Shangri Lingua

How to say “mother” in Thai

แม่

mâe

/mɛ̂ː/

แม่ means mother.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: falling

It shows up well beyond the family: แม่น้ำ (mâe náam), “mother water”, is the word for a river.

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

  • แม่ทำอาหารอร่อย

    mâe tam aa-hǎan à-ròi/mɛ̂ː tʰam ʔaː.hǎːn ʔà.rɔ̀ːj/

    My mother cooks delicious food.

How it’s spelled

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

  • แ

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

    sara ae

    Two เ side by side.

  • ม

    “m” starts 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.

  •  ่

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

    mai ek

    A single short vertical stroke.

Why the tone is falling

  1. It starts with ม, 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 แม่ 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

Browse all Thai vocabulary.