Learn Thai with an app built for Thai alone: tone drills by ear, a pitch-contour view of your own voice, the Thai script from lesson 1, and FSRS spaced repetition that decides when you review. 82 lessons, 19 of them free.
Wrong tone = wrong word. Pasaa trains your ear and your voice.
Track 1 lessons
47
Track 2 lessons
35
hours content
42
tones fully trained
5
words in the dictionary
5,000
Thai is not French. Generic apps fail here.
Thai is FSI Category III — harder than French or Spanish, but half the hours the FSI allows for Chinese. Not because it's so complex, but because it's radically different on three fronts from everything you know.
·Arrivals
Your first Thai greeting
Thai politeness lives in one small word at the end of the sentence — and which one you use depends on who is speaking.
Every recording is the same female reference voice, so she reads ครับ too.
Register is everything
"I" is not neutral in Thai. ผม is formal (male), เรา is informal, หนู is deferential. Every sentence carries a register badge — Formal, Neutral or Informal — and words carry one where their register is marked. You pick your politeness form (ครับ or ค่ะ) once, so every sentence is shown the way you will say it.
ผมformal / male
เราinformal / both
หนูdeferential / female
·Market
Thai tones decide what you order
Same letters, a different tone, a different word. Order rice, not the news.
Tap a word to hear its tone
·Tuk-tuk
Directions, and what it costs
Three words get you across town. One more gets you the fare.
Tell the driver
·Street
Reading Thai signs
Thai is written without spaces, but signs are short. Two syllables and you have found the toilet.
Tap each syllable
กขคง mid class → high → low → low
ห้องน้ำ
·Temple
The wai, and knowing when
Not all of Thai is words. The wai greets, thanks and apologises; kreng jai is the care that sits behind it.
เกรงใจ·kreng jai — not wanting to impose
Your turn.
That was one day in Thailand. The trial lesson takes five minutes.
Tones, script and memory — the three things that make Thai hard. Pasaa drills tones by ear, teaches the script with its tone rules, and schedules every word you learn with FSRS.
Tone feedback
In the speaking steps you can record three seconds of your own voice. Pasaa draws your pitch line over the five tone shapes and says in one line whether it stayed level, rose or fell. It shows the shape of what you said; it does not grade your pronunciation.
Web Audio API
Your own pitch line
Optional, in speaking steps
HighMidLow
Pick a tone to trace its shape
Script with a system
Track 2 teaches all 44 consonants by class (mid, high, low), each with a memory aid, then the vowel forms and the tone rules — so you can work out a word's tone from its spelling instead of memorising it.
consonant classes
memory aid per letter
44 characters
A preview of how ก is written. Tracing it yourself is coming soon.
FSRS repetition
FSRS-6 (via the ts-fsrs library) calculates when you are about to forget a word and schedules the review then. Not earlier — that's wasted time. Not later — that's forgetting. Every lesson ends with a review round of the cards that are due, weakest first.
ts-fsrs v5
Scientifically proven
100%90%50%
0102030 days
FSRS schedules it here
Right on time
Chance you still know it: 90%/Next review in 11 days
Illustration: one word over 30 days, on the FSRS forgetting curve.
AI conversation partner
PremiumComing soon
Planned: short conversations in Thai at your own level. It does not exist yet — the AI in Pasaa today is the lesson coach, which answers questions about the step you are on.
Planned
A preview of what practice will look like.Coming soon
AI partner
สวัสดีค่ะ ไปไหนมาคะ
Hi! Where have you been?
You
ไปตลาดมาครับ
I've been to the market.
What you'll learn—a taste of the curriculum
Free
The 5 tones
Free
Sounds & pronunciation
Free
Sentence patterns
Free
Greetings
Free
Cultural primer
Premium
Food & drink
Premium
Numbers & time
Premium
Transport
Premium
Housing & renting
Free
Consolidation
Speaking and reading. Both.
Track 1 teaches you to speak and listen. Track 2 unlocks the script. Once you know the consonant classes (Track 2 Part A), you understand why each word has that specific tone — that's the big aha moment.
Track 1 ·47 lessons
Speaking & Listening
From zero to everyday spoken Thai, with tone drills throughout.
Phase 1 — Foundation
Free
Emergencies & safety1 lesson · always free
ช่วยด้วย ตำรวจ โรงพยาบาล
Module 0: The 5 tones2 lessons
ข้าว ข่าว มา ม้า หมา
Module 1: Sounds & pronunciation3 lessons
aspiration, vowel length, final consonants
Module 2: First words & greetings1 lesson
สวัสดี ขอบคุณ ครับ ค่ะ
Module 3: Sentence building5 lessons
ผม เป็น อยู่ มี ได้ อยาก ชอบ ต้อง
Cultural primer3 lessons
เกรงใจ · สนุก · ไหว้
Consolidation Phase 11 lesson
FSRS repetition of everything
Total Phase 116 free + 1 premium · ~12 hours
Phase 2 — Daily life
Premium18 lessons · ~11 hours
Numbers, time & classifiers
Food & drink
Housing & renting
Transport & directions
Thai script: consonants & vowels
Thai script: tone rules
Phase 3 — Conversation
Premium12 lessons · ~6.5 hours
Registers (formal vs informal)
Storytelling & longer sentences
Idioms, ใจ-expressions & proverbs
Real speech (natural tempo)
Phases 4–6: coming soon
Extended daily life → Fluent → Near-native
Track 2 ·35 lessons
Reading & Writing
From zero to reading Thai script. Opens once you finish the Track 1 lessons you have access to.
