Learn Lao Through Topics You Actually Care About

LingoBear creates short Lao passages on topics you choose. Tap any word for an instant English translation and build your vocabulary as you read. Tai-Kadai language, sole official language of Laos, Lao abugida with 27 consonants and 28 vowel symbols, six lexical tones, ~30M speakers including Isan in Thailand.

Tap any word for instant translation

Every word in your Lao reading passage is clickable. Get English translations and grammar help — useful because Lao does not use spaces between words.

Read about topics you choose

Type any topic and LingoBear generates a fresh Lao reading passage — from Mekong travel to laap recipes.

How is Lao related to Thai?

Lao and Thai are both Southwestern Tai languages of the Tai-Kadai family, closely related and largely mutually intelligible in everyday spoken use. Laos's Lao population (~7 million) is in fact outnumbered by Lao speakers in northeast Thailand (Isan), where roughly 20 million people speak varieties of Lao. The two languages share a script ancestor but the modern Lao script has fewer letters than Thai.

What's distinctive about the Lao script?

Lao uses an abugida with 27 consonant letters (divided into high, mid and low classes that interact with five tone marks) and 28 vowel symbols that can appear above, below, before or after the consonant. Words are written without spaces, which makes word boundaries the main challenge for learners. Six tones distinguish meaning, though the exact inventory varies by dialect. LingoBear's tap-to-translate helps you find word breaks.