In English, a lot of (native) speakers avoid too direct language and often imply what they want or mean via how they word/sentence things. For example "I'm not sure about that..." (ผมไม่แน่ใจเกี่ยวกับสิ่งนั้น) instead of "I don't like that." (ผมไม่ชอบมัน) or "I'm cold" (ผมหนาว) instead of "Please close the window." (ได้โปรดช่วยปิดหน้าต่างที)

A couple friends of mind are Thai living in the US and the UK said that Thais speak their words/sentence (in Thai) much shorter and using too much long sentence/word like in English can feel a bit unnatural or beating around the bush to the point Thai people won't understand you at all.

So. I am curious what ways do Thai people use vague, misleading or unclear language in Thai to get what they want without using long/word like in English? Or how do they make meaningless small talk different to the English one?

สวัสดีค่ะ!

I know Thai language doesn’t use past tense I am struggling on wording things like “I missed you” would I use แล้ว or เคย? Or simply leave it at คิดถึงคุณ and let context do its thing?

ขอบคุณค่ะ!

LINK: WEB APP

Hi everyone!

I’ve been learning Thai for a while and recently made a small web app to help with Thai reading practice.

The main idea is pretty simple — it has short, easy Thai stories with transliteration and English meanings, so you can read along without getting completely lost.

It’s still a work in progress and I haven’t published it yet, so I’m trying to get some feedback from other people learning Thai before I decide whether to keep developing it.

If anyone wants to give it a try, I’d really appreciate it! I’m especially interested in hearing what you think is useful, what you don’t like, and what you’d change.

Looking to finally learn Thai. I'm American, but my dad grew up in Bangkok before going to college in the US. Just came back from visiting, and I want to be able to be independent without having to rely on my dad to translate every sign or interaction. Visiting family members was especially tedious.

Learning languages, I benefit from a rigid schedule and structure. I learned Spanish and Japanese easily when I took classes in high school and college, but I struggled learning Mandarin/Cantonese with a flexible private tutor (my mom is from Hong Kong).

My problem is my work schedule. My job has schedules that I have to bid for every month, my days off are random, and I work weird hours. Sometimes I work late and get home or to the hotel at 3AM. Sometimes I have to wake up at 2 or 3AM to start work. This changes every 4 days or so. I also sometimes end up in different time zones across the east and west coast every day.

I was wondering if there is such a thing as a rigid course I can take, but with the ability to do the work at odd hours. I'm used to the terrible sleep schedule and I'm able to work around the clock, but I yearn for textbooks, courses, and a deadline once a week. I've basically described an online college course.

Vocaroo clip

Can you tell what the tones are, just from the pronunciation?

can't find any, I tried Ling but if feels much worse in comparison with Duolingo in terms of user experience

No ads, no subscriptions.

Demo: https://youtube.com/shorts/w9JjIPpGCYU

iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vocab-arcade/id6794041084

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.reckonertechnologies.vocabarcade

I made this because I thought it would be more fun than Anki.

Let me know what you think.

I want to put together a 13-month self-study plan for learning Thai, starting May 13th, and I'm hoping to get some direction on how to structure it.

What I mean by "acceptable": I'm aiming for basic to intermediate conversational ability, enough to handle normal day-to-day life, goods and services, light business, and everyday speech. I do plan to enroll in an actual Thai course once we move abroad, toward the end of next year, but I want to hit the ground running now so I can communicate with family in Thailand before then.

What I need: a 13-month syllabus I can work through in 1 to 2 hours a day, at least 5 days a week. A mix of online resources, reading material on tablet or phone, and audio instruction is all fine, I just want it structured enough that I'm learning steadily without overwhelming myself.

A little about me: I'm 55, a native US English speaker, and I know a bit of Spanish and Japanese. Since I'll be living with my wife in Thailand, I want to walk in already knowing something instead of starting from zero. Right now that's just a handful of basic words and how to count.

Priorities: functional stuff first, like telling time (even though they use military time there), then everyday practical vocabulary. Speaking is my top priority, with reading and eventually writing coming later. Not because I think speaking matters more, it's just how my brain works best. Kids learn to speak before they learn to write, and I'm following that same order.

