Do you know: How to Pronounce Vietnamese?

To pronounce Vietnamese correctly, you need to understand the three  most basic issues: Tones in Vietnamese, the transcription of vowels and consonants.

1. Vietnamese tones

Vietnamese has 6 tones and 5 bar marks. Just by being different in tone, the meaning of words can completely be changed. 

6 tones in Vietnamese include: 

• Level: No accents (ga, ba, ma, cô,...)

• Acute (´): A slash is placed on a vowel. This is the highest tone (bá, cá, má,...)

• Grave (`): Backslash with chromatic accent and also placed on vowels. When reading this tone, lower your voice. (cà, bà, mà,...)

• Tilde (~): Placed on vowels. (mã, cỗ, cũ,...)

• Hook above (?): Placed above a vowel. (Cỏ, cổ, củ, mả,...)

• Underdot (.): Put below the vowel. (cọ, cụ, mạ,..)

The tone differences present words’ meaning changes. 

2. Pronunciation of Vietnamese vowels

Here is the basic Vietnamese IPA table for your reference:

Single vowels Vietnamese	IPA	Similar sound in English
a	/a:/	father
ă	/a/	cut
â	/ə/	but
e	/ɛ/	set
ê	/e/	day, say
i,y	/i/	tea, me
o	/ɔ/	law
ô	/o/	bowl
ơ	/ə:/	sir
u	/u/	too
ư	/ɨ/ /ɯ/	uh-uh (US)

Here are some commonly used diphthongs and triphthongs:

ai	âu	êu	oe	ua	ưi
ay	ây	ia	oi	ưu	uôi
ao	uây	iêu	oo	uê	ươi
au	oay	iu	ôi	ui	uya
oai	eo	oai	ơi	uy	ươu

3. Pronunciation of Vietnamese consonants

The table below contains Vietnamese international phonetic transcriptions for Vietnamese consonants. You can practice Vietnamese pronunciation by using this table:

Vietnamese consonants	Vietnamese transliteration	Similar sound in English	Example
b	/ɓ/	blue, best	ba (farther), bay (fly)
đ	/ɗ /	day, done	đi (go), đẹp (beautiful)
d	/z/	zero, zoo	dao (knife)
gi	/j/	yes, jump	giày (shoes), gió (wind)
c, k	/k/	come, cut	cao (tall), kem (cream)
g/gh	/ɣ/	go, get	gà (chicken) ghế (chair)
h	/h/	hi, hello	hên (lucky) ho (cough)
l	/l/	law, love	lo (nervous)
m	/m/	my, mind	ma (ghost)
n	/n/	number, no	no (full)
p	/p/	pen, push	pin (battery)
s	/ʂ/	she, show	sò (scallop)
x	/s/	so, some	xa (far)
t	/t/	stay	to (big), tim (heart)
v	/v/	van, very	và (and)
r	/r /	run, red	rau (vegetable)
kh	/kʰ/ /x/	loch (Northern dialect)	khô (dry)
nh	/ɲ/		nho (grape)
ng	/ŋ/	sing	ngu (stupid)
ph	/f/	form, fun	phở
qu	/kw/ (Northern, Central)	queen	quên (forget)
	/w/	wow
th	/tʰ/	thin	thầy (teacher)
tr	/ʈʂ/	try, trend	trơn (slippy)

Above are the sharing on how to pronounce Vietnamese. Hope this article helps you!

See more: How to Learn Vietnamese