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Pronunciation

Alphabet

The Vietnamese alphabet uses the Latin script. There are 29 letters in the Vietnamese alphabet:

A а

Ă ă

Â â

B b

C c

D d

Đ đ

E e

Ê ê

G g

H h

I i

K k

L l

M m

N n

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

The Vietnamese language does not use the letters F(f), J(j), W(w) and Z(z). Besides the ordinary “D(d)”, there is the varied version “Đ (đ)”. And there are 6 special letters with accent marks:

Ă (ă)

Â (â)

Ê (ê)

Ô (ô)

Ơ (ơ)

Ư ư

Vowels

There are 12 single vowels, 32 double vowels and 13 triple vowels.

Single Vowels	a	ă	â	e	ê	i
Single Vowels	y	o	ô	ơ	u	ư
Double Vowels	ai	ao	au	âu	ay	ây
	eo	êu	ia	iê/yê	iu	oa
	oă	oe	oi	ôi	ơi	oo
	ôô	ua	uă	uâ	ưa	uê
	ui	ưi	uo	uô	uơ	ươ
	ưu	uy
Triple vowels	iêu	oai	oao	oeo	uao	uây
Triple vowels	uôi	ươi	ươu	uya	uyê	uyu

Consonants

There are 17 single consonants and 10 compound consonants:

Single Consonants	b	c	d	đ	g
	h	k	l	m	n
	p	r	q	s	t
	v	x
Compound Consonants	ph	th	tr	ch	nh
Compound Consonants	ng	ngh	gh	gi	kh

All the consonants can be initials (the start of a word).

And these 8 consonants can be finals (the end of a word):

Syllables

Generally, Vietnamese syllables have three parts: the initial, the final and the tone.

Initial

ăn

Final

zhan

Tone

Tones

Standard Vietnamese (Hanoi) has 6 tones. Take “a” sound for example:

ả

ạ

Tone	Marker	Example
First tone	no mark	a
Second tone	` (grave)	à
Third tone	~ (tilde)	ã
Fourth tone	̉ (hook above)	ả
Fifth tone	´ (acute)	á
Sixth tone	. (underdot)	ạ

Note: the marks on the letters ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư are not tone marks.