Periplus Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary. Phan Van Giuong

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      Tones

      The standard Vietnamese language has six tones. Each tone is a meaningful and integral part of the syllable. Every syllable must have a tone. The tones are indicated in conventional Vietnamese spelling by marks placed over (à, ả, ã, á) or under (ạ) single vowels or the vowel in a cluster that bears the main stress.

VIETNAMESE NAME	TONE MARK	TONE	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE	MEANING
Không dấu	None	mid-level	Voice starts at middle of normal speaking range and remains at that level	ma	ghost
Huyền	à	low-falling	Voice starts fairly low and gradually falls	mà	but
Hỏi	ả	low-rising	Voice falls initially then rises slightly	mả	tomb
Ngã	ã	high-broken	Voice rises slightly, is cut off abruptly, then rises sharply again	mã	horse
Sắc	á	high-rising	Voice starts high and rises sharply	má	cheek
Nặng	ạ	low-broken	Voice falls, then cuts off abruptly	mạ	rice seedling

      Basic Vietnamese Grammar

      Vietnamese is written in the Roman alphabet and it is usually considered a monosyllabic language. Each single word (or syllable) can be formed by at least a vowel or vowel cluster and consonant and a tone marker. In this introductory basic grammar, we will look at the structural formation of words (single and compound) and sentences.

      A. The Vietnamese Alphabet

      There are 29 letters in the Vietnamese alphabet.

I.	Vowels (V): There are 12 vowels: a, ă, â, e, ê, i, y, o, ô, ơ, u, ư.
II.	Consonants (C): There are 17 single consonants and 11 consonant clusters:
	1. 17 single consonants: b, c, d, đ, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x.
	2. 11 consonant clusters: ch, gh, kh, nh, ph, th, ng, ngh, gi, tr, qu.
	3. Final consonants: only 8 can appear in the final position: p, c, m, n, t, ch, nh, ng.
III.	Tone markers (T)
	There are six tones, but only five tone markers. Four of them are put above and one under a vowel or a vowel cluster.
	TONE MARKER	NAME	EXAMPLE	MEANING
	a à ả ã á ạ	dấu ngang dấu huyền dầu hỏi dấu ngã dấu sắc dấu nặng	ma mà mả mã má mạ	ghost which tomb horse cheek rice seedling

      B. Word Forms

      Single words:

      A Vietnamese single word can be formed in one of the following four ways:

a.	A vowel or vowel cluster with or without a tone marker.
	Examples:	ô!	(oh!)
		ai	(who)
		áo	(shirt)
b.	A vowel or vowel cluster with or without a tone marker plus a final consonant.
	Examples:	ăn	(to eat)
		uống	(to drink)
		ấm	(warm)
c.	An initial consonant plus a vowel or vowel cluster with or without tone markers.
	Examples:	da	(skin)
		dạ	(yes)
		dao	(knife)
d.	An initial consonant plus a vowel or vowel cluster with or without tone markers and a final consonant.
	Examples:	cơm	(cooked rice)
		thương	(to love)
		soạn	(to prepare)
		buồn	(sad)

      The following chart is a summary of the structure formation of a single word/syllable:

      a. V (T) b. C1V (T) c. V (T) C2 d. C1V (T) C2

      Notes:

      V is a vowel or vowel cluster.

      T is a tone marker.

      C1 is an initial consonant.

      C2 is a final consonant.

      Compound words

      Two or more single words join together to form a compound word. There are three kinds of compound words according to semantic criteria.

      Conjunctive compound words

      A conjunctive compound word is formed by two different single words.

      Reduplication compound words

      A compound word may be formed by the reduplication of the entire stem, or by a part of it affixed to itself, or by a meaningful single word plus a meaningless structural element.

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	Examples:
	SINGLE WORD	COMPOUND WORD
a.	nhỏ	nho nhỏ (slightly small)
	xanh	xanh xanh (slightly blue)
	ngày	ngày ngày (everyday)
b.	nhỏ	nhỏ-nhoi (unimportant)
	nhanh	nhanh-nhẹn (quickly)