LinguaA Latin alphabet with extra letters
Vietnamese is written with the Latin alphabet plus seven letters no other language has: ă â đ ê ô ơ ư. They are not a, d, e, o or u with a decoration on top – they are separate letters with their own sound and their own place in the dictionary. Confusing d with đ is like confusing two different letters, because that is what they are.
The same body three times. The plain one, the one with a bowl on top, and the one with a roof.
Two different letters. The bar across the stem is not decoration: with it the sound is d, without it, it is closer to a y or a z.
Two letters you already know from the Latin alphabet, and they behave here exactly as you expect.
| Letter | Sounds like | A word with it |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | ba |
| ă | a ngắn | ăn |
| â | ơ ngắn | cân |
| b | b | bà |
| c | k | cá |
| d | z | da |
| đ | đ | đi |
Two of the new letters are simply SHORT versions of a vowel you know. ă is the vowel of a cut short, and â is the vowel of ơ cut short. Length is not decoration in Vietnamese either: it changes the word.
bà đigrandmother goes
ăn cáto eat fish
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ăn | to eat | Tôi ăn cá. I eat fish. |
| bà | grandmother | Bà tôi ở nhà. My grandmother is at home. |
| cá | fish | Con cá to. A big fish. |
| da | skin | Da của tôi. My skin. |
| đi | to go | Tôi đi bộ. I walk. |
| ba | father | Ba tôi làm việc. My father works. |
Exercises
This lesson has 8 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- trace the letter: 2
- fill the gap: 1
- match the pairs: 1
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
What is the difference between d and đ?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.