ญ

Thai letter yo ying (ญ)

Low-class consonant 13 of 44. It is written ญ หญิง in full, the way Thai children learn it, and sounds like "y" at the start of a syllable.

Class low Initial y Final n
ญ yo ying

Remember it

A woman with long flowing hair - the tail hangs down gracefully.

Thai children learn the letter by its full name, ญ หญิง yo ying, 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 ญ exactly as they do for every other low-class letter.

live syllable, no mark mid tone นา naa Rice field
with mai ek falling tone ค่า khâa Value / fee
with mai tho high tone น้อย nói A little

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

2 letters, one sound. Which one a word uses is spelling history rather than pronunciation, so these are learned as part of the word.

Words that use it

Every line here is one you will meet again in a lesson. Press play to hear it.

หญิงyǐng
woman
ญาติyâat
relative
บุญbun
Merit
ใหญ่yài
Big
เชิญchern
Go ahead / after you
ทำบุญtham bun
To make merit
สำคัญsǎm khan
Important
สัญญาsǎn yaa
Contract
Changdee, a Sabai Thai companion
วันละตัวก็พอ wan la tua ko phoOne letter a day is enough

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