Basics

Thai is a difficult language and these pages are for tourists and backpackers, it is not the place to learn Thai. If you want to learn try Pimsleur's Thai. There are a lot of resources on the web but the free versions are often misleading or incorrect.

There is a printer friendly download of useful phrases here and soundbites to go with the phrases on further pages.
Some sounds do not match well to the Western alphabet and often sounds are silent or only half used such as the letter 'h' except when in conjunction with 'c'.   Chew is pronounced as in the English 'to chew your food' and translates directly as 'name', whereas Khao is pronounced cow (extending the 'k' sound with a feint h as in heat).

Thai is punctuated with, male - Khrap, female - Ka. These express the end of your dialogue and are polite.

Getting started:

A girl I once met and I travelled a lot around Thailand together talking about all kinds of things that occur in everyday chat. She asked me what car I have back in England, The interest was followed with what car is the best car in England?   I said Aston Martin,. She went on to explain that the best car in Thailand is the Fellerlee. I enquired of her, "I have never heard of that car before, what make is it?"
She replied "oh! I doh noh."

3 months later she visited me in England and after the usual wrangling with bureaucracy to obtain the necessary visa I went to Heathrow to meet her. As we drove back up the M40 I could see in my mirror approaching rapidly a beautiful fresh out the showroom Ferrari 455. I commented to the girl "now that is a beautiful car" as it passed cacophonously by. To which she replied "I thought you never heard of Fellerlee?..