The Vietnamese Alphabet: A Complete Guide for English Speakers
Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet — but it's not the alphabet you know. There are 29 letters, extra diacritics for vowels, and six tone marks. Here's everything you need to know.
The 29 Letters
The Vietnamese alphabet has all the English letters except F, J, W, and Z (these appear only in loanwords). It adds: Ă, Â, Đ, Ê, Ô, Ơ, Ư.
Consonants That Surprise English Speakers
- Đ/đ — Pronounced like English "d" in "dog." The regular Vietnamese "d" is pronounced like "z" (North) or "y" (South).
- Gi — Pronounced like "z" (North) or "y" (South). Not like English "gi" in "giant."
- Kh — Like "k" but with a breathy quality, similar to the "ch" in German "Bach."
- Ng/Ngh — The "ng" sound from "singing," but at the beginning of words. Hard for English speakers at first.
- Nh — Like Spanish "ñ" or the "ny" in "canyon."
- Tr — Like "ch" in "chair" (South) or a retroflex "tr" (North).
- Ph — Like English "f." Not "ph" as in "phone" — well, actually, exactly like "phone."
The Vowel System
Vietnamese has 12 vowels — more than double English's basic five:
- a — like "father"
- ă — shorter, like "hat"
- â — like "uh" (schwa)
- e — like "bed"
- ê — like "say" (without the glide)
- i — like "see"
- o — like "saw"
- ô — like "go" (without the glide)
- ơ — like "fur" (no r sound)
- u — like "food"
- ư — no English equivalent. Smile while saying "oo"
- y — like "see" (same as i in most contexts)
Tone Marks
Every syllable carries one of six tones, shown by marks on the main vowel: no mark (level), á (rising), à (falling), ả (questioning), ã (tumbling), ạ (heavy). See our dedicated tone guide for details.
The Good News
Unlike Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, you don't need to learn a new writing system. You can start reading Vietnamese immediately. Pronunciation will take time, but literacy starts on day one.