To read Thai, we must understand how an orthographic syllable is constructed. The first thing to note is that we're going to be careful to distinguish between an orthographic—that is, written—syllable and a phonetic syllable. The reason for this will become clear later on. Don't worry about this too much now; just remember to be flexible about your old grammar-school idea of a syllable. So let's start by dissecting a written syllable in Thai.