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High class consonant · letter 2 of 44

ข kho khai

ข (kho khai) is a high-class consonant named after ไข่, “egg”. At the start of a syllable it is /kʰ/, written kh in RTGS; at the end of one it is /k̚/ (k).

See it in 61 fontsAll 44 consonants
ขข ไข่kho khai · egg
Thai name
ข ไข่ · kho khai
Name word
ไข่, egg
Class
High class
At the start of a syllable
/kʰ/ · RTGS kh
At the end of a syllable
/k̚/ · RTGS k
Unicode
U+0E02 · THAI CHARACTER KHO KHAI
In HTML
ข or ข
Kedmanee key
-
Pattachote key
'

How it sounds

An aspirated k, like the k in “kit”, with a puff of air. It is the high-class partner of ค, which has the same sound.

4 other letters have the same sound at the start of a syllable: ฃ kho khuat (high), ค kho khwai (low), ฅ kho khon (low), ฆ kho rakhang (low).

Easy to mistake for ช cho chang, ซ so so and ฃ kho khuat: compare them at a large size in the grid below.

Class and tone

With no mark, a high-class letter gives a rising tone in a live syllable and a low tone in a dead one. Mai ek gives low and mai tho falling; the other two marks are not used.

Syllables with ข and the vowel า
SpellingSyllableTone
No mark, live syllable (long vowel)ขาRising
No mark, dead syllable, short vowelขะLow
No mark, dead syllable, long vowelขากLow
Mai ekข่าLow
Mai thoข้าFalling
Mai tri–not used with this class
Mai chattawa–not used with this class

The syllables show the rule, not words to learn. The tone rules explain live and dead syllables.

Words with ข

ThaiRTGSMeaning
ขาวkhaowhite
ขอkhoto ask for
ข้าวkhaorice
ขวาkhwaright (side)
สุขsukhappy

RTGS shows neither tone nor vowel length; type a word into the font tester to see it in every font.

ข in every font

The letter in each of the 61 families you can download here, in its regular style. Looped faces start the stroke from a small circle; loopless ones leave it out. Each card opens the family’s page.