# Phayan

> Phayan is a Thai-script learning app that teaches you to read Thai from the tones up. You start by hearing the five tones, then learn your first real words, no memorizing all 44 letters first. Every letter, tone, and word comes with native audio, and your progress is saved automatically, with an optional account to sync across devices.

For full details (curriculum, features, pricing, blog posts, FAQs, technical architecture), see [llms-full.txt](https://www.phayan.com/llms-full.txt).

Phayan solves the problem of learning to read Thai: the script looks intimidating, learners are told to memorize 44 letters before reading anything, and the tones, which decide the meaning of every word, are usually deferred to later. Phayan flips the order: the five tones come first, learners meet real words in their first session, and the 42 letters in everyday use (44 symbols, 2 obsolete) are learned inside words, tone class by tone class. No account is required to start; free levels are free with no credit card.

Phayan is available as a web app in any modern browser, on any device. Native audio for every letter, tone, and word is generated with Google Cloud Text-to-Speech and licensed recordings, and interactive tone drills check the learner's ear immediately. Progress tracks automatically with 1/3/7/21-day spaced reviews, and an optional account syncs progress across devices.

Key differentiators:

- Tones-first pedagogy: the five tones (mid 33, low 21, falling 41, high 45, rising 14) are taught before the alphabet, per the PACLIC research on Thai tone acquisition order.
- Real words from session one: no 44-letter list to memorize first, about 21 sounds, learned as they appear in real words.
- Native audio on everything: letters, tones, and words are heard, not just read.
- Progressive levels L0–L31, each using only what the learner already knows; L0–L4 are free.
- No account required to start; optional account for cross-device progress sync.
- Honest pacing: ~15 minutes a day: tones in days, first words in the first session, real reading in weeks.

## Key Features

- Interactive tone drills that play every tone on real words with native audio and immediate feedback.
- Minimal-pair drills that escalate from single syllables to whole words.
- Stroke-draw practice for every letter with per-glyph stroke order.
- Progressive levels L0–L31: letters, vowels, tone rules, and words introduced only when the learner is ready for them.
- Spaced-repetition reviews on a 1/3/7/21-day schedule, with a due queue that drives each session.
- Tone-rule reference table (consonant class × syllable type × tone mark) once the learner has enough context.
- Real-word curriculum: every new item is decodable from what was already learned.
- Short game-loop rounds designed for ~15 minutes a day, with progress tracking and a review calendar.
- Optional account with cross-device progress sync (per-round maximum merge, server-side).
- Passkey-first sign-up (WebAuthn) with email OTP verification; also email/password, Google, and Apple sign-in.
- Reduced-motion and audio-off options for accessibility.

## Curriculum

The curriculum is a sequence of 24 levels, L0 through L31:

- **The Five Tones (L0)**: a single orientation round where learners hear and identify the five tones.
- **L1–L4 (free)**: the first letters and first real words, the first tone rules, and the tone marks.
- **L5–L31 (Phayan Premium)**: the full path: all 42 letters, vowel forms, tone marks, minimal pairs, and fluent reading practice.

Thai script facts used consistently across the app and the blog:

- Thai has 42 letters in everyday use (44 symbols, 2 obsolete). The app teaches ~21 sounds first, not the whole alphabet.
- The five tones are mid (33), low (21), falling (41), high (45), and rising (14).
- Consonants fall into high, mid, and low classes; the class decides how tone marks change a syllable's tone.
- There are 32+ vowel forms across the writing system, introduced as they unlock words.

## Pricing

- **Free ($0)**: levels L0–L4 (the five tones, first letters, first words, and the first tone rules) with interactive tone drills, progress tracking, and 1/3/7/21-day reviews. No credit card required.
- **Phayan Premium** ($14.99/month or $79.99/year): the full curriculum (L5–L31), all letters, vowels, tone rules, minimal-pair drills, unlimited rounds, and cross-device progress sync. Billed monthly or annually via Stripe.

## Technical and Privacy

- **Hosting**: All services run on Railway (web, API, and background workers); there is no other cloud provider. Media lives in R2-compatible object storage; account and progress data in MongoDB; queues on Redis.
- **Auth**: Passkeys (WebAuthn) with passkey-first sign-up, email/password, Google OAuth, and Apple OAuth. Sessions use httpOnly cookies with CSRF protection.
- **Audio**: Google Cloud Text-to-Speech generates native Thai audio for letters, tones, and words; licensed recordings cover the core curriculum.
- **Analytics**: PostHog for product analytics, proxied through the app domain. No third-party advertising.
- **Error monitoring**: Sentry with PII redaction, gated to production via the Railway environment.
- **GDPR**: Users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, and withdrawal of consent, exercisable via account settings or support@phayan.com. Anonymous learners can use the free levels without creating an account; no profile data is collected until an account is created.
- **Children**: The service is not intended for children under 13 (or 16 in the EEA) and does not knowingly collect data from children below those ages.

