Easy Thai: Learn to Speak Thai Quickly (Includes Downloadable Audio)
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About this ebook
Easy Thai is exciting and helpful for beginning Thai Language students and anyone who needs a functional day-to-day grasp of colloquial Thai. An excellent resource to learn Thai, its twelve chapters cover practical and useful conversation topics such as introductions, telling the time, directions, ordering food and shopping. Each chapter opens with a dialogue that introduces the new language in context and contains:
- Vocabulary lists
- Grammar notes
- Sentence patterns
- Exercises
- Notes on culture and etiquette.
Easy Thai contains everything you as a beginning language learner need to know about the basics of Thai, making you a more effective communicator from the very first lesson without having to resort to long, dull, expensive courses of study!
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Book preview
Easy Thai - Jintana Rattanakhemakorn
EASY
Thai
EASY
Thai
Learn to Speak Thai Quickly
Jintana Rattanakhemakorn
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
The Tuttle Story: Books to Span the East and West
Many people are surprised to learn that the world’s largest publisher of books on Asia had its humble beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The company’s founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing.
Immediately after WWII, Tuttle served in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur and was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry. He later founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which thrives today as one of the world’s leading independent publishers.
Though a westerner, Tuttle was hugely instrumental in bringing a knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 books on Asian culture, history and art—a legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the Order of the Sacred Treasure,
the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese.
With a backlist of 1,500 titles, Tuttle Publishing is more active today than at any time in its past—inspired by Charles Tuttle’s core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
www.tuttlepublishing.com
Copyright © 2015 Jintana Rattanakhemakorn
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Distributed by
North America, Latin America & Europe
Tuttle Publishing
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VT 05759-9436, USA
Tel: 1 (802) 773 8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773 6993
info@tuttlepublishing.com
www.tuttlepublishing.com
Japan
Tuttle Publishing
Yaekari Building 3rd Floor, 5-4-12 Osaki
Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 1410032, Japan
Tel: (81) 3 5437 0171; Fax: (81) 3 5437 0755
sales@tuttle.co.jp; www.tuttle.co.jp
Asia Pacific
Berkeley Books Pte Ltd
61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12,
Singapore 534167
Tel: (65) 6280 1330; Fax: (65) 6280 6290
inquiries@periplus.com.sg
www.periplus.com
Indonesia
PT Java Books Indonesia
Jl. Rawa Gelam IV No. 9
Kawasan Industri Pulogadung
Jakarta 13930, Indonesia
Tel: 62 (21) 4682 1088; Fax: 62 (21) 461 0206
crm@periplus.co.id; www.periplus.com
ISBN: 978-0-8048-4256-3
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1526-2 (ebook)
Library of Congress CIP data in progress.
First edition
18 17 16 15
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1411MP
Printed in Singapore
TUTTLE PUBLISHING® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Contents
Introduction
• The Thai script
• Consonants, vowels, and tones
LESSON 1: Greetings
• Greetings and introductions
• Asking someone’s name and nationality
• Talking about what you can and can’t do
LESSON 2: Food
• Talking about food
• Ordering a meal in a restaurant
• Food, drink, and cooking vocabulary
LESSON 3: Family
• Talking about family members
• Numbers
• Talking about occupations
LESSON 4: What time is it?
• Telling the time
• Talking about daily routines
LESSON 5: Yesterday and tomorrow
• Talking about past events
• Talking about future plans
• Leisure activities vocabulary
LESSON 6: Shopping
• Shopping dialogues
• Everyday items, color, and size vocabulary
LESSON 7: Directions
• Asking and giving directions
• Locations vocabulary
LESSON 8: How are you today?
• Talking about feelings
LESSON 9: Health
• Describing ailments
• Parts of the body
• Responding to advice
LESSON 10: Describing people
• Describing appearances
• Describing personality
LESSON 11: Communications
• Talking on the phone
• Using the Internet
• Talking to the bank teller
Answer key
Thai–English Glossary
English–Thai Glossary
How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book.
1. You must have an internet connection.
2. Click the link below or copy paste the URL to your web browser.
http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/easy-thai-downloadable-cd-content
For support email us at info@tuttlepublishing.com.
Introduction
The eleven lessons in Easy Thai contain everything the self-study learner needs for a quick, functional grasp of daily communicative Thai, without having to spend time attending language school or investing in expensive textbooks for formal study.
Each chapter focuses on a practical situation the visitor to Thailand may experience, through the character of Jim, an American who is visiting Thailand to study. As you follow Jim’s adventures you’ll learn how to communicate in a variety of realistic scenarios— from introducing yourself to friends and colleagues and ordering food at a restaurant to asking for help with health problems and carrying out simple transactions at the bank.
Key language for each new topic is introduced through a dialogue that presents new words and phrases in context. The dialogues are followed by a breakdown of key sentence patterns, simple grammar explanations, lists of related phrases and vocabulary, and practice exercises. An answer key for the practice exercises is provided at the back of the book. The accompanying audio contains recordings of all key dialogues, words, and phrases by native Thai speakers, so that you can practice correct pronunciation. A detailed pronunciation guide and information about the Thai script is also included on pages 8–11.
Along with cultural notes in every chapter, and an appendix containing glossaries of useful vocabulary, this book has everything you need to not only survive in Thailand but to enjoy interacting with the Thai people you meet and develop rewarding relationships. Happy traveling!
Jintana Rattanakhemakorn
The Thai Script
The Thai alphabet was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng and was probably derived from the Old Khmer alphabet. Thai has an alphabetic script with a few distinctive features – it has no spaces between words as well as no small and capital forms like the Roman alphabet. Each unit of the alphabetic script represents a sound.
In this book, you are primarily learning conversational Thai, but Thai script is included so that you can start to become familiar with the language in its written form. In this introductory section you will find guidelines for the correct pronunciation of each Thai vowel and consonant. Throughout the book, each time a Thai word or phrase is used, romanized pronunciation is included, using the sounds below.
The simplified set of instructions that follow will help the beginner in Thai, working alone, to achieve level of pronunciation sufficient for basic daily communication.
Thai Consonants
There are 44 consonant characters in Thai representing 20 consonant sounds. The following listing follows Thai alphabetical order. Of these 44 consonants, the two underlined are obsolete.
ก ข ฃ ค ฅ ฆ ง จ ฉ ช ซ ฌ ญ ฎ ฏ ฐ ฑ ฒ ณ ด ต ถ ท ธ
น บ ป ผ ฝ พ ฟ ภ ม ย ร ล ว ศ ษ ส ห ฬ อ ฮ
Stop ending
When these consonants appear at the end of a word, they are not voiced aloud.
Vowels
There are 18 single vowels in Thai, which appear singly or in combination. Thai vowels have two sounds
: short and long.
1. Short vowels
There are nine short
vowels and dipthongs: