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Vietnamese has six tones. The mid-level tone is not indicated by any diacritic mark. The other five tones are denoted by the specific diacritics marks (see the previous page).

1. The mid-level tone is produced at a pitch that is the midpoint of the normal speaking voice range of a person. It is essential to maintain the pitch of the mid-level tone throughout the word and throughout a sentence which may contain several words carrying the mid-level tone.

2. The low-falling tone begins a little bit lower than the mid-level tone and moderately goes downward

3. The high-rising tone begins at a little bit higher pitch than the mid-level tone, then in the middle of the syllable the voice sharply goes upward.

4. The low-falling-rising tone begins at the pitch which is the beginning point of the low-falling tone, and drops abruptly, then the voice goes upward at the end of the syllable.

5. The high-rising broken tone begins at a bit higher pitch than the high-rising tone and then abruptly goes upward and at the end of the syllable is accompanied by a glottal stop.

6. The low-falling broken tone begins at a bit lower pitch than the low-falling tone and then abruptly goes downward and at the end of the syllable is accompanied by a glottal stop.

These tones may be represented graphically as shown in the following chart.

Examples of words using the six main tones in Vietnamese are:

1. ma “ghost” (mid-level tone)

2. mà ( ˋ ) “but” (low-falling tone)

3. má ( ˊ ) “mother” (high-rising tone)

4. mả ( ˀ ) “grave” w(low-falling-rising tone)

5. mã ( ˜ ) “horse” (high-rising broken tone)

6. mạ ( ˌ ) “rice seedling” (low-falling broken tone)

Vietnamese consonants

Vietnamese has twenty-two initial consonants. Please listen to the audio recordings to hear examples of each one.

Examples

Examples

Examples

b [b]

ph [f]

v [v]

m [m]

t [t]

đ [d]

th [t^h]

boy

phone

van in the North;

yes in the South

man

dog

dove

Texas (aspirated)

x [s]

d, gi [z]

n [n]

l [l]

r⁴ [r] tr⁵ [t^r] s⁶ [s] r⁷ [r]

save

zipper

no

love

run

train

shave

run

ch [j]

nh [ny]

c, k, qu [k]

kh [kh]

g, gh [gh]

ng, ngh [ng]

h [h]

chase

onion

gas

kiss

golf

sing, singy

house

Note that the Vietnamese character d denotes a [z] sound whereas the [d] sound is written as đ. Both s and x are pronounced as the [s] sound in the Hanoi dialect. The Vietnamese character x should not be confused with the English x that represents a [z] sound as in Xerox or xylophone.

Many Vietnamese initial consonants are similar to their English counterparts. However the following consonants sound very different from the English ones or do not exist in English at all.

The consonants t and th

The consonant t is unaspirated which means it is pronounced without releasing a puff of air, unlike the

English t (but similar to the Spanish t). There is a similar consonant th which is aspirated, which means it has

⁴ This trill initial consonant does not exist in the Hanoi dialect.

⁵ This retroflex initial consonant does not exist in the Hanoi dialect.

⁶ This retroflex initial consonant does not exist in the Hanoi dialect.

⁷ This retroflex initial consonant does not exist in the Hanoi dialect.

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