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Pronunciation

The Vietnamese alphabet has 29 letters: a, ă, â, b, c, d, đ, e, ê, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, ô, ơ, p, q, r, s, t, u, ư, v, x, y.

Vietnamese consonants are written as a single letter or a cluster of two or three letters, as follows: b, c, ch, d, đ, 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, ă, â, e, ê, i/y, o, ô, ơ, u, ư. Vowels can also be grouped together to form a cluster.

The following lists the consonants and vowels with their Vietnamese pronunciation followed by their English equivalent.

Consonants
VIETNAMESE	ENGLISH	EXAMPLE	MEANING
b	book	bút	pen
c, k	can	cá	fish
		kem	ice-cream
qu	queen	quý	precious
ch	chore	cho	to give
d, g (before i)	zero	da	skin
		gì	what
đ	do	đi	to go
g, gh	go	ga	railway
		ghe	boat
h	hat	hai	two
kh	(no real English equivalent)	không	no
l	lot	làm	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	phải	right
r	run	ra	to go out
s	show	sữa	milk
t	top	tốt	good
th	thin	thăm	to visit
tr	entry	trên	on/above
v	very	và	and
x	see	xa	far

Vowels
VIETNAMESE	ENGLISH	EXAMPLE	MEANING
a	father	ba	three
ă	hat	ăn	to eat
â	but	âm	sound
e	bet	em	younger brother/sister
ê	may	đêm	night
i/y	me	kim	needle
o	law	lo	to worry
ô	no	cô	aunt
ơ	fur	bơ	butter
u	too	ngu	stupid
ư	uh-uh	thư	letter

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 marks placed over (à, ả, ã, á) or under (ạ) single vowels or the vowel in a cluster that bears the main stress.

VIETNAMESE NAME	TONE MARK	TONE	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE	MEANING
Không dấu	None	mid-level	Voice starts at middle of normal speaking range and remains at that level	ma	ghost
Huyền	à	low-falling	Voice starts fairly low and gradually falls	mà	but
Hỏi	ả	low-rising	Voice falls initially then rises slightly	mả	tomb
Ngã	ã	high-broken	Voice rises slightly, is cut off abruptly, then rises sharply again	mã	horse
Sắc	á	high-rising	Voice starts high and rises sharply	má	cheek
Nặng	ạ	low-broken	Voice falls, then cuts off abruptly	mạ	rice seedling