Shangri LinguaHow to say “elephant” in Thai
ช้าง
/t͡ɕʰáːŋ/
ช้าง means elephant.
Pronunciation and usage
Tone: high
The elephant is Thailand’s national animal, and its letter ช is the one Thai children learn as “cho chang”.
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
- ช้างกินกล้วย
cháang gin glûai/t͡ɕʰáːŋ kin klûaj/
Elephants eat bananas.
How it’s spelled
Thai is written in a fixed order, which isn’t always the order you hear. Here’s each letter of ช้าง in the order you’d write it.
- ช
“ch” starts the word.
cho chang, from ช้าง (elephant)Low class
Like ข, with a tail flicking off the top right.
- ้
Mai tho, a tone mark. It goes above the consonant.
mai tho
A small curve, like a tiny 2.
- า
The vowel “long a”. Written after the consonant.
sara aa
A hook over the top and a straight drop down.
- ง
“ng” ends the word.
ngo ngu, from งู (snake)Low class
Compact: a loop at the middle left, a line running down to the foot, then straight up the right.
Why the tone is high
- It starts with ช, which is low class.
- It has mai tho. Low class with mai tho gives a high tone.
Mai tho doesn’t always mean one tone: it gives a falling tone on mid and high class letters, and a high 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 ช้าง 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 animals
- แมว
maew/mɛːw/
- หมา
mǎa/mǎː/
- ม้า
máa/máː/
- ปู
bpoo/puː/
- งู
ngoo/ŋuː/
- กา
gaa/kaː/
Browse all Thai vocabulary.