Shangri Lingua

How to say “flag” in Thai

ธง

tong

/tʰoŋ/

ธง means flag.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: mid

ธงชาติ (tong châat) is a national flag. Thailand’s has five stripes in red, white and 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

  • ธงชาติไทยมีสามสี

    tong châat tai mee sǎam sěe/tʰoŋ t͡ɕʰâːt tʰaj miː sǎːm sǐː/

    The Thai flag has three colors.

How it’s spelled

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

  • ธ

    “t” starts the word.

    tho thong, from ธง (flag)Low class

    A wavy flag on top of a squarish body with a flat base.

  • 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.

No vowel is written here: two consonants with nothing between them get a short “o”.

Why the tone is mid

  1. It starts with ธ, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends in “ng”, 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 ธง 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 places and things

Browse all Thai vocabulary.