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A Guide to Vietnamese Pronunciation

Like Chinese and Thai, Vietnamese is a tonal language where no word is conjugated. The Vietnamese alphabet has 29 letters:

a, aê, aâ, b, c, d, ñ, e, eâ, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, oâ, ô, p, q, r, s, t, u, ö, v, x, y.

The Vietnamese consonants are written as single letters or a cluster of two or three letters, as follows:

b, c, ch, d, ñ, g, gh, gi, h, k, kh, l, m, n, ng, ngh, nh, p, ph, qu, r, s, t, th, tr, v, x.

The vowels in Vietnamese are the following: a, aê, aâ, e, eâ, i/y, o, oâ, ô, u, ö. Vowels can also be grouped together to form a cluster or a word.

The following charts show the vowels and consonants in Vietnamese pronunciation with their English equivalents.

Vowels

Vietnamese	English	Example	Meaning
a	father	ba	three
aê	hat	aê	to eat
aâ	but	aâm	sound
e	bet	em	younger brother/sister
eâ	may	ñeâ m	night
i/y	me	kim	needle
o	law	lo	to worry
oâ	no	coâ	aunt
ô	fur	bô	butter
u	too	ngu	stupid
ö	wh-wh	thö	letter

Consonants

Vietnamese	English	Example	Meaning
b	book	buù t	pen
c, k, q	can	caù	fish
		kem	ice-cream
		quyù	precious
ch	chore	cho	to give
d, gi	zero	da	skin
		gì	what
ñ	do	ñi	to go
g/gh	go	ga	railway station
		ghe	boat
h	hat	hai	two
kh	(no real English equivalent)	khoâng	no
l	lot	laø	to do
m	me; him	mai	tomorrow
n	not; in	nam	south
ng/ngh	singer	ngon	delicious
		nghe	to hear
nh	canyon	nho	grape
ph	phone	phaûi	right
r	run	ra	to go out
s	show	söõa	milk
t	top	toát	good
th	thin	thaêm	to visit
tr	entry	treân	on/ above
v	very	vaø	and
x	see	xa	far

Tones

The standard Vietnamese language has six tones. Each tone is a meaningful and integral part of the syllable. Every syllable must have a tone. The tones are indicated in conventional Vietnamese spelling by diacritic marks placed over (aù, aø, aû, aõ) or under (aï) single vowels or the vowel in a cluster that bears the main stress (v).

Vietnamese	Tone mark	Description	Example	Meaning
Khoâ ng daáu (no)	o	Voice starts at middle of normal speaking range and remains at that level	maø	ghost
Saé c high-rising	où	Voice starts high and rises sharply	maù	cheek
Huyeà n low-falling	oø	Voice starts at a fairly low and gradually falls	maø	but
Naë ng low-broken	oï	Voice falls, then cuts off abruptly	maï	rice seedling
Hoû i low-rising	oû	Voice falls initially, then rises slightly	maû	tomb
Ngaõ high-broken	oõ	Voice rises slightly, is cut off abruptly, then rises sharply again	maõ	horse

Tone Symbols

The six tones just described are summarized in the following chart to illustrate the differences between them as they are associated with individual words.

The Vietnamese language has its national standard syntax, morphology and the tone system, although there are some regional variations in pronunciation and accents. The significant differences in pronunciation and accents between the Northern and Southern people (represented by Hanoi and Saigon respectively) are as follows:

1. There is no difference in the single vowels between Hanoi and Saigon.

2. There are two vowel clusters /öu/ and /öôu/ which are pronounced /iu/ and /ieâu/ by Hanoi, and /öu/ and /öôu/ by Saigon.

3. Differences in the pronunciation of consonants:

4. Saigonese do not differentiate between the two tones /?/ and /~/; these are pronounced alike.

We hope that all users of this Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary —be they Vietnamese students learning English, or English-speaking expatriates, students or business people—will find this a most up-to-date and user-friendly Vietnamese dictionary, for all aspects of daily communication.