Shangri Lingua

How to say “and” in Thai

และ

láe

/lɛ́ʔ/

และ means and.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: high

This is the more formal “and”. To join two things in conversation, people often use กับ (gàp) instead.

Reading the romanization: the mark over a vowel shows its tone. bp and dt are a p and a t with no puff of air, while plain p, t and k have the puff. The IPA shows the exact sounds, and Learn the IPA explains how to read it.

Examples

  • ฉันซื้อปลาและไก่

    chǎn súe bplaa láe gài/t͡ɕʰǎn sɯ́ː plaː lɛ́ʔ kàj/

    I bought fish and chicken.

How it’s spelled

Thai is written in a fixed order, which isn’t always the order you hear. Here’s each letter of และ in the order you’d write it.

  • แ

    Part of the vowel “ae”. Written first, but heard after the consonant.

    sara ae

    Two เ side by side.

  • ล

    “l” starts the word.

    lo ling, from ลิง (monkey)Low class

    An arch with a loop at the foot on the left. Compare ส.

  • ะ

    Makes the แ vowel short.

    sara a

    Two small curls, one stacked on the other.

Why the tone is high

  1. It starts with ล, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends on a short vowel, which stops short, so the syllable is dead.
  4. Low class and dead depends on the vowel too. This one is short, which gives a high tone.

New to consonant classes and live or dead syllables? See how Thai tones work.

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches และ in its Thai writing course. You write the word one letter at a time, with your finger or Apple Pencil, and the app checks each letter and gives you more help if you get stuck. Get it on the App Store.

More basic words

Browse all Thai vocabulary.