Download Thai - one word at a time! This biweekly column focusing on a Thai word or phrase originally appears in the Expat Newsletter, the official publication of the Chiangmai Expats Club.

>> taste and smell

  >> sia

  >>thii

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Note about transliteration:

Thai uses its own alphabet, adding an additional challenge to those studying the language. Purists say that the best way to learn Thai is to learn the Thai script itself first, and not use the intermediary step of 'transliterated Thai' - Thai words spelt in Roman characters.

That's all well and good, but the fact is that if your goal is to be able to speak Thai relatively quickly, you need to use transliterated Thai at the same time you're learning the actual Thai script. Otherwise, it will be a year or two before you can actually start speaking it.

The problem with transliteration is that there are many different systems. It's a bit like building a railway network with different track widths in each province. We've decided to use the system adopted by http://thai-language.com, an excellent site we encourage you to use as an online dictionary.

For a complete explanation of consonants , click here.
To learn all about vowels, click here.

But you don't need to master it right away! Doing the lessons on this page will help you learn.

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