Shangri Lingua

How to say “older sibling” in Thai

พี่

pêe

/pʰîː/

พี่ means older brother or sister.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: falling

Thai cares more about age than gender here. It’s also how you address anyone a little older than you, and a younger person is น้อง (nóng).

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

  • พี่ของฉันเป็นครู

    pêe kǒng chǎn bpen kroo/pʰîː kʰɔ̌ːŋ t͡ɕʰǎn pen kʰruː/

    My older sibling is a teacher.

How it’s spelled

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

  •  ี

    The vowel “long i”. Sits on top of the consonant.

    sara ii

    Like sara i, with a small stroke on the right.

  •  ่

    Mai ek, a tone mark. It goes above the consonant, on top of the vowel already there.

    mai ek

    A single short vertical stroke.

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 พี่ 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.