## Frequently Asked Questions

- **Do I need an account to start?** No. Free levels L0–L4 start immediately without an account; an optional account adds cross-device sync.
- **How long does it take to learn to read Thai?** About 15 minutes a day: tones in days, first real words in the first session, real reading in weeks. "Read Thai in an hour" is an oversell.
- **Do I have to memorize all 44 letters first?** No. Thai has 42 letters in everyday use (44 symbols, 2 obsolete). Phayan teaches ~21 sounds first, inside real words.
- **What are the five tones?** Mid (33), low (21), falling (41), high (45), and rising (14).
- **What is free?** Levels L0–L4 (the tones, first letters, and first words) with no credit card. The full curriculum unlocks with Phayan Premium.
- **Does Phayan have audio?** Yes, native Thai audio for every letter, tone, and word.
- **What devices does Phayan work on?** Any modern browser, on any device.

## Blog Articles

The Phayan blog publishes evergreen guides on learning to read Thai: the alphabet, the tones, vowels, and honest reviews of the tools, plus news analysis that affects Thai learners.

- [Thai Place Names in English: What Two Sources Actually Disagree About](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-place-names-in-english): Two sources spell Thai place names in English. Across OpenStreetMap, Wikidata and every dictionary entry carrying two romanisation systems, most agree in full.
- [Thai Alphabet Chart: 44 Letters by Class and Sound](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-alphabet-chart): A Thai alphabet chart of all 44 consonants with names, sounds and consonant class, grouped by class because class is what decides the tone of a syllable.
- [Thai Consonant Clusters: Two Letters, One Sound](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-consonant-clusters): Thai consonant clusters: the pairs pronounced as one sound, the four false clusters where a letter is dropped, and how to tell both from two syllables.
- [How Long Does It Take to Learn to Read Thai?](https://www.phayan.com/blog/how-long-to-learn-thai-script): How long does it take to learn to read Thai? A milestone timeline: first word in ten minutes, the tone rules in weeks, an unfamiliar sign in months.
- [Is Thai Hard to Learn? Which Parts Are, and Which Are Not](https://www.phayan.com/blog/is-thai-hard-to-learn): Is Thai hard to learn? The grammar is easy - no conjugation, no tenses, no plurals. The hard parts are tone, an unspaced script and 44 letters for 21 sounds.
- [Learning the Thai Alphabet: What Apps, Decks and Charts Each Skip](https://www.phayan.com/blog/learn-thai-alphabet-methods): An honest comparison of the six ways to learn the Thai alphabet: wall charts, Anki, mnemonics, video courses, language apps and script apps, and their gaps.
- [Days of the Week in Thai, and the Colour Each One Wears](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-days-of-the-week): All seven days of the week in Thai with script, pronunciation and their astrological colours, plus how the silencing karan mark works in จันทร์ and ศุกร์.
- [Thai Long and Short Vowels: Why Length Changes the Word](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-long-short-vowels): Thai short vowels and long vowels: the pairs that look nothing alike, how length feeds the tone rules, and the words that differ by duration alone.
- [Why Thai on Signs Looks Nothing Like the Alphabet You Learned](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-loopless-fonts): Thai loopless fonts explained: what the หัว head is, why display fonts on signs drop it, and how to read Thai letters when the loop you learned is missing.
- [Thai Numbers: Reading ๐-๙ on Prices, Buses and Dates](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-numbers): The ten Thai numerals ๐-๙ with their spoken forms, where they still turn up (banknotes, dates, temple plaques, price boards), and how counting works past ten.
- [Thai Reading Practice: Ten Real Signs, Decoded Letter by Letter](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-reading-practice): Practise reading Thai on ten real strings, from ปิด on a shop door to กรุงเทพฯ on a bus front, with the class, vowel, ending and tone shown for every one.
- [The Four Thai Tone Marks and What They Actually Do](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-tone-marks): The four Thai tone marks: mai ek, mai tho, mai tri and mai chattawa. What each one is called, where it sits, and why the same mark gives different tones.
- [The Thai Tone Rules: One Table That Decides Every Tone](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-tone-rules): The Thai tone rules in one chart: consonant class x live/dead syllable x tone mark. Full table plus three real words worked through step by step.
- [Reading Thai Words That Have No Written Vowel](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-implied-vowel): Some Thai words have no vowel written at all (นก, คน, ถนน). Learn the two inherent-vowel rules that read them, and how to spot when a vowel is hidden.
- [Thai Has No Spaces: How to Find Where Words End](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-words-without-spaces): Thai has no spaces between words. Learn the two shape cues that split a line of Thai into syllables: the five leading vowels and the eight closing sounds.
