Quốc Ngữ

Chữ Quốc Ngữ was developed in the 17th century by Portuguese and Italian missionaries, primarily pioneered by the Portuguese Jesuit Francisco de Pina, and later codified by the French Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes in his 1651 dictionary. This is why its spelling rules resemble Portuguese more than English or French, though the rules for using gh and ngh (before i, e, and ê) instead of g and ng were borrowed directly from Italian orthography, while the use of k (before i, e, ê, and y) instead of c was adapted from other European conventions.

Here are the most important things to know as a beginner:

• Missing letters: The English letters F, J, W, and Z are not part of the standard Vietnamese alphabet. They appear in modern foreign loanwords, abbreviations, internet slang (like using z for gi), and ethnic minority languages. Instead, Vietnamese uses consonant combinations to make similar sounds, such as ph for the 'f' sound (like in phở) or gi for a 'z' or 'y' sound (like in gió).
• Multi-letter consonants: Vietnamese relies on a standardized set of 11 digraphs and trigraphs (ch, gh, gi, kh, nh, ng, ngh, ph, th, tr, qu) that are taught as core phonetic units.
• Multi-letter vowels: Just like consonants, vowels can combine to form diphthongs and triphthongs (like ai, iêu, ươu, oai) which are pronounced as a single smooth sound.
• Diacritics are mandatory: The marks on vowels (like the hat on ô or the hook on ơ) and the crossbar on the consonant đ create entirely different letters. Omitting them changes the word completely.
• Tones are written: Vietnamese has six tones. Five special marks are added to vowels to show pitch: grave accent/falling (`), acute accent/rising (´), hook above/dipping ( ̉), tilde/broken (~), and underdot/heavy (.). The sixth tone is indicated by the absence of a mark. For example, ma (ghost) and má (cheek everywhere in Vietnam, and also mother in Southern Vietnamese) are completely different words.
• Stacked diacritics: A letter can take a maximum of two marks: one for the vowel, and one for the tone (for example, ố or ợ).
• Spaces separate syllables: Because of syllable spacing, every single syllable is written with a space around it. However, many words are compound words made of multiple syllables (like cảm ơn for "thank you" or xe máy for "motorbike"), so don't assume every syllable is an independent word. Additionally, this spacing affects capitalization: normally only the first syllable of a sentence is capitalized, but for proper nouns, every syllable is capitalized (like Việt Nam or Hà Nội).
• Regional pronunciation: Pronunciation varies heavily by region. For example, Southern speakers merge the hỏi and ngã tones and pronounce consonants like d, gi, and v differently than Northern speakers.

Getting comfortable with this alphabet is your first step to reading and speaking Vietnamese confidently!