Shangri Lingua

How to say “color” in Thai

สี

sěe

/sǐː/

สี means color.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: rising

Names of colors usually start with this word: สีแดง (sěe daeng) is red and สีฟ้า (sěe fáa), “sky color”, is light blue.

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

  • คุณชอบสีอะไร

    kun chôp sěe à-rai?/kʰun t͡ɕʰɔ̂ːp sǐː ʔà.raj/

    What color do you like?

How it’s spelled

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

  • ส

    “s” starts the word.

    so suea, from เสือ (tiger)High class

    Like ล, with a flick at the top.

  •  ี

    The vowel “long i”. Sits on top of the consonant.

    sara ii

    Like sara i, with a small stroke on the right.

Why the tone is rising

  1. It starts with ส, which is high class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends on a long vowel, which you can hold, so the syllable is live.
  4. High class and live gives a rising tone.

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

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches สี 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.