- [Thai Consonant Classes: Mid, High and Low Explained](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-consonant-classes): Thai consonant classes explained: which letters are mid, high and low, and how class plus tone mark plus syllable ending decides the tone you say.
- [The 5 Thai Tones with Audio: Hear Them, Don't Memorize Them](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-tones-with-audio): The five Thai tones explained with audio. Hear each tone on real words, and learn to recognize them in days, not months. Start listening free today.
- [Thai Vowels: All 32 Forms in 9 Easy Groups](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-vowels-32-forms): All 32 Thai vowel forms in 9 short–long groups, plus the diphthongs and specials, and why Thai vowels surround the consonant instead of following it.
- [Thai Script for Beginners: Where to Start, Letters & Tones](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-script-for-beginners): Thai script for beginners: the 42 letters in everyday use, the 21 sounds behind them, 32+ vowel forms, and 5 tones, plus the order that actually works.
- [ๆ and ฯ: The Two Thai Marks That Are Not Letters](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-script-marks): The Thai repetition mark ๆ and abbreviation mark ฯ explained: what each stands for, how to read เด็กๆ and กรุงเทพฯ, and how to tell them from letters.
- [Thai Silent Letters: The Mark That Switches a Letter Off](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-silent-consonants): Thai silent letters explained: the ทัณฑฆาต mark, which letters it silences, and how it changes the final consonant and therefore the tone of the word.
- [Thai Letter Stroke Order: The 42 Letters in Use](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-stroke-order): Learn the Thai school handwriting method: draw the head first, then the body downward, then the tail and foot, for the 42 letters in everyday use.
- [Thai Transliteration: Reading Thai with English Letters](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-transliteration): How Thai transliteration works: Paiboon vs RTGS, why “khao” can mean rice, news, or “he”, and when English letters actually help you read Thai script.
- [How to Read a Thai Menu: Ingredient First, Method Second](https://www.phayan.com/blog/read-a-thai-menu): How to read a Thai menu: dish names put the ingredient first and the cooking method second. The seven verbs that recur across most of a Thai menu.
- [Thai Months: How to Read a Date on Any Thai Sign](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-months-and-dates): Read Thai months and dates: the -คม and -ยน endings that give a month its length, the two-letter abbreviations on signs, and the Buddhist Era year.
- [The Silent H in Thai: Why หมา Is Not 'Hma'](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-silent-leading-h): The ห in หมา is silent and exists to change the tone. Why nine Thai consonants borrow a high class, and how to tell a leading ห from a real cluster.
- [Spaced Repetition for Thai: When Reviews Finally Stop](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-spaced-repetition): A Thai letter you keep getting right comes back seven times over 180 days, then retires. The full spaced repetition ladder, and what a wrong answer costs.
- [The Streak Now Runs on What You Learn, Not on Showing Up](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-learning-streak): A Phayan day counts once it carries 20 XP: a round pays 40, ten review cards pay 20, a listening lesson pays 20. No grace days, and today never breaks a run.
- [Thai Alphabet Order: How to Look Up a Word You Cannot Read](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-alphabet-order): Thai alphabet order explained: why เมือง is filed under ม, why หมา is under ห, and the 44-letter ก-to-ฮ sequence every Thai dictionary uses.
- [Thai Final Consonants: 39 Letters, Eight Sounds](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-final-consonants): Thai final consonants: a syllable can end in only eight sounds, eighteen different letters all say -t, and which ending it is decides the tone of the word.
- [The Thai Vowels That Change Shape in a Closed Syllable](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-vowels-change-shape): Thai vowels change shape in a closed syllable: -ะ becomes -ั, -ัว becomes -ว, and the vowel chart only ever shows you the open-syllable form of each one.
- [Reading Thai Street Signs Before You Can Read a Paragraph](https://www.phayan.com/blog/reading-thai-street-signs): Signage repeats a short list of words. The fourteen that cover a Thai street, the 26 letters and marks they need, and why ถนน is written with no vowel.
- [Thai Abbreviations: What the Dots Mean and Where They Go](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-abbreviations-with-dots): A Thai abbreviation of two or more letters takes one dot, at the end. Why พ.ศ. keeps two of them, why ก.ท.ม. is a misspelling, and what น. stands for.
- [The Thai Keyboard Is Sorted by Frequency, Not the Alphabet](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-keyboard-and-reading): The Thai keyboard is not alphabetical. Measured against 626 words it is a frequency map, and 95 per cent of what you type needs no shift key at all.
