An enhanced version of the US Foreign Service Institute Thai Language Course for beginners with sound clips and both Thai script and IPA transcription. Originally used to teach Thai to US diplomats.
Reading CourseThai language reading and writing course with simple, interactive games to give lots of opportunity to practice. 40 graduated lessons.
Thai ReaderThe Mary Haas Thai Reader with 41 short texts on Thailand. Reading practice for beginners.
Reading AssistantAn app which will split into words Thai text you paste into it. Click on a word to show its English definitions.
Tone Rule ChartAn interactive chart showing the Thai tone rules, with explanations of those rules and example words.
Vowel ChartAn interactive chart showing the Thai vowels and diphthongs. Click on any vowel or diphthong to show examples of its use.
Transcription GuideA description of the transcription system used throughout this website.
ภาษาไทย ๕ นาทีThai in 5 minutes by Prof. Chamnong Tongpraset. Short articles about aspects of the Thai language.
A Thai typing tutor which introduces the whole keyboard over 52 graduated lessons.
Typing PracticeAn app to allow you to practise typing Thai, either using a provided text, or by pasting your own.
Steady TyperAn app to help you practise typing Thai pressing the keys at a steady rate, so improving your typing skills.
Typing GameA fun Thai typing game with 34 levels of difficulty. Type the Thai characters before they hit the bottom of the screen.
Speed TestExperimentalAn app to measure your Thai typing speed in word per minute.
A Thai-English, English-Thai dictionary with on-screen keyboard. Look up individual Thai or English words and complete Thai paragraphs. Definitions taken from LEXiTRON.
RI DictionaryA front end to the Royal Institute Dictionary Thai (only) dictionary with on-screen keyboard. Includes lookup with wildcards and reverse lookup.
Haas DictionaryA front end to the Thai-English dictionary compiled by Mary Haas and her team, with on-screen keyboard.
Etymology DictionaryUpdatedAn etymology dictionary for the Thai language based upon Wiktionary data.
Thai ClassifiersA dictionary of Thai classifiers. Lookup by classifier to see which nouns use that classifier, or by noun to show its classifiers.
Thai AbbreviationsA dictionary of common Thai abbreviations with English translations.
Paste text to hear it read aloud. Text can be blurred when you listen, then clicked on to be revealed, phrase by phrase. Choice of male or female voice.
Flashcards for Thai consonants, vowels, diphthongs and numbers with a choice of different fonts and audio voices.
FlashcardsThai-English flashcards app. with 300 pre-defined packs classified by topic and by level of difficulty. You can also add your own packs. Choice of six different Thai fonts.
FreeThaiA simple but addictive game to help build your vocabulary. It covers more than 3,000 of the commonest Thai words.
A series of short articles I've written about aspects of the Thai language, its history, and learning Thai.
An app to allow you to type Thai using an on-screen keyboard.
IPA Typing ToolAn app to allow you to type IPA for Thai transcription using an on-screen keyboard.
Thai to IPA ToolAn app that will automatically transcribe Thai into IPA for Thai.
More Tools ...Further tools I have developed, mostly of interest to developers, including a Thai character sequence checker and URL encoding/decoding.
An app to allow you to remove information (cookies, local storage) stored by this site on your computer.
CreditsCredits for the sources I have drawn upon in developing this site.
FeedbackA form to allow you to send me your comments about the site and to alert me to any problems you may encounter.
I've updated the Alphabet Cards. The major change has been replacing the audio with a clearer version. I've also improved display on very small devices such as mobile 'phones, added a pack for numbers, and fixed a few minor bugs.
Update July 2023I've made a few changes to the Etymology Dictionary. (1) When you search for a word a drop down list now appears of matching words. Click on word in the list to see its entry. (2) In the results, I've added a link to copy to clipboard a direct link to the entry concerned. Behind the scenes I've also also made the database queries a bit more efficient.
▸ Show moreI've completely rewritten the Roya Institute Dictionary. The data are the same as before, but the presentation and performance are (I hope) improved. (With the old version a lot of data were transferred to the browser and a lot of processing was done there. Much of that has now been transferred to the server.) Note that the older version remains available for the moment. (For personal reasons I'm not going to be able to address any bugs in the new version for at least a month.)
