How to say help in Thai

Help in Thai is ช่วยด้วย, pronounced chûai-dûai.

Hear it

The tones, syllable by syllable

Thai uses pitch to tell words apart, so each syllable has its own tone. The accent on each romanized syllable shows it:

• chûai: falling tone
• dûai: falling tone

No accent means mid, a grave accent (à) low, a circumflex (â) falling, an acute (á) high, and a caron (ǎ) rising. New to tones? The five Thai tones, explained without jargon.

When to use it

• ช่วยด้วย is the urgent shout: help! On its own, ช่วย is the everyday verb for a request, as in please help with something.
• Other emergency words from the same list: หมอ (mǒo, doctor), โรงพยาบาล (roong-phá-yaa-baan, hospital), หลง (lǒng, lost) and โทรหาตำรวจ (thoo-hǎa-tam-rùat, call the police).

Say it and see your pitch line

Tap the button, say ช่วยด้วย, and glot.it draws your pitch line over the pitch of a reference Thai voice, so you can see where a tone slipped instead of guessing by ear. Your microphone turns on only when you tap.

More Thai phrases

• How to say hospital in Thai (โรงพยาบาล)
• How to say sorry in Thai (ขอโทษ)
• How to say go straight in Thai (ตรงไป)
• How to say hello in Thai (สวัสดี)

These come from our list of Thai phrases for travelers. See every guide on the Learn Thai hub.