About Thai Tone Trainer

Thai Tone Trainer coaches the five Thai tones with live pitch feedback: the 5 tones on 15 common syllables, then 12 real two-syllable words covering the hard contrasts. Your microphone listens, your pitch curve is drawn over the target curve, and one named hint at a time tells you exactly what to fix.

How it works

• Your browser samples the microphone and measures your pitch with autocorrelation, a standard signal-processing method: it finds how often your voice waveform repeats. No model is downloaded, and no audio is sent anywhere.
• Calibrate first. Thai tones differ by pitch LEVEL as well as shape. Press Set my voice range and slide from your lowest to your highest comfortable note. The app then measures every utterance against your own range: 1.0 means the top of your range, 0.0 the bottom. Recalibrate any time in Settings; your range is stored only on this device.
• For each syllable, the app compares your pitch contour to the target tone's level and shape: flat in the middle, falling to the bottom, falling from the top, rising to the top, or dipping then climbing high. You are judged on level and shape, not on how high or low your voice is in absolute terms.
• Press Check my tone after saying the syllable. If the contour matches, you score. If not, you get one named hint, such as: High rises straight from the middle: yours dipped down first, which sounded like rising. Start in the middle and rise without dipping.
• Hear the target plays the target shape as a gliding tone, placed inside your own calibrated range, so you can hear the shape before you say it.
• Tone pairs unlock at 50 points. The app splits your utterance at the gap between syllables and checks each half against its target tone.
• Pitch tracking approximates tones. Background noise, a quiet voice, a creaky voice, or a cold can confuse it. If a native speaker says your tones sound right, trust them over the app.
• Native-speaker review sought: we are seeking review of this app by native Thai speakers and Thai teachers, in parallel with its release. Review is not a gate: the app is live while review is sought, and corrections will be folded in as they arrive.

The five tones

• Tone 1, mid, saman (33): sing one steady note in the middle of your range. Example: คา kha, stuck.
• Tone 2, low, ek (21): start low-mid and drop all the way to the bottom, and stay down. Example: ข่า kha, galangal.
• Tone 3, falling, tho (51): start near the top and fall all the way to the bottom. Example: ค่า kha, value.
• Tone 4, high, tri (45): start in the middle and climb straight to near the top, without dipping first. Example: ค้า kha, to trade.
• Tone 5, rising, chattawa (214): start low-mid, dip down low, then climb all the way to the top. Example: ขา kha, leg.

The Chao numbers (33, 21, 51, 45, 214) are the standard textbook values, tracing each tone from start to finish on a 1 to 5 scale. Real speakers vary: acoustic studies report falling closer to 43, high closer to 44, and rising closer to 323. The app accepts a close fit, not an exact one.

The same syllable with a different tone is a different word. That is why tones matter: say the wrong tone and you may say a different word entirely.

How Thai tones work

A Thai syllable's tone is fixed by three things together: the consonant class of its initial consonant (high, mid, or low), the syllable type (live, with a long vowel or a sonorant ending, or dead, with a short vowel and a stop ending), and the tone mark (none, mai ek, mai tho, mai tri, or mai chattawa). No single one of these decides the tone on its own. For example, mai ek gives a falling tone on a low-class consonant, a low tone on a mid-class consonant, and a low tone on a high-class consonant. The full five-tone contrast only exists in live syllables; dead syllables allow only low, falling, and high. This app grades your pitch contour only. It does not check spelling or tone rules, so use a textbook or teacher for the rules and this app for the sound.

The confusable pairs

Two pairs trip learners up most. High vs rising: both end high. The difference is the start: high rises straight from the middle, rising dips down low first. Mid vs low: mid stays flat in the middle, low falls all the way to the bottom. When your contour sits between two tones, the app says so honestly instead of guessing, and names the difference to aim for.

Learn more

These links open other websites in a new tab. Thai Tone Trainer isn't affiliated with any of them and sends them nothing.

Privacy

• Your voice never leaves your device. It is analysed in your browser frame by frame and immediately discarded. Nothing is recorded, uploaded or shared.
• No accounts, ads, cookies, analytics or trackers. The app loads nothing from other websites: the code is served from this site, and a security policy blocks connections anywhere else.
• Stored on your device only: which items you've tried, your points, badges, practice days and settings, your calibrated voice range, and whether you've seen the welcome message, in your browser's local storage. Clear it any time in Settings → Clear progress, or with the Offline proof → Delete all my data button, or by clearing this site's data in your browser.
• Offline copy: after your first visit, your browser keeps a copy of the app so it works offline. Clearing site data removes it.
• The microphone is only on while you're practising or calibrating. It turns off when you go back to the tone list, press “Turn off”, or switch to another tab.
• Hosting: like any website, the server that delivers the app's files may keep standard technical logs (such as IP addresses) of those downloads. The app itself sends nothing.
• Reference links go to other websites, which have their own privacy policies.

Disclaimer

• Thai Tone Trainer is a home practice tool, not a teacher, therapist or safety device. Everything runs on your device: no video, audio or images are sent anywhere. Feedback is automatic and can be wrong. For real instruction, learn from a qualified Thai teacher or a native-speaker community, linked on the Resources page.
• Pitch tracking approximates tones. Regional variation exists, and the app's target shapes describe standard Central Thai citation tones. The Chao numbers are textbook values; real speakers vary.
• The app is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind.

Accessibility

• Everything works with a keyboard. Feedback is announced to screen readers, and animations follow your device's “reduce motion” setting. Sound and confetti can be turned off in Settings.
• The live check depends on a microphone and on speaking. If that doesn't work for you, the tone descriptions, spellings, glosses and reference links still work on their own, and the Hear the target button lets you hear each tone shape.

Credits

• Pitch detection: autocorrelation, implemented from scratch for this app (no third-party libraries).
• Tone shapes follow the standard Chao tone-number descriptions of the five Thai tones.
• Reference links: Wikipedia, linked, not embedded.
• Built with the on-device coach pattern from the Little Hands app, and the pitch engine of the Mandarin Tone Trainer and the Cantonese Tone Trainer.

Thai Tone Trainer version 1.0.0