The six Vietnamese tones, tricky vowels, and regional sound differences to sharpen listening and pronunciation skills. Front: the sound, word, or pattern. Back: explanation with a plain-English pronunciation note.
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- Six tones overview
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Vietnamese has six tones: level, falling, rising, questioning (dipping-rising), tumbling (broken), and heavy, each changing a word's meaning- Ngang (level tone)
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No tone mark; spoken at a steady mid pitch with no rise or fall, as in "ma" (ghost)- Huyền (falling tone)
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Marked with a grave accent; the voice starts mid and drops low and soft, as in "mà" (but)- Sắc (rising tone)
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Marked with an acute accent; the voice rises sharply upward, as in "má" (mother, or cheek)- Hỏi (dipping-rising tone)
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Marked with a hook above the vowel; the voice dips down and curls back up, as in "mả" (grave, tomb)- Ngã (broken/tumbling tone)
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Marked with a tilde; the voice breaks with a slight glottal catch and rises, as in "mã" (code, horse)- Nặng (heavy tone)
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Marked with a dot below the vowel; the voice drops low and short, cut off abruptly, as in "mạ" (rice seedling)- ma, mà, má, mả, mã, mạ
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The classic six-tone teaching set on one syllable, showing how each of the six tones creates an entirely different word- ư
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A vowel with no close English equivalent, pronounced like "oo" but with spread, unrounded lips instead of rounded ones- ơ
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Pronounced like the "u" in "fur" but without any "r" sound, a mid central vowel- â
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A short, clipped version of "ơ", pronounced quickly like "uh"- ă
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A short, clipped version of "a", pronounced quickly and cut off- đ
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Pronounced like an English "d", distinct from the plain "d" letter in Vietnamese which sounds like a "z" or "y" depending on region- d (northern vs. southern)
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In northern dialects, "d" sounds like "z"; in southern dialects, it sounds closer to "y", a major regional pronunciation difference- gi
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Pronounced like "z" in the north and like "y" in the south, similar to the plain "d" sound pattern
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