About Vietnamese and Their Language

Born in the Red River Delta region, the distant ancestor of today’s Vietnamese is now in northern Vietnam. The strong influence of Indic and Malayo-Polynesian languages changed when the Chinese took control of the coastal nation in the 2nd century BC.

Almost 30 dynasties of Chinese rulers migrated slowly towards Vietnam, where the Chinese Language was used as the language of literature, academia, science, politics and the Vietnamese nobility. The vernacular language, which was written in chữ năm jühr nuwm, is still spoken by the common people.   

Until the early 20th century, this script consisting of Chinese characters has been adapted to express the Vietnamese sounds. The derivation of Vietnamese words from Chinese sources is termed Hán Việt haan verlit (Sino-Vietnamese).

The Vietnamese, after a century of fighting for independence, gained control of their own land in AD 939. Vietnamese, written in chữ nom, gained prestige as the nation rebuilt itself where poetry of Ho Xuan Huong and the epic poem Truyện Kiều chwee-uhn gee-oo (The Tale of Kieu') by Nguyen Du were composed.

Vietnam was added to Indochina in 1859 when the French asserted themselves over the Portuguese as the region's dominant European power, when they took control of Saigon. French vocabulary was incorporated in Vietnamese, facilitating their rule even further when in 1910 the Latin-based quốc ngữ gwawk ngühr script was declared the language's official written form. Alexandre de Rhodes, a French Jesuit missionary, invented this 29-letter phonetic alphabet in the 17th century which is used virtually for all writing today.

The Vietnamese language has seen little changes despite the major conflicts faced by Vietnam since the middle of last century. Minor modifications were made to qu ngữ during the '50s and '60s which made the script representative of a 'Middle Vietnamese' dialect, combining the initial consonants of the south with the vowels and final consonants of the north. Today, Vietnamese, the official language of the Social Republic of Vietnam, is spoken by about 85 million people worldwide, both in Vietnam and among migrant communities in Australia, Europe, North America and Japan.

Basics > Pronounciation 

Symbol	English Equivalent	Vietnamese Example	Transliteration
a	at	me	ma
aa	father	ba	baa
ai	aisle	ai	ai
ay	play	bay	bay
aw	law	số	sáw
e	bet	ghê	ge
ee	feet	đi	đee
er	her	phở	fër
i	fit	thích	tík
o	lot	lo	lo
oh	doh!	phẫu	foh
oo	through	đủ	doò
oy	boy	tôi	doy
ow	cow	sao	sow
u	book	lúc	lúp
uh	but	gặp	guḥp
uhr	fur (without the ‘r’)	từ	dùhr

Most Vietnamese vowel sounds exist in English, so you wouldn’t face much trouble pronouncing them. Once you've got the hang of the few challenging vowel sounds, you'll be well on your way.

There can be various combinations of vowel sounds within a word (as shown in the table below) where each vowel is pronounced separately. In our pronunciation guides we've used dots (eg dee ühing) to separate the different vowel sounds, but simplified three-vowel instances to two- that's not to say that there aren't three vowels in action, but when you get to the point of recognizing the distinctions, you'll be using the Vietnamese script anyway.

Symbol	Vietnamese Example	Transliteration
ay·oo	meo	may·oo
ee·e	miếng	mee·úng
ee·oo	phiều	fee·òo
ee·uh	mía	mee·úh
o·ee	mọi	mo·ẹe
oo·ee	mùi	moo·èe
oo·uh	muốn	moo·úhn
uhr·ee	mười	muhr·èe
uhr·er	được	dùhr·ẹrk
uhr·oo	mưu	muhr·oo
uhr·uh	mưa	muhr·uh

Tones 

If you listen to someone speaking Vietnamese, you'll notice that some vowels are pronounced with a high or low pitch while others swoop or glide in an almost musical manner. This is because Vietnamese uses a system of tones to make distinctions between words.

There are six tones used in Vietnamese: mid, low falling, low rising, high broken, high rising and low broken. The accent marks above or below the vowel in written Vietnamese (and also in our pronunciation guides) remind you which one to use. Note that the mid tone is flat. In the south, the low rising and the high broken tones are both pronounced as the low rising tone.

Tone Name	Tone Mark	Pitch Diagram	Description
Mid Level	a	→	Middle of the vocal range
Low Falling	à	↓	Begins low & falls lower
Low Rising	ả	↓↑	Begins low, dips noticeably & then rises to a higher pitch
High Broken	ã	↘↑	Begins above mid level, dips slightly & then rises sharply
High Rising	á	↑↑	Begins high & rises sharply
Low Broken	ạ	↓⟶	Begins low, falls to a lower level & then stops

Consonant Sounds

Vietnamese consonant sounds are generally a breeze for English speakers to pronounce. The challenge for some people is the ‘ng’ at the start of a word. English has this sound (eg 'sing') but only in the middle or at the end of a word.

Symbol	English Equivalent	Vietnamese Example	Transcription
b	bed	ba	ba
ch	chill	trà	chà
d	stop	tin	din
đ	dog	đề	dây
f	fit	pha	faa
g	gap	ga, ghen tị	gà, gen dị
gh	skill	cá, kem	gã, gêm
h	hat	hát	hát
j	jam	chó	jó
k	kit	khách	kaák
l	let	lý	lée
m	mat	trung, me	chum, ma
n	not	nóng	nóm
ng	sing	ngon, anh	ngon, ang
nh	canyon	nhà	nyà
p	top	súp, tóc	súp, dóp
s	sad	sữa, xin	sühr·a, sin
t	top	thích	tík
v	vase	vịt	vịt
w	water	quá	gwá
z	zoo	giấy, do	záy, zo

Key Takeaways

Official Name: Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Government Form: Socialist Republic

Capital City: Hanoi

Population: 97,040,334

Official Language: Vietnamese

Currency: Dong

Area Range: 127,123 square miles (329,247 square kilometers)

Prominent  Mountain Range : Annam Cordiller

Prominent Rivers: Mekong, Red, Ma, Perfume