There is also a distinction of live and dead syllables pertaining to certain consonants which is difficult to grasp. One of the easier things about Thai is its simple word order, much like Chinese. Verbs do not change forms and nouns do not have genders or plural forms. There are no definite articles. Helper words such as ekaung show relationships between words, including tense of verbs, so there are no possessive forms of a noun, nor verb tenses to memorize.
Many common verbs are combinations of two short words which are easy to learn.
These difficult rules are even more confusing when you look at a Thai text, because the words are not separated, so unless you already recognize the word, you do not know where it begins and where it ends, and thus you do not know how to spell it. The only solution I have found for this catch-22 is to get used to seeing the most common vocabulary in script, so that you recognize it by the context of the sentence, this will help you isolate the new words that you do not know, and how to spell them. I suppose the more difficult task is to have Thais successfully correct your mistakes, because you can get along fairly well while making quite a few. If you are exposed to hearing and seeing Thai for nine months to a year, you will be able to speak and generally understand what is being said and to read signs, but to read and write it properly will take at least another two to three years. Easy Thai, by Gordon H.Allison, Charles E.Tuttle Publishers, 1995.