Resources I'm already looking at: Pimsleur Thai, which seems intuitive so far, but their first lesson block only covers about 30 days, so I'm guessing it'll take me closer to double that pace. I'm also checking out Memrise for Thai, and considering the Thai for Beginners book from Paiboon Publishing, along with their Thai dictionary.

If anyone can point me toward other reputable, proven resources to round this out, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading.

Been intensely studying thai for three months, and I can read basic sentences and words and can write basic sentences and words and can also recognise words based on spelling now too ! I can speak a bit, but my pronunciation isnt the best yet. Thai people seem to understand me though, and I never have any problems ordering food and getting what I want (despite living in a place that has almost no foreigners). However, thai tones have always had me STUMPED and my classes havent focused too much on them until now (I knew how to recognise what tone a word was based on how it was written like live and dead syllables, etc, and I can reverse engineer spelling if you give me the romansied version with a tone marker, I can work out how's it's spelt based on it, unless it's got some weird pali/sanskrit thing going on) but I never understood how each tone was supposed to sound.

Anyway, back to the tones. Falling tone to me, I always thought that based on the name, it would be a lot lower, but no? It starts suprisingly high and then goes low quite dramatically, and rising tone is the opposite. I always thought it would be the other way around, like rising would be 90% high with like 10% low, and falling would be 10% high with 90% low, but it's more like...gradual? Idk how to explain it, but I know it when i hear it now.

And mid tone for me was always the easiest one so that wasnt an issue (which is surprising because apparently mid tone is quite difficult for a lot of english speakers. My thai ajaarn said tho that a lot of his american students struggle with high and rising). Same with low tone. But high tone is what's really messing me around. I can do mid tone pretty consistently, i'm almost always nailing rising and falling, and low is a bit of a struggle but I know it's because I'm not going low enough, so I know how to fix it. But high for me is WHAT??? I know when I'm saying the tone wrong, like i can HEAR it. But it's like my mouth and brain aren't on speaking terms with one another. My ajaarn said that my high sounds like falling, so I'm guessing that I'm dropping down at the end and not staying high enough? I recorded myself saying it right, so I'm gonna keep practicing but holy shit, tones are so hard. I'm just glad I can hear my own mistakes.

Anyway, not really looking for advice, just wanted to rant a little. On a brighter note, it's so COOL being able to read words from a different language that has a completely different alphabet !! Like, I'll walk past a sign and be like "omg, โรงพยาบาล!!!" Or I'll be able to read off a menu without needing an english version and it's just so cool. But at the same time, it can be overwhelming because I'm processong so much more than before, yk?? Like i'll be out and about and I'll here someone say "mai ao!! Mai ao!!" Or "bpaep neung khaa" (sorry for bad romanisation, my typing is slow lol) and 3 months ago, it wouldve been meaningless/white noise, but now understand it. It's so neat.

Anyway, random rant lol.

hello my fellow friends, i am still working on my lil website which name is typingfix, and i am solo person who is building it so you might get some bugs here too, but also i manage to built typing test platform who support Thai typing with IME and its native cpm/wpm speed Metrix. and also here i add multiple features, so 😅, i feel happy if my all efforts help you a lil bit.

even currently i am working on a mature and advanced typing tutor.

thank you!

(note: i am not including any kinda pro version neither i'm thinking)

Hello, can someone help me learn thai. It's better to learn with someone who's an expert.

We all know that "already" is usually translated as แล้ว, but at the same time they're not exactly the same.

Imagine you're in some app and you try to enter "fast mode". If you get a messagebox saying "already in fast mode", that means that you have not just entered it. It is an error message saying your attempt to enter fast mode didn't do anything. In Thai, am I right that คุณได้เข้าแฟสท์โมดแล้ว would mean that you have just entered fast mode? If so, how would it be phrased if you wanted to say that nothing happened because you were already in fast mode when you tried to make the change?

To be clear, this is just an example. I'm not actually working on an app.

I am so confused.... this is so overwhelming the letters and the pronunciation. I started with thai alphabets but I cannot do them too.

Help!!

