Shangri Lingua

How to say “sky” in Thai

ฟ้า

fáa

/fáː/

ฟ้า means sky.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: high

สีฟ้า (sěe fáa), “sky color”, is the word for light blue. Dark blue has its own name, น้ำเงิน (náam-ngoen).

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

  • วันนี้ฟ้าสวยมาก

    wan-née fáa sǔai mâak/wan.níː fáː sǔaj mâːk/

    The sky is very beautiful today.

How it’s spelled

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

  • ฟ

    “f” starts the word.

    fo fan, from ฟัน (teeth)Low class

    Same as พ, but the right side rises tall.

  •  ้

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

    mai tho

    A small curve, like a tiny 2.

  • า

    The vowel “long a”. Written after the consonant.

    sara aa

    A hook over the top and a straight drop down.

Why the tone is high

  1. It starts with ฟ, which is low class.
  2. It has mai tho. Low class with mai tho gives a high tone.

Mai tho doesn’t always mean one tone: it gives a falling tone on mid and high class letters, and a high 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 ฟ้า 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 nature and weather

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