What's your Thai tone ear?
Thai has five tones. Horse (ม้า) and dog (หมา) differ only in pitch. You will hear five words, each one half of a tone pair — same letters, different pitch, different meaning. Tap the word you hear. We score it, tell you what it means, and start you on the right lesson.
What this actually measures
Whether your ear separates pitch from meaning yet. English uses pitch for attitude — a question, a doubt, sarcasm. Thai uses it for vocabulary. The test plays one word from a minimal pair and asks which one you heard; there is no reading involved, so a complete beginner can take it.
Hearing tones is half the job. In the app, the tone mirror does the other half: you say the word and your pitch curve is drawn over a native speaker's, so you can see where it slipped. Every lesson, every review and the mirror itself are free to use.
Read more: the five tones, explained without jargon · no Thai on Duolingo? Start here