Shangri Lingua

How to say “rain” in Thai

ฝน

fǒn

/fǒn/

ฝน means rain.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: rising

Thai says rain “falls”, the same as English: ฝนตก (fǒn dtòk) is “it’s raining”.

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

  • ฝนตกทุกวัน

    fǒn dtòk túk wan/fǒn tòk tʰúk wan/

    It rains every day.

How it’s spelled

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

  • ฝ

    “f” starts the word.

    fo fa, from ฝา (lid)High class

    Same as ผ, but the right side rises tall.

  • น

    “n” ends the word.

    no nu, from หนู (mouse)Low class

    A loop at the top left, ending in a small loop at the bottom right. Compare ม.

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

Why the tone is rising

  1. It starts with ฝ, which is high class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends in “n”, a sound you can hold, so the syllable is live.
  4. 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 ฝน 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.

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