounced roang-rien, becomes loang-lien.

Vowels
In Thai pronunciation, some rough knowledge of French and Italian vowels will help. The only necessary thing to be focused on is to distinguish between long and short vowels, signified by doubling the vowel or addition of 'h'. The diversity of vowel pronunciation can vary the meaning of a word. Vowels are pronounced as followed:

Tones
The mid tone is pronounced 'flat' producing a middle sound as in 'good': dii

The low tone is pronounced 'flat' also, but the sound is lower than the mid tone as in 'baht': baat .

The falling tone is pronounced as 'emphasizing on a word' as in 'not': mai .

The high tone is pronounced near the relative top of the vocal range as in 'this': nii . The rising tone is pronounced in the same way as asking a question 'Yes?' in English as in 'three': saam .

Essential Rules
Numeral classifiers
Numeral classifiers are used to specify nouns which denotes living and material objects. The classifier you choose depends on the physical appearance of the noun. The following are the most commonly used numeral classifiers.

anh		for small objects (in general)
bai		for round hollow objects, leaves
dawk		for flowers
duang		for stars, postage stamps
fawng		for eggs
haw		for bundles, parcels
khanh		for vehicles, umbrellas
med		for smaller things, pills
phol		for fruits

Pronoun
Thai has eight common personal pronouns. However, the subject of a sentence is often omitted after the first reference, or when it is clear from context. There is no distinction between subject and object pronouns such as:

we and us are the same: rao.
I/me (males) phom
I/me (females) di-chan, the shortened form of chan is also commonly used.
You khun (in general), thaan (polite), thoe (intimate)
We/us rao
He/him khao
She/her thoe
They/them puak khao
It (for inanimate objects and animals only) man

Polite particles
Khrap and kha are added to the end of statements and questions to make the speaker's words sound more polite. Male speakers use khrap at the end of both statements and questions, while females use kha. In everyday speech, the 'r' in khrap is dropped to produce the simplified khap.It is not necessary to use these particles after every sentence in a conversation. These words are also used to answer 'yes' to a question, to show agreement, or simply to acknowledge that you're listening.

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