Active Thai Tone Rules
Active Thai Tone Rules
Active Thai Tone Rules
Every syllable of every Thai word has one The Middle Class Consonants: There are 4 Tone Marks:
of the five tones. Tone is determined by:
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you attempt to learn the tone rules.
low falling high rising
We use the length of the vowel and the sound * rising tone is never used with dead syllables
of the final consonant to determine whether a
syllable is “dead” or “live”. A dead syllable has a
The Short Vowels: Basic Rule when starting with High Class
sound that abrubtly stops, where the sound of a
Without a tone mark, there a two possible tones:
live syllable fades away slowly.
consonant + live syllable = rising tone
consonant + dead syllable = low tone
Dead syllables: There are three tones possible and these marks can be used:
consonant + short vowel
consonant + short vowel + stop final The Long Vowels:
consonant + long vowel + stop final low falling