October 22, 2026
Mai Tri and Mai Chattawa
The last two tone marks turn out to be the kindest ones in the whole system. Mai tri (๊) is always a high tone and mai chattawa (๋) is always a rising tone, and neither one ever changes its mind.
I like them for a second reason too. Both marks can only sit on a mid-class consonant, so when you spot one, the class question you have had to wrestle with on words like ค่า is already answered for you. The mark itself tells you the consonant is mid, and on mid class the name of the mark is the tone. You can read straight from the mark and skip the class check entirely.
Three everyday words carry the whole thing. เกี๊ยว, the dumplings on a food stall board, takes mai tri and comes out high. ตั๋ว, a ticket at a bus station or cinema counter, takes mai chattawa and rises. เดี๋ยว, which Gail might send in a short message when she means in a moment, also rises on its first syllable. That completes the mid-class row, by the way: no mark gives you mid, mai ek gives low, mai tho gives falling, mai tri gives high, and mai chattawa gives rising. Five tones, one each, and mid is the only class that lays them out that neatly.
The one trap I would watch is shape. Mai tri (๊) and mai tho (้) sit in the same spot above the consonant and look close at a glance, so a falling answer on a เกี๊ยว-type word usually means the extra stroke on ๊ got missed. That is a quick fix compared with a tone rule, and it is the only real way these two marks can trip you.
This is a one-morning piece rather than something to drill, since these marks show up less often than the first two. I will keep an eye out for whether telling ๊ from ้ at reading speed is the thing to carry into the next pack's review.