1.3 The First 16 Consonants
Cambodian has 44 consonants including 33 regular symbols and 11 others modified by diacritics. In this chapter, we are focusing on the first 16 consonants. We will be discussing the other regular symbols and the 11 consonants modified by diacritics in the future chapters, and then we will move onto the vowels symbols.
The First 16 Consonants
Use the audio and Table 1 below to learn how to pronounce the consonants.
| Consonant | English | Consonant | English |
| 1. ក | neck | 9. គ | mute |
| 2. ឆ | to cheat | 10. ច | the Year of Dog |
| 3. ដ | dock | 11. ស | white |
| 4. ព | to carry a baby | 12. ឡ | baking oven |
| 5. ភ | to lie | 13. ង | sulky |
| 6. ល | to try something on | 14. ឈ(រ) | to stand |
| 7. អ | to be happy, glad, joyful. | 15. ត | to connect |
| 8. ខ | kind of thick stew | 16. ទ | gutter |
1. Speaking
Record yourself reading each consonant out loud and share it with your friends/teacher for further feedback.
2. Reading
Read through the consonants in Table 2 and decide whether each consonant corresponds with the translation in English. Then check your answers against the Table 1.
| Consonant | English | Consonant | English |
| ក | gutter | ត | to lie |
| ឆ | white | ច | dock |
| ដ | the Year of Dog | ស | to cheat |
| ព | to stand | ឡ | mute |
| ភ | to connect | ង | sulky |
| ល | to try something on | ឈ(រ) | to carry a baby |
| អ | to be happy, glad, joyful. | គ | baking oven |
| ខ | kind of thick stew | ទ | neck |
3. Writing
Download the worksheet below to practice writing consonants by following the directional arrows.
4. Reading
Read the first 16 consonants again. Please read the consonants that are highlighted in blue only, we will discuss the rest of the consonants in the next chapter. (List of highlighted consonants: ក, ខ, គ,ង,ច,ឆ,ឈ,ដ,ត,ទ, ព, ភ, ល,ស,ឡ, អ.)
Consonants and phonetic transcriptions
| 1. Velars | ក (kɔɔ) |
ខ (khɔɔ) | គ (koo) | ឃ (khoo) | ង (ngoo) |
| 2. Palatals | ច (jɔɔ) | ឆ (chɔɔ) | ឈ (choo) | ជ (joo) | ញ (nhoo) |
| 3. Retroflexes | ដ (dɔɔ) | ឋ (tɔɔ) | ឌ (doo) | ឍ (thoo) | ណ (nɔɔ) |
| 4. Dentals | ត (ɔɔ) | ថ (tɔɔ) | ទ (dtoo) | ធ (thoo) | ន (noo) |
| 5. Labials | ប (bɔɔ) | ផ (pɔɔ) | ព (bpoo) | ភ (phoo) | ម (moo) |
| 6. Miscellaneous |
យ (yoo)
y-/-y |
រ (roo)
r-/-r |
ល (loo)
l-/-l |
វ (voo)
v-/-v |
ស (sɔɔ)
s-/h- |
| ហ (hɔɔ)
h- |
ឡ (lɔɔ)
l- |
អ (ɔɔ)
ɔɔ– |
5. Dictation
Please listen carefully and write what you hear. Note that you need to install Khmer fonts in order to complete this exercise.
