The 5 Tones
Low, mid, high, falling, rising. Why Thais don't understand you (yet).
The pitch of the syllable changes the word.
English uses pitch for feeling (angry? surprised?). Thai uses pitch to pick which word you mean. Same syllable + different pitch = different word. Miss the tone, the listener hears something else (or nothing at all).
มา maa · come (mid tone)
ม้า máa · horse (high tone)
หมา mǎa · dog (rising tone)
Same letters, three different words. "I'm going to ride the dog" is an easy mistake to make.
We color-code them everywhere in the app.
no markflat, steady. Speak it like you're saying it to someone you know.
àpitched low and level. Like the start of a disappointed sigh.
âstarts high, drops fast. Like saying "NO!" as a command.
ápitched at the top of your voice and held there.
ǎstarts low, swoops up. Like asking "really?" in English.
Ears first, then mouth.
You can't produce a tone you can't hear. Start with the Tone Trainer game: listen, pick the tone, repeat until pairs like ม้า and หมา sound obviously different. Once the ear is tuned, copy out loud.
🎵 Open the Tone Trainer →