Spoken and written Thai remain largely incomprehensible to the casual visitor. However, English is widely understood, particularly in Bangkok where it is almost the major commercial language. English and other European languages are spoken in most hotels, shops and restaurants, in major tourist destinations, and Thai-English road and street signs are found nationwide.

Thai is a tonal language, which makes it extremely hard for foreigners to learn.The formalization of the Thai alphabet is accredited to King Ramkamhaeng of Sukhothai who, reputedly in 1283, developed written Thai from a south Indian script via Mon and Khmer writing. With only slight modifications, the 13th century alphabet has survived in modern Thai, with 44 consonants and 32 vowels. Writing reads from left to right but words are not separated within sentences and punctuation is minimal.

Useful Phrases

The suffix Khrap if the speaker is male, and Kha if female.