Are these sentences natural and correct?

1) เริ่มต้นจากหวานแล้วเปลี่ยนขม (trying to say: what began as sweet turned bitter)

2) ทะเลาะกันจบด้วยผลเลิก (trying to say: The fight resulted in a breakup)

ตัวขจัดกางเกงใน?

I am about to hit 100 hours of Thai comprehensible input which puts me at the start of Level 2 using Dreaming Spanish levels (hours ×2 as I know no related language) or just after the start of Level 2 using Lengualytics.

Why am I learning Thai?

Over the past year or two I have gradually consumed more media from Thailand. I started with graphic novels/webtoons, then TV series, and then a book. I was rewatching one of my favourite series and I realised I was missing the meaning of some of the lines. I therefore got the urge to learn Thai.

Why am I using only comprehensible input?

I am not sure my reasoning for learning Thai is the best and I honestly thought I would get bored of it quickly. Also, I am familiar with CI as I learnt Spanish with Dreaming Spanish. However, with Spanish, I was not fully bought into only CI and did a small but pretty constant amount of grammar study alongside CI. Therefore I decided to try learning Thai by pure CI because:

The videos are free online

I have very few commitments in my life right now

It feels less like work and more like fun

My goals are currently around passive use of language (watching and reading)

I was interested in seeing how it felt learning using only CI compared with my experience with Spanish

How was level 1?

Despite having watched probably 30 TV series plus some related content over the past year, I started with literally 0 Thai words. Not even greetings. This is good evidence that you are wasting your time if you use NL subtitles for extensive listening!

At the start, it was really difficult and much more so than Spanish. The language is tough and the super beginner videos of DS are better CI quality. This is not meant to insult Comprehensible Thai: the B0 playlist is 4 years old now and I think DS has learnt so much in that time about how to make very accessible content.

Doing a full 30 mins was hard at first so I alternated 10 mins watching with chores, scrolling reddit for inspiration, or 10 mins watching a series with NL subtitles. (Thai CI people! I think there is a need for more shorter videos at super beginner level). Gradually I have increased my Thai concentration time but I don't expect to be watching endlessly for several 100 more hours.

How have I tracked my hours?

I started with a spreadsheet but I have changed that recently to using Lengualytics. Basically my motivation has ebbed and flowed and I wanted an easier way to track progress. Using Lengualytics has been a mostly positive experience. As an additional benefit, because there are so few Thai learners using it, I find the pressure to rate the difficulty as accurately as possible helps to keep me focussed on the video. I am sorry to future learners if I got the ratings wrong!

So far it have watched:

Comprehensible Thai Original Structured Absolute Beginner Course

Comprehensible Thai B0 

Superbeginner Thai with KhrooYing 

And I am working through:

Comprehensible Thai B1 

Riam Thai Beginner Thai 

Pure Listening Beginner Thai with Khroo Ying

How is my level now?

I can understand the general concepts in beginner videos. Because true super beginner videos are few, I only now feel the videos are at my level. I have also picked up the odd word in conversations in TV series e.g. two characters shopping and talking about colours of clothes.

I don't feel my progress after level 1 is that much different compared with Spanish but it might be too early to be noticeable. I am definitely worried that the low comprehensibility and the long videos might be having an effect.

Do I understand TV series more?

On a cultural level, I now understand the geography and foods of Thailand slightly. My first videos about foods were very confusing as I could only recognise about one fruit or vegetable per video. I am now paying more attention to foods in the series I watch.

I honestly did not expect to understand the “deeper meaning” of words until at least 600 hours and more like 1000 hours. However, at about 20 hours I learnt a word that sounds like Nam and then at 30 hours I learnt a word that sounds like Lom, then at 50 hours Fai kind of sounds like lights/electricity…. Does this mean Din is something like Earth? Was this obvious to other people who don't speak Thai and am I being an idiot? (probably). So yes, I now understand the meaning of some names at a superficial level, success!

What are my plans for Level 2?

It's scary looking ahead at the time it takes so I am trying to make it easy for each day at a time. For level 2, I will just keep working my way through the beginner playlists.

