Step 10: words with no written vowel

Look at คน. Two consonants, kh and n, and no vowel anywhere. Thai does this constantly, and it is not an abbreviation: the vowel is understood rather than written. THE RULE: when two consonants form ONE syllable, meaning the second consonant closes it as a final, insert a short o between them. คน is khon (person), ลม is lom (wind), นก is nók (bird), จบ is jòp (to finish). Notice what decides this: not how long the word is, but whether the second consonant is acting as a final. That distinction matters, because a consonant that starts the NEXT syllable behaves completely differently, which is step 11. Apply your tone rules unchanged, because the implicit vowel is a real vowel with a real length. นก ends in a stop after a short vowel, so on low-class น it is dead-and-short, giving HIGH: nók. And a word you have used a hundred times: ผม. ผ is HIGH class, ม closes the syllable so it is live, unmarked, therefore RISING: phǒm. That is both the male word for I and the word for hair, and you have been saying it since your first day without being able to read it. THE ONE EXCEPTION WORTH LEARNING NOW: when the second consonant is ร and no vowel is written, the pair says -awn, not -on. พร is phawn (a blessing), ละคร is lá-khawn (drama, and the word for a TV soap), นคร is ná-khawn (city, as in every place name beginning Nakhon). Read those with an o and no one will understand you.