Dead & Live Syllables | คำเป็นคำตาย

Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with!

I'm being a bit overly dramatic here hehehe. I'm just setting the mood for something so haunting like dead syllables!

Why do we need to learn this?

Well... they affect the tones! big time!

To understand the difference between these two kinds of syllables, there's only one thing to keep in mind:

A dead syllable ends abruptly whereas a live syllable can go on and on until you run out of breath!

Here are some rules:

1. Without an ending, short vowel sounds make a dead syllable, and long vowel sounds make a live syllable.

2. With an ending, the ending used is in command. Forget about the vowels!

There are 9 ending sounds in Thai:

1. ก /k/

2. บ /p/

3. ด /t/

4. น /n/

5. ม /m/

6. ย /y/

7. ว /w/

8. ง /ng/

9. No ending consonant.

The first 3 sounds (/k/, /p/, /t/) make a dead syllable. The rest makes a live syllable. As for the one without an ending consonant, remember our 1st rule? Yup! Let me show you a chart for all of this.

Notice: some of the letters change the sound when they're functioning as an ending consonant, for instance, ฟ /f/ turns into a /p/ sound, ร /r/ turns into a /n/ sound, etc. Watch my video and listen carefully to how the sounds end.

Quick practice! See if you can tell if it's a dead or live syllable just by looking at it. Click '>' to reveal the answer!

คน kon = person

live

ดี dee = good

live

ให้ hâi= to give

live

แปลก bplàek = weird

dead

จบ jòp = to end, to finish

dead

ชนิด chá-nít = kind, type (2 syllables)

dead/dead

อาคาร aa-kaan = building (2 syllables)

live/live

สุภาพ sù-pâap = polite (2 syllables)

dead/dead

ยีราฟ yee-râaf = Giraffe (2 syllables)

live/dead

งงงวย ngong-nguuay = perplexed (2 syllables)

live/live