How Vietnamese works

Before learning any words, it helps to see how the language is built. Vietnamese uses the same alphabet as English, plus a few marks, and every syllable follows the same simple pattern.

Every word in this book drawn like tiếng Việt is clickable. Tap it to hear it.

1.1 About this book

Vietnamese is spoken by around 100 million people. It has three main accents: Northern (Hà Nội), Central (Huế) and Southern (Sài Gòn, also called Ho Chi Minh City). The spelling is the same everywhere. Only the pronunciation changes.

This book teaches the Southern accent, the way people speak in Sài Gòn and the Mekong Delta. It's also the accent of most Vietnamese communities overseas.

Pronunciation is the hardest part of Vietnamese and the most important to get right early, so the first five chapters are about sounds. Words and sentences start in Chapter 6.

The audio in this book is made by a computer voice with a Southern accent. It's very good, but not perfect. If something sounds strange, trust a native speaker over the recording.

1.2 The alphabet

Vietnamese is written with the Latin alphabet. The writing system is called chữ Quốc ngữ ("national script"). It has 29 letters. There's no f, j, w or z, except in foreign names and borrowed words.

Click a letter to hear its name and an example word to hear the letter in use.

Vowels

There are twelve vowel letters. Six of them have a mark built in (ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư). These are separate letters, not accents.

Consonants

There are seventeen consonant letters. Their names are the sound plus "-ờ": b is bờ, c is cờ, and so on. (When spelling a word out loud, people often use a second set of names that comes from French: bê, xê, dê… The "-ờ" names are better for learning sounds.)

1.3 Anatomy of a syllable

Vietnamese is written one syllable at a time, with a space after each. Many words are one syllable, like ăn (eat). Others are two, like tiếng Việt (Vietnamese) or cảm ơn (thank you).

Every syllable has the same four parts:

1. Start: a consonant (optional)
2. Vowel: one vowel, or a group of vowels (always there)
3. End: a consonant or a short -i, -o, -u, -y (optional)
4. Tone: the pitch of your voice (always there, even when there's no mark)

Only a few consonants can end a syllable: c, ch, m, n, ng, nh, p, t. Chapter 5 is all about these endings, which are cut short in Vietnamese.

1.4 Two kinds of marks

Vietnamese uses two kinds of marks, and it's important not to mix them up.

Vowel marks make a different vowel. They're part of the letter. (The hints below are rough; Chapter 2 covers each vowel properly.)

Tone marks change the pitch of the whole syllable. There are five, plus "no mark":

One syllable, six spellings, six meanings. Use "Play all" to hear them in a row:

A vowel can carry both kinds of mark. In Việt, the ê has a vowel mark (ˆ) and a tone mark (the dot below). In người, the ơ has a vowel mark and the huyền tone mark.

1.5 How to practise

Your ear learns by comparing your guess to the real sound, so every time you meet a new word:

1. Read it and guess how it sounds, using its parts and its tone mark.
2. Say it out loud. Exaggerate the tone at first.
3. Click to check, then say it again.

Some more habits that help:

• Practise in pairs. Words that differ by one sound or one tone train your ear fastest.
• Do your flashcards every day. Ten minutes daily works better than an hour once a week.
• Check your tones. Some exercises have a Record button. It listens to you, draws your pitch as you speak, and tells you whether your tone matches.

Try the "Quiz me" button below. It plays one of the six words and you pick which one you heard.

Now say them yourself. The first time, it asks you to say a flat "aaa" so it can learn your voice. Your recording stays in your browser.

Vocabulary

Flashcards

Open the Anki deck and study Vietnamese (Southern) › 01 How Vietnamese works. There's a subdeck for each section, so you can focus on one part at a time.