1. The normal position of the tone mark is over the initial consonant of the syllable or word.

   If there is a vowel over the consonant the tone mark is placed above it.

   	ข้าว	KAOU	d	Rice
   	ชื่อ	CHEU	d	Name
   	นั่น	NUN	d	That
   	ห้อง	HORNG	d	Room

2. If the first consonant is a silent one (silent ห or silent อ) the tone mark is placed over the second, or first sounded consonant, but remember, the tone is still governed by the class of the first consonant even though it be a silent one.

   	หญ้า	YAH	d	Grass
   	หนึ่ง	NEUNG	l	One
   	อย่า	YAH	l	Do not
   	อยู่	YOO	l	Live

3. In most words having two initial consonants of which either ก, ข, ค, ป, ผ or พ is the first and either ร, ล or ว is the second. The two consonants form what is called “a consonant cluster” and can be pronounced together.

   In this case the tone mark is placed over the second consonant although the tone is still governed by the class of the first consonant in the normal manner.

   	กว้าง	GWAHNG	d	Wide
   	คลุ่ม	KLOOM	d	Convex
   	เปล่า	PLOW	l	Empty

   It should be noted that when ว comes immediately after the first consonant and is not modified by a vowel it is nearly always acting as a vowel itself with the sound of OO-A and not as a second consonant.

   In this case the tone mark if any will naturally be placed over the first consonant in the normal manner.

   	ขวด	KOO-AT	l	Bottle
   	ป่วย	POO-AY	l	Sick
   	ม่วง	MOO-ANG	d	Purple

4. In words which start with two initial consonants but have an inherent “a” understood between them, the tone mark if any is placed over the second consonant which, as was mentioned in Lesson 4.B.3.(a) is considered as being really the initial consonant of the second syllable.

   In words of this class the tone of the second syllable is often anomalous and is governed by special rules which will be dealt with in Lesson 18.B.1.

5. As has been mentioned in Lesson 6.B.3.(a) and 7.B.3.(a), certain double initial consonants are often pronounced as a single consonant.

   In these cases the tone of the syllable is governed by the class of the first consonant in the normal manner but the tone mark and also the vowel symbol if any are positioned relative to the second consonant.

   	ทราบ	SAHP	d	To know
   	ศรี	SEE	r	Glory
   	สร้าง	SAHNG	d	To build
   	เสร็จ	SET	l	Finished
   	จริง	JING	c	True

Generated by Lyndon Hill on Thu Jul 20 18:40:32 BST 2006.

Copyright remains with the original authors.