https://andyfoster.github.io/VietnameseTextbook/book
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Vietnamese has a 29-letter alphabet (Wikipedia)
At first glance it looks similar to English with just a few accents but it can be deceiving. The letters, particularly the vowels, don't usually sound like their English comunterparts so you need to learn them carefully.
There are 3 types of A, 3 types of O, 2 types of U, 2 types of E and 1 type of I.
I like to think of the three As as sitting on a continuum from extremely open to extremely closed (A - Ă - Â)
A is open like in aunt or father (kind of a longer version of the first one)
Ă with a crescent on top is said like the U in UNDER. A bit shorter than A.
 (with a conical Vietnamese hat) rhymes with the vowel in hit or miss (watch out for this one - very different than an English A)
- O
- Ô
- Ơ
- U
- Ư
- E
- Ê
- I is always a long /ee/ sound
While we are talking about vowels, the "y" in Vietnamese is also an /ee/ sound but when it is inside a word, it is said fast and merges with the following consonant.
| Aa | Ââ | Ă ă | B | C c | D d | Đ đ | E e | Ê ê | G g | H h | ... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "pa" | "it" | "up" | "guy" | /z/ (N) /y/ (S) | /d/ | ... |
Vietnamese has no F, J, W, Z letters
| Vietnamese | English | sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| A a | a | the "a" sound in "father" |
| Â â | - | as in "it" |
| Ă ă | - | as in "up" |
| B b | (same as English) | |
| C c | Pronounced as a hard g (like in /golf/) | |
| D d | d | pronounced /z/ in Hanoi and /y/ in Saigon (watch out) |
| Đ đ | - | hard D sound (this is the closest to English "d" but comes from the back of the mouth) |
| E e | - | - |
| Ê ê | ||
| - | F | (not in Vietnamese) |
| G g | ||
| Gi - (in the north pronounced /z/) | ||
| H h | (same as English) | |
| I i | ||
| - | J | (not in Vietnamese) |
| K k | ||
| Kh - | ||
| L l | ||
| M m | (same as English) | |
| N n | (same as English) | |
| nh - /nya/ | ||
| ng - siNG - (only comes at the end of the word in English. They can start a word with Ng in Vietnamese) | ||
| O o | mORE | |
| Ô ô | - | hellO, L M N O |
| Ơ ơ | crOss | |
| P p | (same as English) | |
| Q q | (same as English) | always comes as QU |
| R r | (same as English) | In the south, similar to English 'R'. In the north, pronounced /z/ |
| S s | (same as English) | same |
| T t | ** | kind of a soft d sound |
| TH - an actual T sound | ||
| TR - CH | ||
| U u | mOO | |
| Ư ư | Uhh | |
| V v | (same as English) | |
| - | W | (not in Vietnamese) |
| x | said like a s | |
| Y | (same as English) | |
| - | Z | (not in Vietnamese) |
ô, ơ, â, ă, ê, ư, đ
There are 6 tones that affect how you say each word. Words only have one tone each and always stay the same (i.e. the tone is attached to that word and doesn't change)
-
- Choose either Vietnamese or Telex keyboard
- Each tone has a letter attached to it. This is why it's sometimes hard to mix English and Vietnamese using the same keyboard. If you type the letter twice, it should let you actually type a W, etc.
- If you type the wrong tone key, you don't have to erase the word, just type the one you wanted and it will fix for you.
- Tones (using a an an example vowel)
- huyền 'hanging' à af
- sắc 'sharp' á as
- hỏi 'asking' ả ar
- ngã 'tumbling' ã ax
- nặng 'heavy' ạ aj
- Special Letters (and how to get them)
- ô (o + o)
- ơ (o + w)
- â (a + a)
- ă (a + w)
- ê (e + w)
- ư (u + w)
- đ (d + d)