Vietnamese alphabet

There are 29 letters in Vietnamese.

There are 11 vowels (blue letters in the above alphabet): 

a, ă, â, i (=y), e, ê, o, ô, ơ, u, ư

There are 16 intinial consonants (first consonants) with 1 letter:

b, c, d, đ, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, x

Besides, there are more 11 initial consonants with 2 and 3 letters.

ch, tr, nh, ng, ngh, gh, th, qu, gi, kh, ph

There are 7 special Vietnamese letters that don’t exist in English alphabet. Please remember they are just letters. The symbols (the hat, the hook and the smile) are parts of the letters, not tones.

ă, â, ô, ơ, ê, ư, đ

There are 4 letters don’t exist in Vietnamese alphabet:

f, j, z, w

➡ Let’s learn and practice 3 vowels “u, ô, o” in this sample video: (Southern accent)

There are 8 final consonants in Vietnamese, they are implosive. 

_m, _n, _ng, _nh, _p, _t, _c, _ch

The words ending with 4 these final consonants “_p, _t, _c, _ch” can only go with 2 tones (Tone No.2 and No.6)

Eg (ví dụ): thích (to like), đẹp (beautiful), mắc (expensive)

Vietnamese tones

There are 6 tones in Vietnamese, however, there are only 5 tones in the southern accent because two of them are the same in pronunciation, just different in writing. They are tones No.4 and No.5.

This chart shows how to pronounce Vietnamese tones.

• The tone No.1: dấu ngang = không dấu
• The tone No.2: dấu sắc / (the highest tone)
• The tone No.3: dấu huyền
• The tone No.4: dấu hỏi ?
• The tone No.5: dấu ngã ~
• The tone No.6: dấu nặng . (the lowest tone)

In Vietnamese, words with different tones have different meanings so please pay attention to tones when you pronounce them.

Eg: (ví dụ)

At first, when you start learning Vietnamese, you will choose Northern or Southern accent to follow. Please remember just pick one of them to follow because they are so much different in pronunciation. Besides, you can get to know the other one.

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Course Content

[14 video lessons (8.5 hours) + audios + pdf files ]

LESSON 1: Basic Introduction of Vietnamese language 🕒41:18

LESSON 2: Vowels (i, ê, e) + Initial Consonants (b, c, d, đ, g, h, k) 🕒41:01

LESSON 3: Vowels (u, ô, o) + Initial Consonants (l, m, n, p, r, s) 🕒35:14

LESSON 4: Vowels (ư, ơ – â, a – ă) + Initial Consonants (t, v, x, ch, tr) 🕒33:39

LESSON 5: Initial Consonants [nh, ng (ngh), g (gh)]; 2 tones (Dấu ngang + Dấu sắc) 🕒42:54

LESSON 6: Initial Consonants (qu, gi, kh, ph); 2 tones (Dấu huyền + Dấu nặng) 🕒25:35

LESSON 7: Initial Consonants (t, th); 2 tones (Dấu hỏi + Dấu ngã) 🕒23:13

LESSON 8: Initial Consonants [tr – ch] [s – x] [gi – d] / [c – k] [g – gh] [ng – ngh] 🕒19:39

LESSON 9: Vowels + “i” (Pronounce words ending with “i/y”) 🕒51:16

LESSON 10: Final Consonants (m-n-ng-nh; p-t-c-ch) + Baloon Sounds 🕒1:36:35

LESSON 11: Diphthongs iê_/ia ; ươ_/ưa ; uô_/ưa 🕒38:35

LESSON 12: Other Diphthongs & Triphthongs 🕒42:31

LESSON 13: Rules for tone mark placement + How to type Vietnamese 🕒10:04

LESSON 14: Practice reading a Vietnamese article 🕒05:45

Common Questions