Well, again this is my opinion (and yes, I realize opinions are like a**holes, everyone's got one
)
BUT:
I have been unable to find a practical reason to learn all 44 Thai consonants (of which 42 are used nowadays) in the order they are listed in the Thai "consonant alphabet" chart
. As a foreigner, I've found it's highly unlikely you're ever gonna be called upon to recite them in order or to stand up and sing the "catchy Thai alphabet song" either.
Learn them by consonant class, start with the 9 mid-class consonants (
ก จ ฎ ฏ ด ต บ ป อ), then the 11 high class consonants (
ข ฃ ฉ ฐ ถ ผ ฝ ศ ษ ส ห), finally realize that anything left over is one of the 22 low class ones (
ค ฅ ฆ ง ช ซ ฌ ญ ฑ ฒ ณ ท ธ น พ ฟ ภ ม ย ร ล ว ฬ ฮ).
Just a note; while some schools teach paired and single low class consonants, there is NO advantage to knowing this that I can work out (other than to break the long-ish list of 22 low class consonants down into more manageable bites)
..
When you learn the class of consonants, you need to learn three things;
*the normal sound that particular consonant makes when it starts a word,
*the sound it makes when it ends a word (that is IF it makes one, because there are some Thai consonants which NEVER end words), also if it ends a word or syllable does it make a live
คำเป็น or dead
คำตาย ending
*and lastly what tone sound that consonant is compelled to make when it has a tone mark over it.
I suggest learning the tone mark sounds in the same order;
*tone marks over middle class consonants (the only class of consonant which can carry all 5 tone sounds and which uses all 4 tone marks),
*tone marks over high class consonants (which can make three sounds but just uses the first two tone marks and those marks make the same sounds as the mid class consonants do when marked).
*finally tone marks over low class consonants (trickier because the tone marks "shift" one position in the tone sound a tone mark compels low class consonants to be). <- FWIW; I hate that rule
…
After that (as if it's not enough
) you need to identify the 15 consonant clusters, the 9 consonants which a silent
ห can proceed (
ง,
ณ,
ญ,
น,
ม,
ย,
ร,
ล,
ว) because even though the
ห is silent in theory it is the first consonant in the word and it makes the word follow the tone rules of high class consonants, and lastly silent
อ words (thankfully there are ONLY four or those)
.
Of course vowels and their rules are another kettle of fish entirely
While it sounds like a LOT, (and sure seemed like a LOT too when I first started learning it
), really looking back at it, it isn't too tough to understand now, and perhaps I'm just not all that bright a human bean to begin with
..
As I tell foreigners all the time here; Hey man, there're 63+ million people living here who seem to speak Thai just fine. I'm pretty sure they're all not smarter than you. Or are they
? <- (BTW: that is totally a jab at the endless excuses I hear foreigners give for not learning Thai and is NO way meant to be demeaning or denigrating to Thais).
Still good luck. . . Sorry this was long-ish. ..