Shangri Lingua

How to say “cat” in Thai

แมว

maew

/mɛːw/

แมว means cat.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: mid

Say it out loud and you’ll hear the meow in it.

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

  • แมวนอนบนโต๊ะ

    maew non bon dtó/mɛːw nɔːn bon tóʔ/

    The cat is sleeping on the table.

How it’s spelled

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

  • แ

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

    sara ae

    Two เ side by side.

  • ม

    “m” starts the word.

    mo ma, from ม้า (horse)Low class

    A loop at the top left, a second loop at the bottom left, and a W-shaped base. Compare น.

  • ว

    “w” ends the word.

    wo waen, from แหวน (ring)Low class

    A small arch curling over to the right, with a loop at the lower left.

Why the tone is mid

  1. It starts with ม, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends in “w”, a sound you can hold, so the syllable is live.
  4. Low class and live gives a mid tone.

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

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches แมว 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.

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Browse all Thai vocabulary.