tiếng việt cho người nước ngoài -bài 1-

Lesson 1: Vietnamese Alphabet
I. Aims of lesson:
After the lesson you will learn:
1. The Vietnamese alphabet system and its pronunciation
2. Learn more detail vowels, consonants, diphthongs, etc.
3. Tones
II. Content:
1. Vietnamese alphabet system
There are 29 letters in the Vietnamese alphabet system which consists of 12 vowels and
17 consonants. See the list below:
Table 1
A a Ă ă Â â B b C c Dd Đ đ E e Ê ê G g
H h I i K k L l M m Nn O o Ô ô Ơ ơ P p
Q q R r S s T t U u Ư ư V v X x Y y

2. Vowels
As mentioned above, there are 12 vowels in the Vietnamese alphabet system. They are
including:
Table 2
a ă â e ê i
o ô ơ u ư y

How to pronoun these vowels is to follow the below
Table 3
Front Central Back
High i, y [i]
ư [ɨ]
u [u]
Upper mid ê [e]
â [ə] / ơ [əː]
ô [o]

Lower mid
e [ɛ] o [ɔ]
Low ă [a] / a [aː]
Front, central, and low vowels (i, ê, e, ư, â, ơ, ă, a) are unrounded, whereas the back
vowels (u, ô, o) are rounded. The vowels â [ə] and ă [a] are pronounced very short, much
shorter than the other vowels. Thus, ơ and â are basically pronounced the same except
that ơ [əː] is long while â [ə] is short — the same applies to the low vowels long a [aː]
and short ă [a].
- Now turn back to the list, (table 2) listen and repeat
* Diphthongs and Tripthongs
In addition to single vowels (or monophthongs), Vietnamese has diphthongs and
triphthongs. The diphthongs consist of a main vowel component followed by a shorter
semivowel offglide to either a high front position [ɪ], a high back position [ʊ], or a
central position [ə]. See the table below:
Table 4
Vowel
nucleus
Diphthong
with front
offglide
Diphthong
with back
offglide
Diphthong with
centering offglide
Tripthong
with front
offglide
Tripthong
with back

offglide
i -
iu~yu [iʊ]
ia~iê~yê~ya [iə] -
iêu [iəʊ]
~ ~ ~ ~
ê -
êu [eʊ]
- - -

e -
eo [ɛʊ]
- - -

ư
ưi [ɨɪ] ưu [ɨʊ] ưa~ươ [ɨə] ươi [ɨəɪ] ươu [ɨəʊ]
~
â
ây [əɪ] âu [əʊ]
- - -

ơ
ơi [əːɪ]
- - - -

ă
ay [aɪ] au [aʊ]
- -

a

ai [aːɪ] ao [aːʊ]
- - -

u
ui [uɪ]
- ua~uô [uə]
uôi [uəɪ]
-
~
ô
ôi [oɪ]
- - - -

o
oi [ɔɪ]
- - - -

The centering diphthongs are formed with only the three high vowels (i, ư, u) as the main
vowel. They are generally spelled as ia, ưa, ua when they end a word and are spelled iê,
ươ, uô, respectively, when they are followed by a consonant. There are also restrictions
on the high offglides: the high front offglide cannot occur after a front vowel (i, ê, e)
nucleus and the high back offglide cannot occur after a back vowel (u, ô, o) nucleus.
The correspondence between the orthography and pronunciation is complicated. For
example, the offglide [ɪ] is usually written as i however, it may also be represented with
y. In addition, in the diphthongs [aɪ] and [aːɪ] the letters y and i also indicate the
pronunciation of the main vowel: ay = ă + [ɪ], ai = a + [ɪ]. Thus, tay "hand" is [taɪ]
while tai "ear" is [taːɪ]. Similarly, u and o indicate different pronunciations of the main
vowel: au = ă + [ʊ], ao = a + [ʊ].
The four triphthongs are formed by adding front and back offglides to the centering
diphthongs. Similarly to the restrictions involving diphthongs, a triphthong with front