Part A — Consonants
Partially free
9 mid-class3 lessons · free
ก จ ด ต ฎ ฏ บ ป อ
10 high class premium
ข ฉ ฐ ถ ผ ฝ ศ ษ ส ห
23 low class premium
ค ง ช ท น พ ม ย ร ล ว...
Final consonants & silent letters premium
Part B — Vowels & tone rules
Premium
32 vowel forms (position, short/long, combinations)
Tone rules — live & dead syllables
Reading without romanisation (end goal)
Part C — Writing & typing
Premium
Stroke order for every consonant, lesson by lesson Coming soon
Thai keyboard — Kedmanee layout
Consolidation: reading and writing together
The big aha moment
Once you complete Part A, you understand why each word has that tone. The consonant class determines it. Only then does everything sound logical — and you learn ten times faster.
Why not Duolingo?
Duolingo doesn't offer Thai at all. For a tonal language with its own script, you need an app built specifically for it.
Why not Duolingo?
Feature
Pasaa
Duolingo
Pimsleur
Feedback on your own tones (pitch contour)
PasaaYes
DuolingoNo
PimsleurNo
Thai script learning (reading)
PasaaYes
DuolingoNo
PimsleurNo
Politeness form you choose once (ครับ/ค่ะ)
PasaaYes
DuolingoNo
PimsleurNo
Scientific FSRS repetition
PasaaYes
DuolingoNo
PimsleurNo
Tone-recognition drills (hear the difference)
PasaaYes
DuolingoNo
PimsleurNo
Register awareness (formal/informal)
PasaaYes
DuolingoNo
PimsleurNo
Free to start
PasaaYes
DuolingoYes
PimsleurNo
Premium price per month
Pasaa€12,99
Duolingo—Not offered
Pimsleur€14,95
Pasaa's price here is the monthly plan; paid yearly it costs less per month.
Comparison based on publicly available product information, March 2026.
Start for free. Upgrade when you're ready.
19 lessons (~12 hours) completely free. No credit card.
Free
€0€0Forever
Tones, sounds, greetings & sentence building (19 lessons)
Thai is FSI Category III — harder than French or Spanish, but half the hours the FSI allows for Chinese. At 30 minutes a day you finish Phase 1 in about 3–4 weeks. All of Track 1 (47 lessons, about 30 hours of lessons) takes roughly two to three months including review. Social fluency (with immersion in Thailand) totals ~800–1,100 hours. Pasaa structures the first ~42 hours; tutors and time in Thailand do the rest.
02Is it really free to start?
Yes. 19 lessons (~12 hours of content) are completely free — no credit card. You learn the 5 tones, the sounds, greetings and basic grammar, and you see the whole lesson structure, including the tone drills and the optional pitch-contour view.
03Why is Paiboon+ romanisation used?
Paiboon+ is the modern standard for Thai romanisation: à = low tone, â = falling tone, ǎ = rising tone, á = high tone, a = mid tone. It is consistent, intuitive, and the most widely used in current Thai learning tools. Thai script is always shown alongside the romanisation — never alone.
04Do I need special equipment?
Just a modern browser. A microphone is optional: with one you can record yourself in the speaking steps and see your own pitch contour, which works best in Chrome and Edge (Web Audio API). No app download required.
05What is FSRS and why is it better?
FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler) is one of the best-tested repetition algorithms there is; Pasaa runs FSRS-6 through the ts-fsrs library. It calculates when you are about to forget a word and schedules review at that moment. Not earlier (wasted time), not later (forgotten). Every lesson ends with a review round of the cards that are due; the rest waits on the review page.
06What are register badges?
Every sentence card carries a register badge — Formal, Neutral or Informal — and it links to where that phrase sits on the politeness ladder. Words carry a badge where their register is marked. You also choose your own politeness form (ครับ or ค่ะ) once. The register system itself is explained in Phase 3, in the module on informal versus formal Thai.
07What is the crossover moment between Track 1 and Track 2?
After Track 2 Part A (consonant classes) you understand why each word has that specific tone. The consonant class (low/mid/high) together with any tone markers determines the tone. This is the big aha moment: tones become logical rather than arbitrary. After that you learn new words ten times faster.
19 lessons free.No credit card.
Start today. Complete Phase 1 in 3–4 weeks at 30 min/day.
