What ฉ means
It marks a breathy ch sound at a syllable’s start.
ฉ belongs to the high consonant class, a spelling category that helps determine tone together with the vowel, syllable ending, and any tone mark.
In ฉัน (“I/me”), the whole word carries the meaning; ฉ supplies its opening sound.
Why does Thai keep both ฉ and ช?
They can begin with a similar sound, but their tone classes differ.
The Sukhothai script was adapted from Old Khmer, part of the Brahmi-derived writing tradition that began in South Asia. The oldest generally accepted written evidence of Sukhothai Thai script is an inscription from the late 13th century.
Thai consonant classes once marked sound distinctions and still help determine tone. That is why letters with similar starting sounds can remain separate spellings.
How do I type ฉ?
On Thai Kedmanee, use ShiftC.
Thai Pattachote uses Shiftperiod instead, so the shortcut depends on which Thai keyboard layout is active.
A Thai left-side vowel is entered before ฉ even though it displays to its left and the consonant is pronounced first. That is the normal input order.
The letter is neutral; ฉัน is an informal first-person pronoun meaning “I/me.”
Part of the collection
Who writes ฉ
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Don't confuse it with
2
Alphabet
Combination ideas
1Questions people ask
1Can ฉ end a Thai syllable?
No. Standard Thai uses ฉ at the start of a syllable, not as its final consonant.
More like this
7
Collections with ฉ
5
How to type or find ฉ
- Also called
- cho ching · choor ching
- Search it as
- ฉ · ฉิ่ง · cymbals · Thai consonant · aspirated ch · Kedmanee · Pattachote · Shift+C
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ฉ\0E09Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.