Disclaimer: I am not an expert in teaching Thai language. I just try to simplify the basic Thai language as a native speaker myself. Hope this help you to learn basic Thai initial consonants & vowels.

Thai ending consonants are not pronounced. For example, "TAP" and "TAB" (in English) are pronounced the same in Thai accent since we do not pronounce the ending sound /-p/ or /-b/.

And here is basic anatomy of a Thai word, which consists of an initial consonant, a vowel, a final consonant, and tone. I give you few sample words to see their structure.

There are 5 tones in Thai language, you can learn more about it here:

In case you‘re confused, there 44 characters in Thai language. They are grouped into 21 groups of initial consonants, and 8 groups of ending consonants. But they are the same set of 44 characters.

After you‘ve somewhat mastered basic Thai reading/writing, try this quiz.

How to pronounce these words?

Ex: มาร -> maan

1. ศา-ลา
2. ขาว
3. ดำ
4. ดิน-สอ
5. สอง
6. สาม
7. แปด
8. เมฆ
9. โจร
10. สะ-ดือ

Quiz 2: Can you guess the name of countries listed here? (Don’t use a translator to read na ka 555)

1. มา-เล-เซีย
2. อิน-โด-นี-เซีย
3. เวียด-นาม
4. ฟิ-ลิป-ปิน
5. ลิ-เบีย
6. อิน-เดีย
7. อา-เจน-ติ-นา
8. เป-รู
9. แค-นา-ดา
10. โอ-มาน