Vietnamese

I’m learning how to read/write Vietnamese (among other things), and this is my personal reference for it.

(Tôi đang học đọc và viết tiếng Việt.)

Vowels

working on vowels so I can sound words out even if I don’t know them

• a
  • la | lá | là | lạ (scold | leaf | to be | weird)
  • ăn (eat)
  • mắt | mặt (eye | face)
• e
  • em | đêm | cà phê (night | coffee)
  • mè | mẹ (sesame | mom)
• i
  • đi
• o
  • đo | tô | mơ (measure | bowl | dream)
  • tôi | tối (me | dark)
• u
  • thu (autumn; mùa thu)
  • thư viện (library)
  • thứ hai (monday)
• ua
  • mua | mùa (buy | season)

Consonants

• tư | thư
  • thứ tư | thư viện (monday | library)

Pronunciation

most learning resources use northern accent (e.g. google translate, duolingo)

• qu
  • northern: pronounce the qu
  • southern: more like w
  • e.g. hôm qua (yesterday)
• d / g / v
  • southern: all pronounced like y
  • compare northern (on google translate):
    • viết (write): hard v
    • dì (aunt): z sound
    • giấy (paper): z sound
• r
  • southern: r
  • northern: z sound
    • e.g. rau (vegetable)
• dấu ngã
  • southern: pronounced same as dấu hỏi

Resources

• Dictionary
• Type Vietnamese using Telex
• Vietnamese Typography

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Tangent: Formatting Testing

Someone help me figure out the <ruby> element lol

test:

• la scold
• lá leaf
• là is
• lạ weird

la scold | lá leaf | là is | lạ weird