nucleus cannot have a front offglide (after the centering glide) and a triphthong with a
back nucleus cannot have a back offglide.
With regards to the front and back offglides [ɪ, ʊ], many phonological descriptions
analyze these as consonant glides /j, w/. Thus, a word such as đâu "where" [ɗəʊ] would
be /ɗəw/.
It is difficult to pronoun these sounds, you must listen and repeat carefully (table 4), then
pronoun these words. (Practice and then click the sounds to check whether you do it right
or not)
Liêu xiêu đêm khuya mưa lao xao mười hai
chai rượu tay tai làu bàu hiu hiu
3. Consonant
The consonants that occur in Vietnamese are listed below in the Vietnamese orthography
with the phonetic pronunciation to the right.
Table 5
Labial Alveolar Retroflex palatal Velar Glottal
Stop
voiceless p[p] t [t]
tr [ʈʂ~ʈ] ch [c~tɕ]
c/k [k]
aspirated
th [tʰ]

voiced
b [ɓ] đ [ɗ]

d [ɟ]

Fricative
voiceless ph [f] x [s]
s [ʂ]

kh [x] h [h]
voiced v [v] gi [z]
r [ʐ~ɹ]

g/gh [ɣ]

Nasal m [m] n [n]
nh [ɲ]
ng/ngh [ŋ]
Approximant
u/o
[w]
l [l] y/i [j]
Some consonant sounds are written with only one letter (like "p"), other consonant
sounds are written with a two-letter disgrah (like "ph"), and others are written with more
than one letter or digraph (the velar stop is written variously as "c", "k", or "q").
The tables below show detail and it may help you easier to understand
* There are 17 single consonants as listed below:
Table 6
Consonants
Sound Phoneme English equivalent sounds
b /b/ but, bike
c /k/ car, clean
d /z/ zoo,
đ /d/ do, does
g /g/ go, get
h /h/ hat, house
k /k/ keep,
l /l/ leaf, lose
m /m/ meet, mouse

n /n/ not, no
p /p/ pipe, people
q /k/ queen
r /r/ run, road
s /sh/ show, shower
t /t/ tea, top
v /v/ video, vowel
x /s/ see, sea
* There are 11 consonants clusters:
Table 7
Consonants
Sound Phoneme English equivalent sounds
ch /ts/ cheap
gh /g/ ghost
gi /j/ yes
kh /x/ loch
nh
/
ɲ
/
canyon
ng /ŋ/ sing
ngh /ŋ/ single
ph /f/ fine
th /θ/ thin, theory
tr
/
ʈʂ
/
try

qu /kw/ queen
* There are 8 final consonants:
Table 8
Consonants
Sound Phoneme English equivalent sounds
c /k/ car
ch /ts/ lunch
m /m/ them
n /n/ then
nh
/
ɲ
/
canyon
ng /ŋ/ sing
p /p/ stop
t /t/ top
Now click the sounds again, listen and repeat carefully.
It is necessray to make a difference between these two sounds:
+) K vs. Kh
“K” & “kh” are two of the consonant symbols in the Vietnamese language. “K” is
produced fortis and unaspirated. It is similar to the “c” in cat. In Vietnamese language it
is similar to “c” and “q”. Perhaps one of the most common words beginning with “k” is
“kem” which means “ice cream” and “kẹo” which means “candy”. 'Kh' is produced lenis
voiceless dorsorelar spirant. The most common 'kh' word is “không” which means “no”
or “not” though there are less common meanings as well. “Khỏe” which means “strong”
and “healthy” is another common word. To place “khỏe không” after a personal referent
is to enquire as to another's health - literally: “you well no?” as in “bạn khỏe không?”
Also in these times of fast food, the ubiquitous french fry is known as “khoai tây chiên”
meaning “potato fry”.

