A mid-class consonant. It says p at the start of a syllable and -p at the end. 27th in the alphabet, 11th of the 44 to learn here. You will meet it constantly.
01The sound it makes
ป is the only one of the 44 letters that opens a syllable with p. 7 letters close one with -p, and ป is among them.
Mid class is the only class that takes all four tone marks, so ป can be written at any of the five tones. Take the live vowel away and it drops to low whether the vowel was short or long.
Live — carried on ◌า
Dead short — ◌ะ
Dead long — ◌าก
The 5 tones this ladder reaches
→Mid (สามัญ)A flat, neutral tone at a comfortable mid-pitch. No rise or fall.
↓→Low (เอก)Starts low and stays low. Slightly flat and subdued, like a quiet statement.
↘Falling (โท)Starts high then drops. Like English when expressing disappointment: "Oh..."
→↑High (ตรี)Starts at a high pitch and stays high, slightly rising. Energetic and bright.
↗Rising (จัตวา)Starts low then rises upward. Like English when asking a yes/no question.
The same letter is two sounds: ป is p at the front of a syllable and -p at the back. Of the 4,271 words in this app it opens 212, sits inside 333 and closes 31.
Position here is orthographic — where the letter is written, not where it is said. The five leading vowels เ แ โ ใ ไ are skipped when deciding what comes first, so ไก่ counts as a word that starts with ก.
Written first212
…and 206 more.
Inside333
…and 327 more.
Written last31
…and 25 more.
04Text it turns up in
A word list is a specimen jar. 51 of the 221 sentences and phrases in this app are written with ป somewhere in them — here are 4, shortest first, with every ป lit.
05The class it belongs to
ป is one of 9 mid-class consonants. That membership is the single fact the ladder in 02 is built on — change the class and every tone in it changes. Here they all are, with ป lit among them.