Thai: An Essential Grammar

by David Smyth

This second edition of Thai: An Essential Grammar provides an up-to-date and concise reference guide to Thai grammar.

Using clear, jargon-free explanations, it sets out the complexities of Thai in short, readable sections and presents an accessible description of the language. Focus is kept on the real patterns of use today and grammar forms are demonstrated through a wide range of relevant examples. No prior knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader.

Features include:

Coverage of crucial topics, such as sentence particles, negation, questions and quantification
Examples given in both Thai script and romanised transliteration
Pronunciation section
Guidance on speech conventions and the Thai writing system
Glossary of grammatical terms
Two appendices covering Romanisation systems and three key verbs
Bibliography

This unique reference work will prove invaluable to all learners looking to master the grammar of Thai. It is ideal either for independent study or for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Reference

498 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and well produced.

I consider this to be the best book available for learning Thai grammar.

- Aaron Handel

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, as much as you can read a language grammar from cover to cover, I have done it with this book. I love its cross between a grammar book with a stiff upper lip and a useable phrasebook. It basically taught me to read and write Thai and pull out a perfect phrase when the opportunity arose.

[Lidiya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book with A LOT OF information! It's been really helpful for me. Still I have a few BUTs:
1. If you don't know Thai alphabet and some basics of thai grammar you will have many difficulties with learning by the book, especially all the Thai letters.
2. Why? WHY does the book have English transcriptions of Thai words BEFORE those Thai words?! English isn't my native language so most of the time I just haven't paid attention to the transcriptions and read in Thai /I read transcriptions when i wasn't sure how to pronounce words in Thai/. But don't you think that this "English transcription-Thai word" order will make harder for people to memorize Thai letters and words? People just can't read in Thai after that i think.
So in conclusion if you know Thai alphabet and basics of Thai grammar but you want to know more of grammatical constructions so that you can create different and complicated sentences this book is for you.

[San · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book for beginners, but I'd advise you to at least know how to read the thai alphabet before reading this.
To me it was a starting point to get the most common things before I tried other (a little more complex) thai grammars.
The biggest flaw in this book is using only phonetics to teach words in thai, like, this does not make any sense, man, I NEED to learn how to read it to so I can make the connection between phonemes and the corresponding written letters.
Some more specific aspects of thai language are also under-explained (and I've figured that out the hard way), but like I said, if you want to start learning thai then you must learn how to read the alphabet and then go and read this book it'll help for sure (I'd also suggest for you to write the written word were the book uses only the phonetic version, it'll help a lot)