Confused & Need Help on Thai For Beginners lessons

lctan · #1 08-02-10, 08:23 PM

Sa-watdii Krap. Pom Chu LC krap. Sa baai dii krap.

I bought the Thai For Beginners with 2 CDs recently on www.BuyThaiBooks.com. I am learning very slowly due to limited available time. I am confused from Page 32 to 37 as the CDs do not cover these pages. I am confused of how to carry on. Example on P32 Vowels and P33 Writing the Vowels, could someone explain how do I interpret these 2 pages and how do I read them. Not understanding these 2 page, I find 35 thru 37 to be even more confusing and I really do not know how to read them. Could someone help to explain a couple of examples on each page so that I could proceed on? Last but not least, is why the CDs do not cover these pages? Maybe it may sound simple or obvious but please pardon me if I seem to be slow and not grasping the basics. Khopkun Krap (sorry if my romanised is wrong).

**pimato** · #2 08-02-10, 09:11 PM

don't worry about the Romanised...there's not exact rule for that

and...i can't help you and it's hard for others to help you also....because not all of us have that cds you have....so you should post the question here type it here so everyone could see then, they can help you

**David_Loves_Ubonwan** · #3 09-02-10, 05:05 PM

Page 32 just gives the names of the long vowels.
Page 33 and 34 you have to write the vowels (difficult to do on the CDs.)
Page 35 is a list of things to read and then gives the names of the tone marks.
Page 36 is the names of tone marks with middle consonants and then a list of words to read which goes on to page 37.

David

**ian71** · #4 09-02-10, 06:30 PM

hi ictan
have a look at the good language book post, some good info there for you, cheers

lctan · #5 09-02-10, 08:00 PM

Sa-watdii krap. Thank you very much to everyone for helping

. My apologies that I did (could) not make myself clear and specific. Reading thru a few times again, now i understand that Thai Syllable consists of a consonant followed by a vowel but the consonant sound comes first regardless where the vowel is place (top, right, bottom). Am I correct?

Reference to P30 in the book, the first 2 middle consonant are /g/ and /j/. So, when you have /g/ + vowel aa gives you "gaa" correct? And /j/ + ai gives you "jai"?

Why is it then the consonant /g/ is pronounced as "gor gai" when I click it in the LearnThai website? Is it bcos "gor gai" is pronounced to help in the pronounciation of the consonant /g/? I hope I am making myself clear here. Probably with further understanding (and I think I still need to read a few more times this segment in the book) before I could move on to the next chapter.

I am finding learning Thai not that easy (esp remembering the few tones). I have also just signed up for Thai Elementary at a local private school here, after work, but would have to miss the first lesson.

**Betti** · #6 09-02-10, 08:26 PM

go gai is the name of that letter. the sound it makes is g.

this one may be useful for you:
http://www.dekgeng.com/thai/lesson1.html

just click on any syllable to listen to it.

Richard Barrow · #7 09-02-10, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lctan

Why is it then the consonant /g/ is pronounced as "gor gai" when I click it in the LearnThai website? Is it bcos "gor gai" is pronounced to help in the pronounciation of the consonant /g/?

"gai" is a chicken and so it is like saying "a for apple" or "g for chicken".

**ian71** · #8 09-02-10, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Betti

go gai is the name of that letter. the sound it makes is g.

this one may be useful for you:
http://www.dekgeng.com/thai/lesson1.html

just click on any syllable to listen to it.

Thanks for this Betti, Ive not seen this site before, looks very interesting, again thanks for sharing,any tips for using this site?
cheers ian

**Pailin** · #9 09-02-10, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Reading thru a few times again, now i understand that Thai Syllable consists of a consonant followed by a vowel but the consonant sound comes first regardless where the vowel is place (top, right, bottom). Am I correct?

That is correct!

lctan · #10 10-02-10, 06:29 PM

Khopkun Krap. Thank-You Everybody. Your assisstance and the website are really useful and helped me understand better now. I am going slow with my learning and would maybe set the next 3 - 6 months to finish my Thai For Beginners (too long?) Maybe with the class that I have enrolled, it would take less time than what I have set.