Sabai Thai letter to tao (ต)
Mid-class consonant 21 of 44. It is written ต เต่า in full, the way Thai children learn it, and sounds like "t" at the start of a syllable.
Remember it
A turtle pulling its head into its shell - round and compact.
Thai children learn the letter by its full name, ต เต่า to tao, picture and all. Say the whole thing and the shape comes with it.
What its class does to the tone
Mid class is the smallest group and the only one that can take all four tone marks. With no mark it gives a mid tone on a live syllable and a low tone on a dead one. These three lines cover most of what you will meet, and they hold for ต exactly as they do for every other mid-class letter.
The examples are whichever mid-class word shows the rule most clearly. The full grid for all three classes is here.
Letters that sound the same
2 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
592 course words use ตLearn ต 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