Fortunately there is not as many vowels to learn as consonants. But there are many more than you probably are used to – 32 in total, and 40 ways to represent them. (I am told, however, that only 30 of them are in use in the language today).
I have build an interactive vowel trainer for your convenience, but it may be worthwhile with a little instructions before you get started. Here is a two part – and very thorough and systematic – overview done by AHSOKA10
Interactive Wovel Trainer
I couldn’t find examples on all of them, so I’ll just start with the 28 I managed to put together initially.
Each vowel has either a long or short sound. The majority of vowels cannot stand alone, so there is also inserted a Thai consonant (A Ang) which is shown in bluish above. This is a special letter that apparently can be both a consonant and vowel.
Instructions
If you have a Flash Mx plugin installed, you can start the trainer by clicking the image below. (If not you can install it in a matter of seconds.)
- Press the green button when you positively remember a symbol. When you do that, it will be removed from the drill and you don’t have to waste time practicing it this time.
- Press the red button if you don’t feel this is a familiar symbol.
- Check the name by moving your mouse over the symbol
- Listen to the pronunciation by clicking the symbol.
- Scroll through the cards with the arrow symbols at the top
The score is calculated as the percentage of familiar symbols. Try it out and see if you can improve your performance over time.
