Today, I will give you some fun facts about Vietnamese. This isn’t necessarily to encourage you to learn it, but at least to learn more about my language and writing. To read one of my articles written in Vietnamese (and see what it looks like), click here

Most people are surprised to discover that Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet. This writing system (phonetic transcription based on the Latin alphabet) called“chữ quốc ngữ” (national script) was developed by a French Jesuit priest: Alexandre de Rhodes. Before this system, during 1000 years of Chinese domination, we used Chinese characters (“chữ hán“). Once we got rid of this $ù%#0ç!! enemy of several centuries outside our borders, another writing system appeared“chữ nôm“. Not having our own alphabet, chữ nôm uses Chinese characters having similar sounds to Vietnamese. You might as well say that it is still not easy to learn and read“chữ nôm”.

“chữ quốc ngữ” (national script), developed by Alexandra of Rhodes, was later widely adopted because it is simple to understand and learn.

How to read Vietnamese

Just learn the pronunciation of each letter of the alphabet.

We have our own letters, but always based on the letters of the Latin alphabet: ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư,
đRemarquez that we do not use f, j or z. These sounds have been replaced by ph, gi and d

In case of double consonants: ph, th, tr, gi, ch, nh, ng, kh, gh it is necessary to know the proper pronunciation of these double consonants according to its region. In the North, tr and ch are pronounced in the same way, but everywhere else, tr and ch are pronounced differently. Thus, North Vietnamese may make more spelling mistakes concerning tr and ch. Tranh = table. Chanh = Lemon. The same with gi and r pronounced the same way in the North, while people in the Center roll the r.

There are 5 accents allowing to transcribe the tone of the word (descending sound for example). The tone gives another meaning to the word, so the following 6 words have totally different meanings: ma, má, mạ, mả, mã, mà. However, if some of these words are pronounced alone without any context, even for Vietnamese people, it is very difficult to understand their meaning.

my	ghost
má	play / mom
mạ	plated (gold/silver) / rice seedlings
mả	tomb
mã	code
mà	but

These accents are always to be put on a vowel. If there are two vowels, you must emphasize the 1st vowel(ngày), if there are 3 vowels, you must emphasize the 2nd vowel(người). You cannot have two accents for the same word (it is logical).

Then, we read all the sounds one after the other, paying attention to the tone.

At school, Vietnamese children learn to read in the following way: for example for the word:
nguồnLes children will learn to read aloud: u-ô-n uôn, ng-uôn, nguôn, ` nguồn
=> they first read the vowels, then the consonants with vowels, then apply the accent. After a year of learning to spell thousands of words, children will no longer need to separate vowels from consonants, separate the word from its accent. And they will be able to see the word and know how to pronounce it right away.

Vietnamese words have only one syllable

The longest Vietnamese word is nghiêng (leaning) – 7 characters only.

As words are only one syllable long, we often need 2 to 3 words to express the equivalent in French.
For example, maison translates as nhà, but amour will translate as tìnhyêu.

There are words that cannot be used alone. For example, diệu( part of my first name), means absolutely nothing on its own, but combined with another word, it makes sense: tuyệt diệu (wonderful), diệu kế ( clever ploy)

kỳdiệu (miraculous) is an interesting word. Because kỳ onits own does not have a clear meaning. diệu on itsown does not have a clear meaning either. But the two combined give meaning.

We keep words of Chinese origin but whose pronunciation has nothing to do with Chinese anymore. We call it từ hán việt.

nhân khẩu would come from the word 人口. If you can read Vietnamese and compare it with Chinese pronunciation, you will see that it is difficult to tell which way it is coming from. Vietnamese people don’t understand Chinese at all, either written or spoken, because our language has nothing to do with them.

There are still some traces of the French colonization (ex: handlebars, charger, battery but written in the Vietnamese style), but there are very few left. Either we have since invented Vietnamese words to express the same thing, or the pronunciation has been adapted to Vietnamese, or we have preferred to use its equivalent in English.

You will not be able to speak French in Vietnam and make yourself understood (except by those who are learning French of course).

