The Vietnamese Alphabet: A Simple Guide For Beginners
Author
You may noticed a lot of marks, lines, hats, and hooks above and below Vietnamese letters.
It looks confusing.
But Vietnamese is actually one of the easiest Asian languages to learn to read.
Unlike Chinese (which uses thousands of characters) or Thai (which has its own unique script), Vietnamese uses a Latin-based alphabet just like English.
This system is called Chữ Quốc ngữ.
Once you learn the sounds of these letters, you can read almost any word in Vietnamese, even if you don’t know what it means yet.
It’s a very consistent phonetic language.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the 29 letters of the Vietnamese alphabet, the vowels, the consonants, and how to pronounce them.
Table of Contents:
The basic Vietnamese letters
The standard Vietnamese alphabet consists of 29 letters.
If you speak English, most of these will look familiar to you. However, there are a few English letters missing, and a few new Vietnamese letters added.
Here is the breakdown:
- Standard letters: A, B, C, D, E, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y.
- Letters NOT in the Vietnamese alphabet: F, J, W, Z. (We only use these in foreign loan words).
- New letters added: Ă, Â, Đ, Ê, Ô, Ơ, Ư.
The most distinctive feature you will notice immediately is the letter Đ.
In English, we just have ‘D’. But in Vietnamese, we have D and Đ.
- D (plain) is pronounced like a ‘z’ in Northern Vietnam, or a ‘y’ (as in ‘yes’) in Southern Vietnam.
- Đ (with the crossbar) is pronounced like the hard English ‘d’ (as in ‘dog’).
Vietnamese vowels (and their hats and hooks)
This is usually the part that confuses beginners the most. You will see vowels with “hats” (like â, ê, ô) and vowels with “whiskers” or “hooks” (like ơ, ư).
These are not tone marks. They are completely different letters with different sounds.
Think of it this way: In English, the letter “a” can sound different in “cat”, “car”, and “cake”. In Vietnamese, we have a separate letter for each of those sounds to make it easier.
Here is a simple guide to the Vietnamese vowels:
| Letter | Sound Description | English approximation |
|---|---|---|
| A | Long and open | Like ‘father’ |
| Ă | Short, lifting the tongue slightly | Like ‘cat’ (but shorter) |
| Â | Short and relaxed | Like ‘up’ or ‘butter’ |
| E | Open sound | Like ‘bet’ |
| Ê | Closed sound (wearing a hat) | Like ‘hey’ (without the ‘y’ at the end) |
| I / Y | Long E sound | Like ‘see’ |
| O | Rounded lips, open | Like ‘hot’ |
| Ô | Rounded lips, closed (wearing a hat) | Like ‘go’ |
| Ơ | Relaxed lips (has a hook) | Like ‘uh-oh’ |
| U | Rounded lips | Like ‘goose’ |
| Ư | Smiling U (has a hook) | Imagine saying “Ew” but forcing a smile. Like ‘book’ |
A good tip to remember the ones with hooks (Ơ and Ư): Imagine hooks are pulling the corners of your mouth sideways, like a smile. These sounds are made with your lips unrounded.
Vietnamese consonants
Most consonants in Vietnamese sound very similar to English, such as B, H, K, L, M, and N.
However, Vietnamese also uses “digraphs” (two letters combined to make one sound) and “trigraphs” (three letters).
There are also significant regional variations here. The North (Hanoi) and the South (Ho Chi Minh City) often pronounce these letters differently.
Here are the most important consonant sounds to know:
| Letter | Sound | Regional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| C, K, Q | Like ‘k’ in ‘skate’ | Unaspirated (no puff of air) |
| Ch / Tr | Like ‘ch’ in ‘chip’ | North: Both sound like ‘ch’. South: ‘Tr’ is harder, retroflex sound. |
| G / Gh | Like ‘g’ in ‘go’ | Rough/guttural sound deep in the throat. |
| Gi / D | ’Z’ or ‘Y’ | North: Like ‘zoo’. South: Like ‘yes’. |
| Kh | Like ‘ch’ in German ‘Bach’ | An airy sound in the back of the throat. |
| Ng / Ngh | Like ‘ng’ in ‘singing’ | Very common. Isolate the sound at the end of “king” and try to say it at the start of a word. |
| Nh | Like ‘ny’ in ‘canyon’ | Similar to Spanish ‘ñ’. |
| Ph | Like ‘f’ in ‘fun’ | Used in the famous word Phở. |
| R | ’Z’ or ‘R’ | North: Like ‘zoo’. South: A rolled ‘r’. |
| S / X | Like ‘s’ in ‘sun’ | North: Both sound like ‘s’. South: ‘S’ is a harder ‘sh’ sound. |
| Th | Like ‘t’ in ‘top’ | Strong aspirated T (lots of air). |
If you are just starting, I recommend choosing one dialect (Northern or Southern) and sticking with it to avoid confusion.
How to spell names in Vietnamese
In English, we call the letters “Ay, Bee, Cee”. In Vietnamese, the names of the letters are slightly different.
Knowing this is very useful if you need to spell your name over the phone or spell out an email address.
Here is how you pronounce the names of the letters:
| Letter | Vietnamese Name (Pronunciation) |
|---|---|
| A | A |
| B | Bê |
| C | Xê |
| D | Dê |
| Đ | Đê |
| E | E |
| G | Gê |
| H | Hát |
| I | I ngắn (Short I) |
| K | Ca |
| L | Lờ / E-lờ |
| M | Mờ / Em-mờ |
| N | Nờ / En-nờ |
| O | O |
| P | Pê |
| Q | Quy |
| R | Rờ |
| S | Sờ / Ét-xì |
| T | Tê |
| U | U |
| V | Vê |
| X | Ích-xì |
| Y | Y dài (Long Y) |
Here is an example of a dialogue where someone is asking how to spell a name:
Tên bạn là gì?
Tên mình là Lan.
Đánh vần thế nào?
Lờ, A, Nờ.
Learning the Vietnamese alphabet is the very first step to fluency.
Because the language is phonetic, once you memorize the table of vowels and consonants above, you will be able to pronounce words correctly - even if you have never seen them before!
Don’t let the marks and hats scare you. Just remember:
- Đ is the English D.
- D is a Z (North) or Y (South).
- Vowels with hats (Â, Ê, Ô) are usually tighter/closed sounds.
- Vowels with hooks (Ư, Ơ) are “smiling” sounds.
