Vietnamese Alphabet & How To Pronounce Them
Learn the 29 letters of the Vietnamese alphabet, including unique vowels like ă, â, and ơ, with audio so you can hear how each letter sounds.
The Vietnamese alphabet has 29 letters. It uses a modified Latin script with extra letters and diacritical marks to represent the sounds of the language.
Learning the alphabet is your first step. Once you know how each letter sounds, you can start sounding out words and understanding how tones work.
The 29 Letters
The full alphabet in order:
a ă â b c d đ
e ê g h i k l
m n o ô ơ p q
r s t u ư v x yYou can listen to the pronunciation of each letter below. Try repeating each one out loud.
Audio practice
This audio player is hosted by a third party. Load it only when you want to practice with the embedded media.
Vowels
Vietnamese has 12 vowels. Three of them (ă, â, ơ, ư) do not exist in English, so pay extra attention to these.
a ă â e ê i o ô ơ u ư y| Letter | Approximate sound |
|---|---|
| a | like "ah" in "father" |
| ă | shorter "a", like "a" in "cat" |
| â | like "uh" in "but" |
| e | like "e" in "bed" |
| ê | like "ay" in "bay" |
| i | like "ee" in "see" |
| o | like "aw" in "saw" |
| ô | like "o" in "go" |
| ơ | like "ur" in "fur" (no English equivalent) |
| u | like "oo" in "food" |
| ư | like "uh" but with rounded lips |
| y | like "ee" in "see" (same as i in most contexts) |
Consonants
Vietnamese has 17 consonants. Most sound similar to English, but a few are different.
b c d đ g h k l m n p q r s t v x| Letter | Approximate sound |
|---|---|
| b | like "b" in "baby" |
| c | like "k" in "kite" |
| d | in the South: like "y" in "yes"; in the North: like "z" |
| đ | like "d" in "dog" (the extra stroke distinguishes it from d) |
| g | like "g" in "go" |
| h | like "h" in "hello" |
| k | like "k" in "key" |
| l | like "l" in "love" |
| m | like "m" in "moon" |
| n | like "n" in "no" |
| p | like "p" in "pen" |
| q | always followed by u, sounds like "kw" |
| r | in the South: like "r" in "red"; in the North: like "z" |
| s | in the South: like "s" in "sun"; in the North: like "sh" |
| t | like "t" in "ten" |
| v | like "v" in "very" (South); like "y" in "yes" (North) |
| x | like "s" in "sun" |
What About Tones?
Vietnamese is a tonal language: the pitch you use changes the meaning of a word. You will see tone marks written above or below the vowels in a word.
There are six tones in Vietnamese. They are covered in detail in the next lesson: How to Pronounce Vietnamese Words.
Practice
Try reading these words out loud using what you learned above:
Example
hello
Vietnam
thank you
family
Next Steps
Now that you know the letters, the best next step is learning the tones.