Shangri Lingua

How to say “son or daughter” in Thai

ลูก

lôok

/lûːk/

ลูก means child (son or daughter).

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: falling

This is your own child, at any age. It also appears in ลูกค้า (lôok-káa), “customer”, and as the word for counting round things like balls and fruit.

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

  • ลูกของฉันอายุห้าขวบ

    lôok kǒng chǎn aa-yú hâa kùap/lûːk kʰɔ̌ːŋ t͡ɕʰǎn ʔaː.jú hâː kʰùap/

    My child is five years old.

How it’s spelled

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

  • ล

    “l” starts the word.

    lo ling, from ลิง (monkey)Low class

    An arch with a loop at the foot on the left. Compare ส.

  •  ู

    The vowel “long u”. Hangs below the consonant.

    sara uu

    Like sara u, with a loop added.

  • ก

    “k” ends the word.

    ko kai, from ไก่ (chicken)Mid class

    No loop at all: a beak at the top left and two legs. Compare ภ and ถ, which add a loop.

Why the tone is falling

  1. It starts with ล, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends in “k”, a sound that stops short, so the syllable is dead.
  4. Low class and dead depends on the vowel too. This one is long, which gives a falling tone.

New to consonant classes and live or dead syllables? See how Thai tones work.

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches ลูก 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.