The Vietnamese alphabet

What is the Vietnamese alphabet?

The Vietnamese alphabet, called chữ Quốc Ngữ("national language script"), has 29 letters: 12 vowels and 17 consonants. It is based on the Latin alphabet, so English speakers can start reading Vietnamese on day one, a huge head start over languages with their own scripts. It was developed in the 17th century by Portuguese and French missionaries and has been Vietnam's official script since the early 20th century.

Four familiar letters are missing: there is no F, J, W, or Zin Vietnamese. Their sounds are either absent or written differently (the "f" sound is spelled ph, as in phở). You will only see those four letters in loanwords and brand names.

The letters English does not have

Vietnamese adds seven letters by marking base letters: ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư and đ. The marks on the vowels are part of the letter itself and change the vowel sound. The special consonant đsounds like the English "d" in "dog", while the plain Vietnamese dsounds like "z" in the North and "y" in the South, two genuinely different letters. See the full guide to Vietnamese vowels and consonants for every sound.

Digraphs: two letters, one sound

Beyond the 29 letters, Vietnamese spells several sounds with letter pairs: ch, gh, gi, kh, ng, ngh, nh, ph, th, tr. The most famous is ng, which can start a word in Vietnamese (English only ends words with it, as in "sing"). That is exactly why the surname Nguyễn trips people up; our how to pronounce Nguyen guide teaches the trick in a minute.

Letters vs tone marks

The alphabet is only half of written Vietnamese. On top of the letters, syllables carry one of 5 tone marks (or no mark) for the language's 6 tones: the mark sets the pitch, and the pitch changes the meaning. Letter marks tell you which vowel; tone marks tell you which pitch. Hear every tone on the interactive tones page or read the tone marks explained guide, then come back and tap through the letters above with audio.