Shangri Lingua

How to say “heart” in Thai

ใจ

jai

/t͡ɕaj/

ใจ means heart.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: mid

Hundreds of Thai expressions about feelings are built on this word: เข้าใจ (kâo jai), “enter heart”, means to understand.

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

  • ครูของฉันใจดีมาก

    kroo kǒng chǎn jai dee mâak/kʰruː kʰɔ̌ːŋ t͡ɕʰǎn t͡ɕaj diː mâːk/

    My teacher is very kind (literally “good heart”).

How it’s spelled

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

  • ใ

    The vowel “ai”. Written first, but heard after the consonant.

    sara ai mai muan

    Tall, with a loop curling inside the top. Compare ไ.

  • จ

    “j” starts the word.

    cho chan, from จาน (plate)Mid class

    Arches over the top and down the right, then curls back to a loop in the middle.

Why the tone is mid

  1. It starts with จ, which is mid class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends on a vowel that always counts as live.
  4. Mid 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 ใจ 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

Browse all Thai vocabulary.