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Low class consonant · letter 18 of 44

ฒ tho phuthao

ฒ (tho phuthao) is a low-class consonant named after ผู้เฒ่า, “elder”. At the start of a syllable it is /tʰ/, written th in RTGS; at the end of one it is /t̚/ (t).

See it in 61 fontsAll 44 consonants
ฒฒ ผู้เฒ่าtho phuthao · elder
Thai name
ฒ ผู้เฒ่า · tho phuthao
Name word
ผู้เฒ่า, elder
Class
Low class
At the start of a syllable
/tʰ/ · RTGS th
At the end of a syllable
/t̚/ · RTGS t
Unicode
U+0E12 · THAI CHARACTER THO PHUTHAO
In HTML
ฒ or ฒ
Kedmanee key
Shift + ,
Pattachote key
Shift + P

How it sounds

A low-class th, like ท. It is found mostly in words that came into Thai from Pali and Sanskrit.

5 other letters have the same sound at the start of a syllable: ฐ tho than (high), ฑ tho montho (low), ถ tho thung (high), ท tho thahan (low), ธ tho thong (low).

Class and tone

With no mark, a low-class letter gives the mid tone in a live syllable; in a dead one the tone is high when the vowel is short and falling when it is long. Mai ek gives falling and mai tho high.

Syllables with ฒ and the vowel า
SpellingSyllableTone
No mark, live syllable (long vowel)ฒาMid
No mark, dead syllable, short vowelฒะHigh
No mark, dead syllable, long vowelฒากFalling
Mai ekฒ่าFalling
Mai thoฒ้าHigh
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 ฒ

ThaiRTGSMeaning
เฒ่าthaoold (of a person)
พัฒนาphatthanato develop
วัฒนธรรมwatthanathamculture
วัฒนาwatthanato prosper

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

ฒ 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.