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The Thai Script

An abugida; no spaces between words

Thai has its own script (an abugida)

44 consonants; vowels attach around them; no spaces between words.

📊 Script features
Feature Note Example
consonants 44 letters, some share a sound ก k, ข kh
vowels written around the consonant า, ิ, ี, ุ
tone marks four marks above ่ ้ ๊ ๋
spacing words run together no spaces
💬 Examples
สวัสดี
sà-wàt-dii
hello
📝 Vowels written above/below/around consonants
ขอบคุณ
khàawp-khun
thank you
📝 No spaces inside a phrase
Vowels can sit before, after, above, or below

Their position is fixed per vowel.

💬 Examples
เก
gee
(syllable 'gee')
📝 เ goes before but is read after the consonant
กิน
gin
to eat
📝 Vowel ิ sits above ก
Spaces separate phrases, not words

Reading requires word segmentation.

💬 Examples
ผมกินข้าว
phǒm gin khâao
I eat rice.
📝 Three words, written together
คุณสบายดีไหม
khun sà-baai-dii mǎi
How are you?
📝 No internal spaces