Now some rules for Thailand, more or less in random order:

Rule 1:

- An "l" sound at the end of a word or syllable does not exist in Thai. It is being pronounced as an "n" sound. This is the background of two of the examples I have given on my introductory Thailand page: "Central" and "Oriental".

Also when a Thai person uses the English word hotel, instead of the Thai word, he will most likely say something very close to hoten.

When in Phuket Town, ask for Hotel "Metropone" when you want to go to Hotel "Metropole". And do so indeed, because there are few places in Thailand where the buffet lunch is better than in Hotel Metropole!! You find all the cuisine's of Asia and several European cuisine's there in your buffet, for a very reasonable price.

Rule 2:

- An "s" sound at the end of a word or syllable does not exist either in Thai. It is being pronounced as a "t" sound. Therefor a Thai person will usually not say "tennis" but something like "tennit".

The Thai language is divided very consequently into syllables. And syllables with two consonants next to each other are seldom!

Rule 3

- If a syllable -or something that can be recognized as a syllable- ends in a consonant, and the next one begins with one, a native Thai speaker will pronounce an extra "a" sound between the two consonants. And he will do the same with English words!! So don't expect him to say "sport". He will see this as two syllables and pronounce it as "sa-port". It is not so difficult as it seems, is it?

Rule 4:

- If within one syllable two consonants follow each other, usually an "o" is inserted. But let us leave that for the moment for what it is. (Lucky for you).

Now we bring all this new knowledge into practice with an exercise:

Q: How will "plastic" be pronounced by a native Thai speaker?

A: Ha! This is a tricky one!!

First we have to analyze which syllables can be recognized in this very complex word:

The first part, plas, obviously consists of two syllables already: p-las. Therefor an extra a is unavoidable (See Rule 3 above). That makes it "pa-las" But an "s" sound at the end of this syllable will be pronounced as "t" (see Rule 2 above). So it will not be "pa-las", but "pa-lat".

But this would be too mad! Every Thai person will know that "plattic" (or "palattic") is simply not to be understood by any foreigner.

So: How to solve this? Simply: add the "s" sound as well! That makes it "pa-lat-s". But remember Rule 3: An "a" will be added because this is the end of a syllable: That makes it "pa-lat-sa".

And now the good news! The last part: "tic" is perfectly all right in Thai!! So finally we know that

"plastic" will be pronounced as "pa-lat-sa-tic" according to the Thai pronunciation rules!

plastic

Exactly the same: "elastic" will be pronounced as "e-lat-sa-tic" (no sound example necessary)

Another application of the same rules: You will not hear "Pakistan", but "Pakitsatan". You don't believe me? It ids for your own risk!

Another difficult country: Expect "Ratsia" instead of "Russia".

And yet another example: Expect to hear "whitsakee" instead of "whiskey".

Some loose ends:

- The rules for emphasis and tone are complicated. Still you may use as a rough general rule that you will probably best off when you give strong emphasis on the last syllable of a word when you speak English. Don't say "center" but say "center". Don't say "tennis", say "tennis" (or better still "tennit"; see Rule 2 above).

- Some (complex) exceptions to this rule:

1) The word "necessary" will normally be pronounced as necessary.

2) The word "comfortable" will normally be pronounces as comfortable.

- If you are a video fan or if you need accessories for your video equipment, don't look for "video", but look for VDO (official spelling) However, the VDO. signs will by now almost everywhere be replaced by VCD and DVD.

Expect many small errors in the use of the English language (and don't blame the Thais too much for it. After all you could not learn Thai, so don't blame them when they try to learn English and make a few errors!!)

The most common error in writing the English language is that a shop is "CLOSE" when it is closed. Sometimes, nowadays, shops are using signs, supplied by credit card companies. Then - of course - you will find the correct spelling.

I want to show you just one example of a sign on the street that gave me real problems:

Apparently this service rises automatically. What else can be meant with "auto rize"?? (Well, I know that they mean "authorized", but they could have checked their spelling on a sign like this!)

Another example of how the English language is often used in Thailand:

This businessman really did his best to please the tourists by writing his type of business on his shop in the English language too. But English can be so difficult, especially when the English don't pronounce the first R.

This page was last uploaded:July 8, 2008 at 16:59