The nature of Thai is such that many words sound very similar, such as the same words but with different tones, or long vowels vs. short vowels or even similar sounding vowels in some cases. If you're new to the language it can be challenging getting to grips with the tones.

Also in Thai, many words are identical but can have different meanings, for example ตา means 'grandfather' and it also means 'eye', and กา means 'crow' as well as 'kettle'. These two examples are taken from the very first pages of the first level primary school textbooks that Thai children are introduced to in school. It's completely normal to native Thai speakers. To non-native speakers new to the language it can be a source of confusion.

Context will usually help when determining the meaning of the words, however it's important to pronounce, and to be able to hear, the difference between the Thai tones and the difference between the long vowels and short vowels. And not to mix other similar sounding words as you're progressing with your studies.

The 'Similar Sounding Words' section of the View Flashcard page lists any words that could cause some confusion and are worth listening to and practising together to help you become familiar with the differences (assuming the words aren't identical).

Use the dropdown list to add the flashcard to any of your own flashcard decks. Selecting a flashcard deck from the list will automatically add the current flashcard (as shown in the 'Flashcard Details' section) to that deck.

You can also create a new flashcard deck directly from the dropdown list by selecting the '+ Create a New Deck' option and then entering a name for the new flashcard deck. The word (or phrase) will automatically be added to the new deck.

In the 'Your Study Progress' panel you can see when you last saw this flashcard and the number of times it has appeared in your study sessions. You can also see the percent bar showing your current progress towards mastery of this flashcard.

Mastery of the flashcard is based on correctly knowing the English to Thai; Thai to English; and from hearing the Thai audio. And the correct answers need to be acheived on at least two occassions to flag the flashcard as being fully mastered.

In the 'Notes' panel you can see any additional information that has been added about the translation of the word. If you're logged in you can also add your own notes about the Flashcard. This might be useful if, for example, there are multiple translations of the same word or if you wanted to add some notes from your own lessons and studying.

In the 'Word Explorer' panel you can see how a compound word in Thai is built up from the meanings of smaller words. The Word Explorer tries to link through to the related words found in the site's dictionary. You can click on any of the linked words in the Word Explorer tree to see the details about that word.