Using an iPhone & iPad in Thailand Tips, App Reviews and News for the iPhone and iPad by Richard Barrow

Thai Alphabet Helper

The Thai Alphabet Helper app for the iPhone was designed to help you memorize the Thai alphabet, including consonants, vowels, tone marks, and pronunciation rules. You'll also get a chance to practice reading some common Thai words.

It is good to see more iPhone apps coming out recently that help you learn the Thai language. The Thai Alphabet Helper is another app to help teach you the alphabet and unlike some others this one is free. Interestingly, this one breaks the alphabet up into the three main groups of middle, high and low consonants. For each one you get a picture and also a sound clip. There is also a section on short and long vowels. The reason the consonants are sorted into groups is because this apps tries its best to teach you the correct tones to use for each word. Quite ambitious but as they say themselves, you should also study from a book and then use this app when you are away as a kind of reminder. The last section has a list of words broken up by letters. You can click on each letter to hear a sound file or the whole word. However, it would be better if when you clicked on the letter you get the sound of the letter "kor" and not the name "kor kwai". Having said that, this app is worth downloading if you want a good introduction to the Thai alphabet.