Shangri Lingua

How to say “wait” in Thai

รอ

ror

/rɔː/

รอ means to wait.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: mid

รอก่อน (ror gòn), “wait first”, is the everyday way to ask someone to hold on a moment.

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

  • รอสักครู่นะ

    ror sàk krôo ná/rɔː sàk kʰrûː náʔ/

    Wait a moment.

How it’s spelled

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

  • ร

    “r” starts the word.

    ro ruea, from เรือ (boat)Low class

    A wavy flag across the top, a drop down the right, and a small loop at the bottom.

  • อ

    Here อ is the vowel, like the “aw” in “saw”.

    o ang, from อ่าง (basin)Mid class

    A closed egg shape with a small head inside at the top. Carries a vowel when a syllable starts with one.

Why the tone is mid

  1. It starts with ร, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends on a long vowel, which you can hold, so the syllable is live.
  4. Low class and live gives a mid tone.

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

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches รอ 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 everyday life

Browse all Thai vocabulary.