How to recognize intonations?

All the difficulty resists in the intonation (the 5 accents put on the words). With habit, one immediately recognizes the intonation of each of the words pronounced. The context and the previous words also make it possible to distinguish between tôi ăn bún (I eat noodles) and tôi ăn bùn (I eat mud) in a fraction of a second.

So, the “Vietnamese” restaurant James Bùn in Paris is clearly a place where I will never set foot. A restaurant that doesn’t even bother to google the translation of its own name, it promises!

North Vietnamese (especially from Ha Noi) have the pronunciation that best matches the accents: ma, má, mạ, mả, mã, mà

But when you go to the Center of Vietnam, it is difficult to distinguish mả and mà

And in South Vietnam, their pronunciation differs completely from the accent used.

Thus, the North Vietnamese never make a mistake on the accents. Just read a restaurant menu and the accent mistakes will tell me right away if the person who wrote it is from the Center or the South

Since the way they pronounce accents (and some vowels) is different from mine, I have difficulty understanding South Vietnamese. For example, elephant is written con voi, but South Vietnamese pronounce it as if it were written coong doi

Can you write Vietnamese without accent? without special characters?

On the forums, we see more and more people writing Vietnamese without accent. Simply because it’s too expensive to find the right special character and put an accent when you’re on a smartphone.

But for the Vietnamese, we almost always manage to understand a text written in a special accent, without any special character.

hom nay toi di cho, mua con ga va hai qua trung, is best understood in: hômnay tôi đi chợ, mua con gà và hai quả trứng

It’s almost like written French with no accent or special character.

But some sentences, written without an accent can be confusing: di muaca cho me can be interpreted as

• đi mua cá cho mẹ => go buy fish for mom
• đi mua cà cho mẹ => go buy eggplants for mommy

Nói trống không

In French, apart from the imperative, all sentences have a subject. Subject, Verb, Complement.

But in Vietnamese, it is possible that no subject is used at all. And since our verbs do not conjugate, unlike in Spanish or Portuguese, we cannot easily determine through the conjugation of whom we are talking about.

Example :

• ănchưa? => eat already? (you have to understand: have you eaten? or have you eaten? Have you eaten yet?)
• ănrồi => eat already (you have to understand: I have already eaten or we have already eaten I already have)

The absence of a subject means familiarity, people of the same rank (same age for example), but also rudeness. When a child speaks without subject to an adult, there is a word for it:“nói trống không” and the adult will yell at him because it isn’t at all done to speak without subject to a person older than you.

Subject pronouns

In French, we have subject pronouns like je, tu, il… etc.

In Vietnamese, we also have pronouns but these change according to the relationship and age between the people involved.

For example, to address my mother, I will use the pronoun con for “I” and mẹ for “you”.
If I want to address a man older (but not too much) than me, I will use em for “I” and anh for “you”

By listening to the conversation between two Vietnamese people, it is very easy to guess the age difference between the two people.
And the relationship between the two people (sometimes to the point of guessing if one of the people is the wife of the uncle on the other’s father’s side
).

Thus, when I meet a stranger for the first time, I have to guess his/her age and sex myself (it’s difficult sometimes) and address myself appropriately. It isn’t uncommon to offend someone by calling them by a pronoun that makes them feel old, or on the contrary a pronoun that makes them feel younger, and to be called impolite and ill-mannered. The Vietnamese are also embarrassed by these numerous pronouns and often decide to ask for the year of birth right away to facilitate the exchange.

However, if the exchange only lasts 10 seconds (to buy a pen for example), one can afford to guess incorrectly the age of the person. There is less at stake.

We also have pronouns that impose distance, for example when a couple fights, they will use neutral first names like tôi(for I). On the
contrary, we also have pronouns with negative connotations, con này, con kia, mày, not
very pleasant to hear, and sometimes hurtful.

Conclusion

There, I hope I’ve taught you something today. If you ever feel like learning Vietnamese, the best accent is Ha Noi.

But I advise you not to learn Vietnamese with Ha Noi’s accent and then work in Ho chi minh city, because you won’t understand anything.