Pronunciation is key in Vietnamese — and it’s extremely challenging to Westerners. You’d better read and remember these articles, if you don’t want to sound like a fool.
Pronunciation
The Alphabet
Sunday 29 December 2002 — 17 Comments
The Vietnamese alphabet consists of 24 letters, including most of the letters found in English. This is because, as you may already know, the Vietnamese writing system is based on that of Latin. Many, but not all, of the letters are pronounced like they are in English.
Tones and Tone Marks
Sunday 29 December 2002 — 2 Comments
Vietnamese is like many East Asian languages in that it is tonal. That is, the tone of speech used to pronounce a word has an effect on the meaning of that word.
Copyright © 2002-2003 Minh Nguyen
