The Vowels

In English, there are a total of 6 vowels, a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. But if you take a look at the chart, you’ll notice that there are a few more copies of the vowels we all know and love. That’s because in English, a vowel has more than one sound attached to it. For instance, yawn, ran, and _car _all use the letter a, but have a different vowel sound. That’s not the case for Viet. Each of the above 12 vowels represents all of the potential standalone vowel sounds in the whole language which actually makes it easier to pronounce once you get the basics down!

Basic Vowels
a	ă	â	e	ê	i	o	ô
ma	năm	cầm	bé	trên	bí	cỏ	tô
ơ	u	ư	y
mỡ	chú	thư	mỹ

Along with the basic vowels, Vietnamese also has a number of what are known as diphthongs and triphthongs if you’re a grammar nerd, but for most people, we can just call them vowel combos. These cover all of the vowel sounds in Vietnamese that can’t be covered with just the basic 12 vowels.

Vowel Combinations
ai	ay	ây	ao	au	âu	eo	êu
ai	tay	cây	áo	rau	câu	kẹo
ia	iê	iêu	iu	oa	oai	oă	oe
kia	biện	tiếu	chịu	khóa	hoài	hoặc	khỏe
oi	ôi	ơi	ua	ưa	uô	ươ	ui
coi	thôi	chơi	mua	cửa	muốn	đường	cúi
uôi	uâ	uê	uơ	uy	uya	uyê	ưi
muối	tuần	huế			khuya
ươi	ưu
dưới	cứu