Shangri LinguaHow to say “hair” in Thai
ผม
/pʰǒm/
ผม means hair, and “I” for men.
Pronunciation and usage
Tone: rising
This means the hair on your head, and it’s also the word men use for “I”. Women usually say ฉัน (chǎn) for “I”.
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
- ผมชอบกินปลา
pǒm chôp gin bplaa/pʰǒm t͡ɕʰɔ̂ːp kin plaː/
I like eating fish.
How it’s spelled
Thai is written in a fixed order, which isn’t always the order you hear. Here’s each letter of ผม in the order you’d write it.
- ผ
“p” starts the word.
pho phueng, from ผึ้ง (bee)High class
A loop inside the top of the stem, and a low W. Compare พ, with its loop outside and a tall W.
- ม
“m” ends the word.
mo ma, from ม้า (horse)Low class
A loop at the top left, a second loop at the bottom left, and a W-shaped base. Compare น.
No vowel is written here: two consonants with nothing between them get a short “o”.
Why the tone is rising
- It starts with ผ, which is high class.
- There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
- It ends in “m”, a sound you can hold, so the syllable is live.
- 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 ผม 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 body parts
- ตา
dtaa/taː/
- หู
hǒo/hǔː/
- มือ
mue/mɯː/
- ปาก
bpàak/pàːk/
- ฟัน
fan/fan/
- ใจ
jai/t͡ɕaj/
Browse all Thai vocabulary.