Shangri Lingua

How to say “day” in Thai

วัน

wan

/wan/

วัน means day.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: mid

วันนี้ (wan-née), “this day”, means today. The name of every day of the week starts with this word too.

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

  • วันนี้วันอะไร

    wan-née wan à-rai?/wan.níː wan ʔà.raj/

    What day is it today?

How it’s spelled

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

  • ว

    “w” starts the word.

    wo waen, from แหวน (ring)Low class

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

  •  ั

    The vowel “short a”. Sits on top, when a final consonant follows, as in รัก.

    mai han akat

    A small loop with a stroke rising to the right.

  • น

    “n” ends the word.

    no nu, from หนู (mouse)Low class

    A loop at the top left, ending in a small loop at the bottom right. Compare ม.

Why the tone is mid

  1. It starts with ว, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends in “n”, 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 วัน 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.