Sabai Thai letter pho sampao (ภ)
Low-class consonant 32 of 44. It is written ภ สำเภา in full, the way Thai children learn it, and sounds like "ph" at the start of a syllable.
Remember it
A traditional sailing junk with a curved hull.
Thai children learn the letter by its full name, ภ สำเภา pho sampao, picture and all. Say the whole thing and the shape comes with it.
What its class does to the tone
Low class is the biggest group. With no mark it gives a mid tone on a live syllable, and a dead syllable splits on vowel length. These three lines cover most of what you will meet, and they hold for ภ exactly as they do for every other low-class letter.
The examples are whichever low-class word shows the rule most clearly. The full grid for all three classes is here.
Letters that sound the same
3 letters, one sound. Which one a word uses is spelling history rather than pronunciation, so these are learned as part of the word.
Easy to mix up with
Each pair differs by one stroke, and each mistake changes the word.
Words that use it
Every line here is one you will meet again in a lesson. Press play to hear it.
Where it turns up in the course
35 course words use ภLearn ภ early and these are the chapters it pays off in first.
Drill all 68 characters in the app
Listening and recall drills, with audio on every character.
What free includes