Learning Vietnamese - Lesson 3

I've now completed my third Vietnamese lesson! While I’m still at the beginning of my journey, I can already see how much there is to learn.

The Importance of Tones in Vietnamese

Vietnamese is a tonal language, meaning that changing the pitch of a word can completely change its meaning. This is one of the biggest challenges for learners, but also one of the most fascinating aspects of the language.

A great example is the word "ma", which can have six different meanings depending on the tone:

It takes time to get used to these, but listening to native speakers and practicing with minimal pairs (words that differ only by tone) helps a lot. The pronunciation also differs between different parts of Vietnam, the hỏi and ngã tones are pronounced very similar in southern Vietnam for example.

Mastering the Ngang and Huyền Tones

The second half of today's lesson focused on distinguishing the ngang (mid) and huyền (low-falling) tones. At first, they seemed similar, but after practicing, I realized that ngang is completely flat, while huyền has a gentle downward slope.

| Tone | Name | Description | Illustration

Tips for Practicing

• Listen to native speakers and mimic their pronunciation.
• Record yourself saying the same word with both tones and compare.
• Exaggerate at first—pronouncing huyền with a stronger downward motion makes the difference clearer.

The Battle Between "ê" and "e"

One thing my classmates and I struggled with was telling apart ê and e. They might look similar, but their pronunciations are quite different:

How to Practice

• Minimal pairs: Try saying words like tê (numb) vs. te (weak), bê (calf) vs. be (small).
• Feel the tongue position: For ê, the tongue is higher and closer to the roof of the mouth. For e, it's lower and more relaxed.
• Mouth shape: ê makes the lips tense, while e is more relaxed and open.

Words and phrases

We also got introduced to some new words and phrases: