Why don't Thai people understand me?

Tone changes the word

English uses pitch for feeling: a question goes up, surprise goes high. Thai uses pitch to tell words apart. Two pairs to hear for yourself:

Thai	Sounds like	Tone	Means
ใกล้ ▶	klâi	falling	near
ไกล ▶	klai	mid	far
ม้า ▶	máa	high	horse
หมา ▶	mǎa	rising	dog

Tell a taxi driver your hotel is near with a mid tone and you've told him it's far.

The four usual causes

1. English intonation leaking in. We raise pitch at the end of questions and drop it at the end of statements. In Thai that overwrites the last syllable's tone.
2. Flattening everything to mid. When you're unsure, you tend to say every syllable at one level pitch. Mid is right only some of the time.
3. Romanisation without tone marks. If you learned from spellings like “sawasdee” or “khob khun”, nothing told you the tones, so you guessed.
4. Sounds English doesn't split. Thai separates k/kh, dt/th and bp/ph by a puff of air, and long from short vowels. These matter as well, but tone is the one people notice first. See the pronunciation guide.

Why you can't hear it yourself

Your ear was trained on English, where pitch carries mood, not meaning. So your Thai sounds fine to you even when the tone is off. That's normal, and it's why practising alone with audio isn't enough: you need something that shows you the difference. More on this in how to know if your tones are right.

How to fix it

• Learn every word with its tone. Use romanisation that marks the tone on every syllable, or learn the script rules in Thai tones.
• Say it out loud, then check it. Record yourself and compare your pitch with a native speaker's. Ravela's Pronunciation Lab draws your pitch line next to a native line and tells you what to change.
• Keep English questions out. Thai questions use a question word such as ไหม, not a rising voice.
• Practise in short daily bursts. Five words a day, checked, beats an hour of listening once a week.

Try it now, free

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Questions people ask

Why do Thai people not understand my Thai?

Most often it's the tone. In Thai the pitch of a syllable is part of the word, so the right sounds on the wrong tone can be a different word or no word at all.

Do Thai people understand Thai with the wrong tone?

Sometimes, from context, especially for common phrases. In short answers, single words and anything unexpected, a wrong tone often isn't understood.

How can I tell if my Thai tones are wrong?

Your own ear isn't a reliable judge. Record yourself and compare your pitch line with a native speaker's, or ask a Thai speaker which word they heard.