Shangri Lingua

How to say “father” in Thai

พ่อ

pôr

/pʰɔ̂ː/

พ่อ means father.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: falling

Put it with the word for mother and you get พ่อแม่ (pôr mâe), “parents”.

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

  • พ่อไปทำงาน

    pôr bpai tam-ngaan/pʰɔ̂ː paj tʰam.ŋaːn/

    My father went to work.

How it’s spelled

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

  • พ

    “p” starts the word.

    pho phan, from พาน (tray)Low class

    A loop outside the top of the stem, and a W that rises high. Compare ผ.

  •  ่

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

    mai ek

    A single short vertical stroke.

  • อ

    Here อ is the vowel, like the “aw” in “saw”.

    o ang, from อ่าง (basin)Mid class

    A closed egg shape with a small head inside at the top. Carries a vowel when a syllable starts with one.

Why the tone is falling

  1. It starts with พ, which is low class.
  2. It has mai ek. Low class with mai ek gives a falling 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 พ่อ 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 people and family

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