Vietnamese Alphabet
There are 29 letters in Vietnamese alphabet.
Vietnamese alphabet
-includes 7 letters that are not part of the English alphabet: ă, â, đ, ê, ô, ơ, ư and
-excludes 4 letters: f, j, w, z.
source: https://cotit.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/bang-chu-cai-tieng-viet/
VIETNAMESE VOWELS:
There are 12 vowels: a, ă, â, e, ê, i, o, ô, ơ, u, ư, y
**NOTES:
*The name and the sound of Vietnamese vowels are the same, except for ă and â.
*The sounds of ă & â change depending on how it is combined with other vowels and/or consonants.
*Short vowels ă, â are always followed by final consonants,as in:
rất-very; sân-courtyard; ăn-to eat; mắt-eyes
*o sounds similar to: aw in law, saw
*ơ sounds similar to: alone, system, hurt
*u sounds similar to: boo, moo
*ư sound does not really exist in English. It sounds similar to the sound of oo in good, hood.
VOWEL CLUSTERS: DIPTHONGS & TRIPTHONGS
Vietnamese diphthongs and tripthongs are sounds formed by the combination of two vowels or three vowels in a single syllable. For example:
ô + i = ôi as in tôi (I) i + ê + u = iêu as in nhiều (many/much) ư + ơ + i = ươi as in người (person)
There are 26 most common dipthongs and tripthongs in Vietnamese.
Listen and repeat.
Northern accents
Reading words with single vowels and dipthongs or
tripthongs.
Reading aloud Vietnamese words with dipthongs and
tripthongs seems to be challenging but remember the
phoneme segmentation and blending techniques and
activities when you first learn English phonics?
Let's do the same when reading Vietnamese:
1. Sound out the initial consonant first, then the vowel /
vowel cluster separately
2. Next, blend the consonant and vowel (s) together.
3. Finally, add the tone.
CONSONANTS
There 17 single consonants: b, c, d, đ, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x
*Names of the consonants: Listen and repeat.
*Sounds of consonants: Listen and repeat:
CONSONANT CLUSTERS/DIGRAPHS:
There are 11 consonant clusters / digraphs:
ch, gh, gi, kh, ng, ngh, nh, ph, qu, th, tr
*g & gh are pronounced the same.
But gh is spelled with i, e, ê while g is spelled with
the rest of the vowels.
*ng & ngh are pronounced the same.
But ngh is spelled with i, e, ê while ng is spelled with the rest of the vowels.
*In Hanoi accent,
-CH & TR are pronounced the same -GI, D, R are pronounced the same
*In Saigon accent, GI & D are pronounced the same
*In English, the consonant cluster ng only occurs at the end of a syllable, as in:hang, long, thing.
*In Vietnamese this consonant cluster occurs both at the beginning and at the end of a syllable, as in
người - person, ngủ- to sleep, nghỉ - to rest; ông - Mr.; cũng - also.
*ngh is always spelled as initial consonant
*tr and ch
-In Hanoi dialect, these two consonants are pronounced similar but not quite exactly the same with English consonant ch, as in charcoal
trà - tea tro - ash versus chà - to rub cho - to give; for
**NOTES:
*s and x
s in Saigon accent it is similar to English sh in shoes, show; in Hà Nội accent it is similar to Vietnamese x or English s, as in: so - compared to; sẽ - will, sinh-to be born; sống-to live
x similar to English s in see NOT as English x in xylophone, as in: xa-far, xe-vehicle, xó-corner
*In Hanoi accent,
-D & R & Gi are pronounced the same: da-skin, ra-to go out, gia đình-family
-S & X are pronounced the same: se-almost dry vs. xe-vehicle