In Vietnamese, the same letters can spell six different words, and the mark on the vowel tells you which one it is. Ma means ghost, and mã means horse.
What Are the Six Vietnamese Tones?
The course uses ma for all six, so only the tone changes.
| Tone | Mark | How Your Voice Moves | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ngang | no mark | Stays level, in the middle of your voice | ma | ghost |
| huyền | à | Starts low and drifts lower, a little breathy, like a sigh | mà | but |
| sắc | á | Starts high and rises | má | cheek |
| hỏi | ả | Dips low, then comes back up | mả | grave |
| ngã | ã | Rises, with a catch in the middle | mã | horse |
| nặng | ạ | Drops sharply and stops short | mạ | rice seedling |
Southern speakers say five tones, because hỏi and ngã sound the same to them. Everyone writes the same five marks, so mả and mã still look different on the page.
Which Marks Are Tones, and Which Are Letters?
A roof, a hook or a curve turns a vowel into a new letter: â, ê, ô, ơ, ư and ă. The tone mark is a second mark that goes on top of or under the vowel. Phở, the noodle soup, has both, since the hook makes ơ and the small mark above it is the hỏi tone.
- àhuyềnU+00E0ásắcU+00E1ảhỏiU+1EA3The mark on à slopes down as you read it, just like the voice, and the mark on á slopes up. Hỏi is a small hook, like a question mark.
- ãngãU+00E3ạnặngU+1EA1Ngã is a wave on top, and nặng is the only tone mark that goes under the vowel.
- ơo with a hookU+01A1ưu with a hookU+01B0ăa with a curveU+0103Each of these is its own letter in the alphabet, with its own sound.
- đVietnamese đU+0111ðIcelandic ethU+00F0Vietnamese đ has a straight stem with a bar across it. The eth from Icelandic is a different letter.
Đ is the only letter that sounds like an English d. In the Hanoi sound, plain d sounds like a z, so đá (stone) starts with an English d sound and da (skin) starts with a z sound.
How Do You Type Vietnamese Marks?
For one or two letters, the Copy buttons above are enough. To type whole sentences, add a Vietnamese keyboard.
- iPhone and iPadIn Settings, tap General, Keyboard, Keyboards and Add New Keyboard, then choose Vietnamese. You can pick Telex, VNI or VIQR.
- MacPress the Fn or globe key and E to open the Character Viewer. Search for the letter, such as o with horn, and click it.
- Word on WindowsType a letter's code, such as 01A1 for ơ or 0111 for đ, select just those four characters, and press Alt and X together.
Where Did This Alphabet Come From?
In the 1600s, European missionaries worked out a way to write Vietnamese in Latin letters, and Alexandre de Rhodes printed a Vietnamese dictionary with it in Rome in 1651. That spelling grew into chữ Quốc ngữ, which means the national language script, and it's how Vietnamese is written today.
How Can You Learn the Tones?
The Quốc Ngữ course starts with the new letters and the consonants that change across the country, then plays all six tones on the same syllable. It teaches the Hanoi sound, and there are versions for the Southern and Central sounds too. When you finish, Poppy, your AI tutor in the Bubblegum app, writes Vietnamese lessons at your level, so you read the tone marks in real sentences. After the tones, read the best way to learn Vietnamese.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Read Vietnamese Without the Marks?
You can often guess from the sentence, but the marks are part of the spelling. Without them, ma could be ghost, but, cheek, grave, horse or rice seedling.
Which Accent Should You Learn First?
Learn the one you'll hear most, such as the Hanoi sound for the north or the Ho Chi Minh City sound for the south.
Which Vietnamese App Should a Beginner Choose?
If you are serious about learning Vietnamese, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Its Quốc Ngữ course ends by putting letters and tone marks together into whole syllables. Our Vietnamese app comparison covers more choices and what each one is good for.
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Mixdorff, Nguyen, Fujisaki and Luong, Quantitative Analysis and Synthesis of Syllabic Tones in Vietnamese, Eurospeech 2003 (the six tones, their diacritics and pitch shapes, after Thompson)
- Wikipedia, Vietnamese phonology (in Hanoi, d, gi and r are all said as z; Southern accents merge the hỏi and ngã tones into one)
- Unicode CLDR, Vietnamese locale data (the 29 letters, with ă â đ ê ô ơ ư, and every vowel with each tone mark)
- Unicode Character Database, NamesList (U+0111 đ for Vietnamese; U+00F0 eth is a different letter; U+0300, U+0301, U+0303, U+0309, U+0323 combining marks)
- Jesuit Online Bibliography (Boston College), Jacques, The first published metalinguistic works on Vietnamese (Alexandre de Rhodes, Rome 1651, and the romanization now called Quốc ngữ)
- Apple, iOS and iPadOS feature availability (Vietnamese keyboards: Telex, VIQR and VNI)
- Apple Support, Add or change keyboards on iPhone
- Microsoft Support, Insert ASCII or Unicode character codes in Word (type the code, then press Alt+X)
- Apple Support, Use emoji and symbols on Mac (the Character Viewer)
