The tone rules

Thai has five tones: mid (a), low (à), falling (â), high (á) and rising (ǎ). The spelling tells you which: find the first consonant’s class, then the column.

Class	Livelong vowel, or ends in m n ng w y	Dead, shortshort vowel, or ends in k t p	Dead, longlong vowel + k t p	่ mái èek	้ mái thoo	๊ mái trii	๋ mái jàt-tà-waa
Middleก จ ด ต บ ป อ	a mid	à low	à low	à low	â falling	á high	ǎ rising
Highข ฉ ถ ผ ฝ ส ห	ǎ rising	à low	à low	à low	â falling	–	–
Lowค ง ช ท น พ ม ย ร ล ว	a mid	á high	â falling	â falling	á high	–	–

A silent ห before a low letter that has no partner (ง น ม ย ร ล ว) makes it high class: หมา (mǎa, dog), หนู (nǔu, mouse).

อ before ย makes it middle class, in four words: อยู่ อย่า อย่าง อยาก.

In a cluster (กร, ปล, คว…), the first letter sets the class.

ไ ใ เ–า and –ำ count as live, though their vowels are short.

How to play Thai Tones

A Thai word comes up with its romanization, minus the tone. Pick its tone: mid, low, falling, high or rising (press 1 to 5). After each answer you see which rule gives the tone, so a miss teaches you something.

No tone mark: the tone comes from the first consonant’s class, whether the syllable is live or dead, and the vowel’s length.
Tone marks: words with ่ ้ ๊ or ๋. The same mark gives different tones for different classes.
Everything: both together.

Sprint for 60 seconds, race the duck over 10 words, or play online with friends: a right answer is 1 point, and the first right answer gets 1 more. If your device has a Thai voice, Hear it reads the word.

Tips

Keep the rules chart open in another tab until you know it; it’s short.
Most words with no mark and a live ending are mid tone, unless the first letter is high class (then rising).
The words come from the Thai course, so you’re learning vocabulary too.

More Thai: Thai Letters and Thai Word Race.

Thai Tones

See a word, work out its tone from the spelling.

The tone rules

How to play Thai Tones

Tips