In Thai, tones are critical to understand the meaning (compared to non-tonal languages, where tone conveys emotions or feelings). So, you can say "khaaw" five different ways (low tone “\”, mid tone, high tone “/”, rising tone ”^”, falling tone “v”) and have five different meanings (adding different vowel sounds leads to approximately 10 different meanings in what an English-speaker might hear as the same word). It's a little confusing for a non-tonal speaker. True homonyms become particularly rare. Homonym (“คำพ้องเสียง / kham phɔ́ɔng sǐang”): a word the same as another in sound and spelling but different in meaning, for example, fluke (something lucky, a whale fin, or a fish) ฝรั่ง (fa-ràng)
It means both foreigner and guava. It makes for a great joke if you understand this and want to buy guava:
“คน ฝรั่ง ชอบ ผลไม้ ฝรั่ง มาก”
“khon fa-ràng chɔ̌ɔp phǒn-la-máai fa-ràng mâak mâak”
(Foreigners like guava a lot)
The vendor will probably stare at you for a minute1 then start laughing and, most likely, speak to you in rapid Thai.2
Now comes the fun part… there a words that, to someone who doesn’t understand/hear tones, seem like the same word in Thai, but they are, in fact, some sort of Thai version of homophones. They sound so similar that, without an understanding (and ability to recognize) tones, they will be like homonyms to the untrained ear. They may or may not be spelled the same way but they sound alike.
Here are my favorite examples:
1. Here are a few that you can typically distinguish based on contextual clues.
“หิว / hǐuw” (hungry) | “หิ้ว / hîw” (to hold or carry something) |
“ไข้ / khâi” (fever) | “ไข่ / khài” (egg) |
“อยาก / yàak” (to want) | “ยาก / yâak” (hard, difficult) |
“แข็ง / kɛ̌ng” (hard, solid) | “แข่ง / kɛ̀ɛng” (to compete) |
“หนัง / nǎng” (skin)3 | “นั่ง / nâng” (to sit) | “หนัง / nǎng” (movie)3 |
“มา / mǎa” (to come) | “หมา / maa” (dog) | “ม้า / mâa” (horse) |
“หลัง / lǎng” (after) | “ล่าง / lâang” (below, under) | “ล้าง / láang” (to wash) |
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2. These words might be a bit harder to determine based on context:
“ใกล้ / glâi” (near) vs.
“ไกล / glai” (far)
Imagine this scenario: You are being adventerous, taking the bus from Pak Kret, just north of Bangkok, back home. You get on a bus that you confirm from the sign on the front (“หมอชิต / Mɔ̌ɔ Chit”) and by asking the bus attendent (“รถเมล์ นี่ ไป หมอชิต ใช่ ไหม คะ / rót-may nêe pbai Mɔ̌ɔ Chit châi mai ká” [this bus goes to Mɔɔ Chit, right?]). Unfortunately, you miss your stop and end up on a dark, busy road in the rain. You ask the motorcycle taxi drivers how to get to the MRT subway station, because you know it’s in the general area. They say, “glai maak.” And you don’t know whether or not the station is very near or very far.
3. Varieties of khaaw / khaw – short vowels, long vowels, high tones, rising tones, low tones, mid tones, falling tones… I feel like there is an awesome tongue-twister or Dr. Suess book to be found in “khaw.”
There are six “khaaws” that I have used frequently.
“ข่าว / khàaw” (news, information) – long vowel, low tone
“ข้าว / khâaw” (rice) – long vowel, falling tone
“ขาว / khǎaw” (white color) – long vowel, rising tone
“เข้า / khâw” (to enter) – short vowel, falling tone
“เข้า / khǎw” (he/she/they OR mountain OR animal horn3) – short vowel, rising tone
4. For the more advanced, I learned this one the other day:
“จราจร / jà-raa-jɔɔn” (traffic) vs.
“จลาจล / jà-laa-jon // จราจล / jà-raa-jon” (strike, protest, riots)
For the second word, I’ve seen two variations of how it’s spelled (ล or ร) but this makes sense, given how many Thai people use “R” and “L” interchangeably. In Thai, “R” frequently sounds like “L”. There are many examples of this:
“อร่อย / à-rɔɔie” (delicious)
is frequently pronounced “à-lɔɔie”. My favorite, which I just learned how to spell, is a common utterance that adds emphasis or indicates a question):
“หรือ / rǔu”
which is almost always pronounce “lǔu”. And, I don’t think I would actually ever use these words.
1 Despite a number of foreigners speaking Thai very well, many don’t learn any Thai, so it always seems to take a minute for Thai people to realize that a foreigner is speaking Thai.
2 Because even though many foreigners don’t speak Thai, it seems like when Thai people find someone who does, they don’t realize that you may not know more than what you just said or that you may have trouble understanding them when they speak rapid Thai. So another key phrase I learned was how to ask people, politely, to speak slowly and clearly. Of course, then it just becomes a comic version in the other direction, and everyone ends up laughing.
3 These are actually homonyms!
P.S. I tried to indicate the tones phonetically as best I could. Please excuse any errors!
P.P.S. I am still not very good at using tones (I can hear them, mostly, but have trouble replicating them on a continual basis.). I also tend to move my head according to the tone, which looks really funny!