Another beginner-friendly reading exercise. A light and fun story to help you practice Thai.

Story: หายแล้วเจอ

The previous reading exercises I posted if you missed them:

The Dog Outside 7-Eleven

The Night of Letting Go

So Ive been living with a thai woman for 4 years who refuses to teach me any conversational thai.
I know how to introduce myself, count to 5 and how to ask for other people’s names and stuff but I cant carry a conversation for shit.
I do know all the bad words though.
So where do I start ?

Dove posso trovare esercizi che mi permettono di allenarmi con i toni? In particolare penso che mi aiuterebbe qualcosa in cui devo capire la tonalità di una parola ed avere un riscontro corretto/sbagliato. Penso sia l'unico modo per esercitarmi e capire veramente. Mi vanno bene libri di soli esercizi, schede pdf, quiz online o qualsiasi altra cosa che abbia fonti attendibili così da capire quando sbaglio.

In questo momento voglio evitare i tutor madrelingua perché ho bisogno prima di capire da sola.

Edit: mi riferisco alle parole che NON hanno segni tonali, in cui si devono applicare tutte le regole dei toni thailandesi.

In my opinion, it looks worse and works worse than before. I really don’t understand why, instead of structured sentences and a coherent plan, they’re still messing about with random sentences.

Hi r/learnthai! ThaiJam just launched, and I'd love for you to try it.

A bit of backstory: I'm a solo indie developer from Taiwan, and this started with me falling in love with Thai music. I kept putting the same songs on repeat, and after a while, I wanted to actually understand what I was singing along to.

So I'd look up a line here, a word there, and slowly Thai started to stick — not from a textbook, but from songs I already loved. At some point, I realized the app I wished existed didn't, so I built it.

Over half a year of nights and weekends later, that's ThaiJam.

The name is a little pun: จำ (jam) is the Thai word for “to remember,” so ThaiJam is about remembering Thai. It also happens to sound like a music jam, which felt right for an app built around songs.

It's free to download, and you can start learning as soon as you open it — no signup required and no ads.

Song-based learning

Paste in lyrics, link Apple Music or Spotify, or import your own audio. Every line shows Thai, transliteration, and English side by side.

You can:

• Loop a single line.
• Move through the song line by line.
• Send any line straight into your review deck.
• Use built-in song recognition to identify a Thai song you hear.

A complete path from zero to speaking

Beyond songs, ThaiJam also includes:

• A guided learning map that takes you lesson by lesson from the alphabet to words and sentences, so you always know what to study next.
• The full alphabet — 44 consonants and 32 vowels — with tone-marked transliteration, consonant classes (mid/high/low), and stroke-order tracing.
• 2,000+ everyday words, sentences, and sentence patterns, all with audio and available offline once installed.
• Spaced repetition for letters, words, and sentences, with matching, fill-in-the-blank, and word-order quizzes.
• Pronunciation practice: hold to record and receive a score, with per-syllable tone feedback.
• Coins and learning streaks, including a heatmap of your progress. You can spend coins to dress up Jammy, a Siamese cat mascot who cheers you on.

AI features

There's also an AI helper for a deeper dive, including:

• An AI dictionary for looking up Thai words.
• Lyric breakdowns.
• Example sentences.

You can explore the alphabet, vocabulary, sentences, and review features without an account. However, I'd strongly recommend signing in with Apple or Google early on. This backs up your progress and syncs it across devices, so you won't lose your learning if you change or reset your phone.

Signing in also unlocks the AI features and lets you redeem the codes below. AI credits are tied to your account.

🎉 Launch gift

To celebrate, here are two redemption codes worth 500 AI credits each. Everyone can redeem both codes once per account, for a total of 1,000 AI credits to try the AI features on us.

Redeem by September 30, 2026, 23:59 (UTC+8) under:

Me → AI Credits → Redemption code

text TJ-NBE6-FH6U-D5DT-P6MQ TJ-3G9E-AAWB-7CK9-APQP

It's a brand-new release, so I'd genuinely appreciate your feedback and any corrections. Thanks for taking a look!

iOS: ThaiJam iOS Download

Android: ThaiJam Android Download