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Tones & Pronunciation

6 tones marked with diacritics

Vietnamese has 6 tones

Each tone is a distinct diacritic on the vowel; changing tone changes meaning.

📊 The 6 tones
Tone name Mark Pitch contour Example
ngang (flat) none mid level ma
huyền (falling) ` low falling mà
hỏi (dipping) ? dip then rise mả
ngã (broken) ~ rising glottal mã
sắc (rising) ' high rising má
nặng (heavy) . low falling glottal mạ
💬 Examples
ma / mà / mả / mã / má / mạ
ghost / but / tomb / horse / cheek / rice seedling
📝 same syllable, 6 different words
ba / bà / bả / bã / bá / bạ
three / grandmother / bait / residue / earl / randomly
📝 tone is phonemic — must be exact
Vowels are modified by additional diacritics

ơ, ư, â, ê, ô, ă change the vowel quality before the tone mark.

💬 Examples
ơi / ôi / oi
excl. / oh! / hey
📝 ơ ô o are three different vowels
ân / ăn / an
grace / to eat / safe
📝 â ă a — distinct sounds
Some consonants are pronounced differently from English

c/k/q all = k; d/gi = y (North); r/d/gi vary by dialect.

💬 Examples
Đ / D
both stop consonants
📝 đ = hard stop d; d = y (North) / z (South)
ng / ngh
as in si-ng
📝 ng appears at word start in Vietnamese