Shangri Lingua

How to say “chicken” in Thai

ไก่

gài

/kàj/

ไก่ means chicken.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: low

Don’t confuse this with ไข่ (kài), “egg”. The tone is the same, and only the puff of air on the k tells them apart.

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

  • เอาไก่

    ao gài/ʔaw kàj/

    I’ll have chicken.

  • ข้าวผัดไก่

    kâao pàt gài/kʰâːw pʰàt kàj/

    Chicken fried rice.

  • ไก่ตัวนี้ใหญ่มาก

    gài dtua née yài mâak/kàj tua níː jàj mâːk/

    This chicken is very big.

How it’s spelled

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

  • ไ

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

    sara ai mai malai

    Tall, with a wave across the top. Compare ใ.

  • ก

    “g” starts the word.

    ko kai, from ไก่ (chicken)Mid class

    No loop at all: a beak at the top left and two legs. Compare ภ and ถ, which add a loop.

  •  ่

    Mai ek, a tone mark. It goes above the consonant.

    mai ek

    A single short vertical stroke.

Why the tone is low

  1. It starts with ก, which is mid class.
  2. It has mai ek. Mid class with mai ek gives a low tone.

Mai ek doesn’t always mean one tone: it gives a low tone on mid and high class letters, and a falling tone on low class.

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

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches ไก่ 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 meats

Learn these words together in the lesson Have you eaten yet?, or browse all Thai vocabulary.