+) Ng and Ngh
The sound that ng and ngh make in Vietnamese is by far the hardest sound for Westerners
to make. Ng and ngh simply make the last sound in "king" or "running” (as long as you
don't make the hard /g/ sound at the end). The problem arises when ng or ngh come at the
beginning of a word, as the common family name Nguyễn clearly demonstrates. Here, the
speaker has to isolate the /ŋ/ sound, which even many Western dictionaries don't
recognize in their pronunciation guides. (Those that do tend to represent it as /ng/.) This
lesson will help you to at least pronounce the /ŋ/ sound well enough for a native listener.
One thing you have to take a notice of is the combination of these above consonants Ng/
ngh with vowels. See below for detail:
a ă â e ê i o ơ ô u ư y
Ngh
nghe nghê nghi

Ng nga ngo ngơ ngô ngu ngư
1. Ngh can only combine with the vowels which are started with i, e, ê.
2. Ng can combine with vowels started with a, o, ơ, ô, u, ư.
Besides, Vietnamese has another pair of sound (g/ gh) which are all pronouned as /g/, for
these consonants, there is also rule in combining with vowels.
a ă â e ê i o ơ ô u ư y
g ga gi* go gơ gô gu gư
gh ghe ghê ghi
- gh can only combine with vowel started with e, ê, i.
-g can go with vowel started with a, o, ơ, ô, u, ư.
* g can also go with i but in this case it will be pronoun as /j/, e.g. cái gì.
3. Tones
Vietnamese is a tonal language, It means that different voice inflections on any word will
change the meaning of that word. For example, if you say ban with a rising tone, it means
"sell," but if you say it with a falling tone, it means "table." Tone is the central part of a
word

There are five tones in Vietnamese, plus a mid-level non-tone. Press each symbol button
below to hear what each tone sounds like, and the name of the tone. Then press the word
buttons to hear how one word can be pronounced with all six tones. Underneath is the
English translation of each word.
Description
Name of
tones
Symbol Sample word & meaning
Midrange voice goes flat and level. Ngang
“three”
High rising Sắc bá “to hug”
Low falling Huyền
“grandmother”
Start in a low tone, go down and
gently back up
Hỏi
“bane”
Start high, bring voice down, cut off,
and go back up
Ngã
“residue”
Bring voice down and cut off
abruptly.
Nặng
“haphazardly”
Hình minh họa
It is time to practice. Now listen and repeat carefully
1 Ba Bá Bà Bả Bá Bạ
2 Ma Má Mà Mả Mã Mạ
3 Be bé bè bẻ bẽ bẹ

4 Me mé mè mẻ mẽ mẹ
5 Le lé lè lẻ lẽ lẹ
* How to type Vietnamese on computer:
To use Vietnamese on your computer, you need to download Unikey and then choose
vietnamese. You also need to follow this rule:
Letters
Tones
ă = a w
â = a a
đ = d d
ê = e e
ô = o o
ơ = o w
ư = u w
Huyền = F
Sắc = S
Hỏi = R
Ngã = X
Nặng = J
- The rest is to follow the normal rule.
Example:
Tiếng Việt = t i e e n g s v i e e t j
4. Further practice
Exercise 1: Listen and repeat with vowels
ao uô iu uôi ươu eo
ai ua ia oai iêu oe
au uy âu uya ưu uê
ay ui ây uyu ưa Uơ
Exercise 2: Practice with consonants. Listen and repeat.
xôn xao ngô nghê lưu luyến

nu na nu
nống
róc rách khuya khoắt
xào xạc ghi chép làu bàu thiu thiu rả rích khẳng khiu
chậm chạp cây khế lẩy bẩy thổn thức ngay ngắn kiên trì
chan chát khoai lang lắp ráp thỉnh thoảng ngoan ngoãn trung thực
Exercise 3: Matching the consonants with vowels and then pronoun
a e ê i o ô ơ u ư uy ai ay ưa uư ươu
Ngh
Ng
Gh
G
Exercise 4: Practice with tones, listen and repeat.
1

Bo Bó Bò Bỏ Bõ Bọ
2

lê lế lề lể lễ lệ
3

To Tó Tò Tỏ Tõ Tọ
4

Go Gó Gò Gỏ Gõ Gọ
5

Mo Mó Mò Mỏ Mõ Mọ
6

Lo Ló Lò Lỏ Lõ Lọ
7

Ban Bán Bàn Bản Bãn Bạn
8

Ve vé vè vẻ vẽ vẹ
9
Tu Tú Tù Tủ Tũ Tụ

10

Mu Mú Mù Mủ Mũ Mụ