There are 44 consonants in the Thai alphabet.

You don’t actually need to learn them in alphabetical order from 1 to 44.

In fact, if you want to speak Thai clearly and be understood, you need to group them into three classes.

These are called the three headed elephant or Tri-Yang.

Why are these classes important?

In Thai, the tone of a word isn’t just decided by the tone mark above it.

The tone is decided by a combination of the consonant class, the vowel length, and the tone mark.

If you don’t know the class of the consonant, you won’t know which tone to use when you speak.

It sounds complicated, but I’ll break it down simply for you.

The three consonant classes

In Thai, every consonant belongs to one of three groups:

• Mid Class (Akson Klang)
• High Class (Akson Sung)
• Low Class (Akson Tam)

Think of this like sorting your laundry. You have whites, colors, and darks. You have to wash them differently, or you might ruin your clothes.

In Thai, you have to treat these classes differently, or you might “ruin” the tone of the word!

Mid class consonants

The Mid Class is the best place to start because it is the smallest group and the easiest to follow.

There are only 9 letters in the Mid Class.

The “base tone” for these letters is a mid tone. This means if you see a Mid Class consonant with a long vowel and no tone mark, you just say it in a flat, middle voice.

Here are the 9 Mid Class consonants:

How to remember them:

Thai children learn a famous sentence to memorize these letters. It sounds a bit strange in English, but it works!

Gai Jik Dek Tai Bon Pak Ong

This translates to: “The chicken pecks the dead child on the mouth of the jar.”

It helps you remember the sounds: G, J, D, T, B, P, O.

High class consonants

There are 11 letters in the High Class.

This class is special (and a little tricky) because the “base tone” is actually a Rising Tone.

If you write a word with a High Class consonant and no tone mark, you pronounce it with a rising tone (like you are asking a question in English).

Here are the 11 High Class consonants:

Low class consonants

The Low Class is the biggest group. It contains 24 letters.

Because this group is so big, many students feel overwhelmed. But here is a simple trick: If it is not Mid, and it is not High, then it must be Low.

The “base tone” for this class is a mid tone (just like the Mid Class).

However, the Low Class reacts very differently when you add tone marks.

Some common Low Class consonants include:

(Note: There are more Low Class letters, but these are the ones you will see most often).

Why do classes matter? (Tone rules)

This is the most important part.

You might think that if you see the tone mark Mai Ek (which looks like the number 1: -่ ), it always creates a low tone.

That is wrong.

The tone mark changes depending on the class of the consonant.

Here is a simplified chart showing how the class changes the tone when used with common tone marks on a “live syllable” (a word ending in a long vowel or M, N, Ng):

Did you notice the Low Class row?

When you put Mai Ek on a Low Class letter, it becomes a Falling Tone. When you put Mai Tho on a Low Class letter, it becomes a High Tone.

This is why many beginners pronounce words incorrectly. They treat all consonants the same way.

Let’s look at an example.

How to memorize them effectively

Learning 44 letters and their classes is tough. Don’t try to do it all in one day.

Here is the strategy I use with my students:

1. Learn the Mid Class first

There are only 9 of them. Use the “Chicken Pecks Child” story I mentioned earlier. Once you know these 9 perfectly, you can easily spot them in any sentence.

2. Learn the High Class next

There are 11. Many of them have a “curly” head or look quite unique (like ผ, ฝ, ห).

3. The Low Class is “everything else”

Don’t stress about memorizing the 24 Low Class letters individually at the start. If you look at a letter and you know it isn’t Mid, and you know it isn’t High… then it has to be Low!

4. Use color coding

When you are writing down vocabulary in your notebook, use different colored pens for the consonants.

For example, make all Mid Class consonants Green, High Class Red, and Low Class Blue. This helps your brain visualize the class when you are reading later.

---

The Thai writing system is very logical once you understand the rules.

By grouping the consonants into Mid, High, and Low classes, you unlock the ability to predict the tone of any word you read.

Remember:

• Mid Class: 9 letters. Predictable.
• High Class: 11 letters. Base tone is Rising.
• Low Class: 24 letters. Tone marks create different sounds compared to the other classes.