Vowels

Vowels

Thai has a complicated set of vowels and diphthongs that distinguishes between vowel length (short and long) and vowel position (front and back). In Thai script, vowel signs are always written around consonants and the letter ก (k) is used here to demonstrate. This list follows the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (except that some long vowels are doubled).

ka กะ
like 'a' in "car" (short vowel)

kaa กา
like 'a' in "father" (longer than "a")

kae แก
like 'a' in "man" (short vowel: "แกะ")

ke เก
like 'e' in "bed" (short vowel: "เกะ")

ki กิ
like 'y' in "greedy"

kii กี
like 'ee' in "see" (longer than "i")

ko กอ
like 'o' in "torn" (short vowel: "เกาะ")

ko โก
like 'oa' in "moan" (short vowel: "โกะ")

koe เกอ
like 'i' in "sir" (short vowel: "เกอะ")

ku กุ
like 'oo' in "hoop"

kuu กู
like 'ue' in "blue" (longer than "u")

kue กือ
frontal version of "u" (akin to German "ü", French "du", not found in English) (short vowel: "กึ")

kam กำ
like 'um' in "dummy"

kai ใก/ไก
like 'i' in "kind"

kia เกีย
like 'eer' in "beer" (but don't pronounce "r")

kua กัว
similar to 'ou' in "tour" (but don't pronounce "r")

kuea เกือ
like "ue" followed by a short "a"

kao เกา
like 'ow' in "cow"

~Info courtesy of Wikitravel~