Update April 2023I've completely rewritten the Thai Classifiers Dictionary. The data are the same as before, but the search method and presentation are (I hope) improved.
Update March 2023I've created a Thai Etymology Dictionary based on data from Wiktionary. It allows individual word lookup, browsing by alphabet, and selection of words based upon their source language and whether that source is borrowed, inherited, derived and/or cognate.
Update February 2023I've added another page to Notes on reading modern Thai fonts. It presents "Tables of Thai Character Relationships" tables for four modern fonts.
Update (2) January 2023I've made some changes to the Thai Typer and IPA Typer. I've reduced the key sizes in both apps. I've also added a "compact" option to the IPA Typer which reduces the number of keys displayed, allowing the keys to be larger on small devices.
Update January 2023I've added a further seven lessons to the Thai Reading Course.
I've also added descriptions to the links on this page to various parts of this site with a button (above) to show/hide those descriptions.
Update December 2022I've added notes on reading modern fonts. They're in two parts. Part 1 examines at the characteristics of Thai characters; Part 2 looks at how to tell characters apart.
Update September 2022I've added four more articles to the Notes section, all in the area of transcription and transliteration.
Update June 2022I have completely rewritten the Thai-English/English-Thai dictionary to make it usable on mobile devices. I've also removed the initial load of the dictionary wordlists, so it starts much more quickly. Your personal wordlist can also now be exported to the Flashcards app. The dictionary is at https://thai-notes.com/dictionaries/predictionarysearch.html Update (2) April 2022
I have completely rewritten the Flashcards app to make it mobile device friendly, and added many more packs (there are now 293). I've also increased the number of font choices. Features include:
Flashcards are at https://thai-notes.com/games/flashcardindex.html
Update April 2022
When I started this website I intended it to be a collection of short articles on various aspects of the Thai language that interest me, but I got sidetracked with typing and dictionaries and all the other stuff you find here. Now, after more than 11 years, I've finally started to add some "Notes". The first four Notes cover the history of Thai consonants, the alphabetic ordering of consonants, how to use a Thai dictionary, and computer sorting of Thai. You can find them here.
Update January 2022Speed Test allows you to check your typing speed. Unlike other Thai speed tests I've encountered, it does not rely on typing spaces between words. This made the programming rather challenging, and the app with its "artificial intelligence" is definitely "experimental" at the moment.
Update October 2021The Typing Trainer has been updated, primarily to address some technical issues. The mechanism for selecting lesson number has also changed.
Update August 2021I've added texts from Mary Haas' Thai Reader. They're simple texts suitable for people starting to read Thai. You can add spaces between words to make reading easier. Click on any word to see its definition(s). You can also choose between a traditional Thai font, and a (rather more challenging to read) modern one.
Update July 2021I've made a new front end to the Haas Thai-English Dictionary. Like my other dictionary apps it has an on-screen keyboard and a dropdown list of matching words. Unlike my other dictionary apps, this one works on tablets.
Update (3) May 2021There's a new Text to speech app. which allows you to paste a passage of Thai text and then have your browser read it to you. You can use it for reading practice by blurring the text, then clicking on individual phrases to play them, then double clicking on the phrase to unblur it.
Update (2) May 2021I've changed the source of the audio files for the FreeThai game. It should now be clearer.
Update May 2021There's a new app., "Reading Assistant". If you paste some Thai text it will separate it into words. If you then click on those words it will show an English definition of that word (where available). It's intended for learners who can already read a fair bit of Thai, but may get tripped up on the occasional word or two. This app. should work on both desktop PCs and tablets. There's more information on the application's "Help" page.
Update Mar. 2021I've written a new application for practising typing Thai. That's (pretty obviously) Typing Practice (above). It lets you use sample text or to copy and paste your own text. I've removed the old Thai Typing Trainers from the menu.
Update Feb. 2021I've rewritten the Thai Typing Trainer to take advantages of changes in browser technology, and added two more lessons. The plan is to rewrite all three parts of the existing Thai Typing Trainers, then retire the old app.
The Speed Test is experimental. I'm not aware of any other speed test for Thai that doesn't use spaces between words. Not using spaces makes the logic much more challenging. I'm not sure if I've got it working well or not for "real world" typists.