- [Thai Lookalike Letters: The Stroke That Tells Them Apart](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-lookalike-letters): Five sets of Thai letters differ by one stroke. Which stroke to check in ก ถ ภ, ค ด ต, พ ฟ ผ ฝ, ข ช and บ ป ษ, and why the mistake costs three errors.
- [Why Thai Script Breaks at Small Sizes, and What Fixes It](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-script-on-small-screens): Thai stacks marks nearly twice as tall as a plain consonant. Measured from the font: the line height Thai needs, and the size at which its marks stop merging.
- [Thai Letters That Sound the Same: 42 Letters, 21 Sounds](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-letters-that-sound-the-same): The 42 Thai letters in everyday use spell 21 sounds. The twelve homophone sets, why seven of them change the tone, and why reading is unaffected.
- [Thai Handwriting vs Printed Thai: What a Fast Hand Drops](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-handwriting-vs-printed-thai): What changes when Thai is handwritten: the head loop disappears, ก ถ ภ and ข ช go ambiguous, and pairs held apart by a raised stem survive intact.
- [Reading Thai in LINE: 555, คับ and Dropped Tone Marks](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-script-in-chat-and-line): How to read Thai as it is typed in LINE: 555, เค้า for เขา, คับ for ครับ, the ค่ะ and คะ split, and the tone marks that go missing in fast typing.
- [Reading Thai Price Tags and Receipts: The Words Around the Number](https://www.phayan.com/blog/reading-thai-price-tags-and-receipts): Reading Thai price tags: ลด, เหลือ, ปกติ and สูงสุด decide which number you pay, ละ makes it a rate, and a receipt is five fixed lines ending in เงินทอน.
- [Thai Warning Signs: ห้าม, ระวัง, อันตราย and งด](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-warning-and-prohibition-signs): Thai warning and prohibition signs: what the shapes mean under two rulebooks, and how ห้าม, งด, ระวัง and อันตราย differ in force and in how they read.
- [Reading a Thai Medicine Label: ครั้งละ, เม็ด, ก่อนอาหาร](https://www.phayan.com/blog/reading-thai-medicine-labels): How to read a Thai medicine label: ละ makes ครั้งละ 1 เม็ด and วันละ 3 ครั้ง multiply, ก่อนอาหาร and หลังอาหาร set the timing, and ยาอันตราย is not a warning.
- [Thai vs Lao vs Khmer: Telling Three Scripts Apart](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-script-vs-lao-and-khmer): Tell Thai, Lao and Khmer apart in one second, see what Thai and Lao genuinely share, and learn where a Thai reader is helped and where Lao quietly misleads.
- [Why Thai Text Breaks Spreadsheets and Search](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-text-in-spreadsheets-and-search): Why Thai text breaks spreadsheets and search: combining marks, invisible duplicates NFC will not fix, no word boundaries, and a sort order no dictionary uses.
- [Thai Airport Signs and Immigration Form Words](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-airport-and-immigration-forms): Thai airport and immigration words built from ten pieces: ขาเข้า against ขาออก, ทางออก, ผู้โดยสาร and เที่ยวบิน, plus ชื่อ, นามสกุล and สัญชาติ on a form.
- [Thai Children's Books: Bad Advice for Adult Learners](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-childrens-books-for-adult-learners): Read children's books is poor advice for Thai: no simplified orthography, a five-year-old's vocabulary, the rarest tone marks, and a picture that spoils it.
- [Can a Phone Camera Read Thai? Where It Stops Working](https://www.phayan.com/blog/thai-camera-translation-limits): Camera translation reads what the photo resolves. In Thai the marks above and below the line decide the word, and 223 of 626 corpus words need them.
- [English Words in Thai Script: What You Can Already Read](https://www.phayan.com/blog/english-words-in-thai-script): English words respelled in Thai letters are readable from the alphabet alone. The three marks that give a loanword away, and twelve you can sound out.
- [What Does Ka Mean in Thai? ค่ะ, คะ and ครับ](https://www.phayan.com/blog/what-ka-means-in-thai): The ka at the end of a Thai sentence is a politeness particle. ค่ะ ends a statement, คะ ends a question, and one tone mark is the whole difference.

## Links

- [Homepage](https://www.phayan.com): Main landing page with features and pricing
- [Learn](https://www.phayan.com/learn): The curriculum (levels, rounds, and reviews)
- [About](https://www.phayan.com/about): About Phayan
- [Blog](https://www.phayan.com/blog): All blog articles about learning to read Thai
- [Blog feed](https://www.phayan.com/feed.xml): RSS/Atom feed of new blog posts
- [Pricing](https://www.phayan.com/pricing): Free vs Phayan Premium
- [Contact](https://www.phayan.com/contact): Get in touch with support
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.phayan.com/privacy): Data handling and GDPR compliance details
- [Terms of Service](https://www.phayan.com/terms): Terms and conditions
- [GDPR Information](https://www.phayan.com/gdpr): Data export, deletion, and privacy rights

## Optional

- [Cookie Policy](https://www.phayan.com/cookies): Cookie usage details
- [Cookie Preferences](https://www.phayan.com/cookie-preferences): Manage analytics and advertising consent