The Vietnamese Alphabet
There are 29 letters in the Vietnamese alphabet, written in Latin script as below (vowels are in red), listed in alphabetical order: (audio clips coming soon)
a ă â b c d đ e ê g h i k l m n o ô ơ p q r s t u ư v x y
Link to the Vietnamese Alphabet Song: https://youtu.be/FwnimJ7xSVU (Score in pdf here)
Similar to most languages, we use the letter names to refer to the respective letters, but the letter sounds will be more helpful in reading words. All letter names of the Vietnamese alphabet represent their sounds, except c and g. While the letter names for c and g are "seh" and "dzeh", their sounds are c as in scone and g as in goat, respectively.
The Vietnamese Variations of Letters
Similar to the dot above the letter i, the breve (˘) , the circumflex (ˆ), and the attached hook in ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư are parts of the vowels. These diacritic marks are to denote the variations of a, e, o, and u. These additional marks are referred to as "hats" and "whisker" to the primary vowels.
Similarly, the letter đ is a written variation of d. Interestingly, it is the đ that has the English "d" sound. The Vietnamese d sounds as "y" in yellow with the Southern accent or as "z" in zebra with the Nothern accent.
| Pimary vowel |
Vowel variation(s) (with "hat" or "whisker") |
| a | ă, â |
| e | ê |
| o | ô, ơ |
| u | ư |
| Primary consonant | Consonant variation |
| d | đ |
Even though the letter variations are considered individual letters with their own phonetic sounds, by convention they are not used to denote a label. For example, in geometry we have triangle ABC or pentagon ABCDE (not AĂÂ or ABCDĐ, respectfully). Similarly, rows of seats in an auditorium, sections of documents, etc... can be labeled with the alphabets but disregarding all the letter variations.
Non-Vietnamese Letters
The letters F, J, W, and Z are not in the official Vietnamese alphabet. Despite that, similar to the usage of the Greek alphabet in the English language, non-Vietnamese letters are widely used in special contexts and in the popular culture. For examples, the non-Vietnamese letters F, J, W, and Z are commonly used in music and science with words such as Fa, Fahrenheit, Joules, Watt, zero, x-y-z coordinates, etc… It is also common among students to use these non-Vietnamese letters to shorthand certain Vietnamese sounds, such as the use of f in place of ph. The limited use of these non-Vietnamese letters in music, science, and the pop culture is out of the scope of this course.
The Role of Tone Marks
Vietnamese is a tonal language, each syllable is spoken with a tone. In Vietnamese, letters in the alphabet are used to denote the syllables, while tones are indicated by additional marks. Thus, learning the alphabet alone is not sufficient to read or write Vietnamese. Tone marks are discussed in the next lesson.
Next: Chapter 1, lesson 2 - Vietnamese Tones
