Vietnamese Cheatsheet
Unique Features
- Monosyllabic language with complex tone system
- No grammatical gender
- Complex noun and verb structures with many particles
- Pronouns are rarely used
- Pronunciation differences between regions
- Some loanwords from Chinese and French
Letters and Sounds
- Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet with additional diacritical marks
- Vietnamese has six tones that distinguish word meaning
- Vietnamese has several sounds that don’t exist in English, such as the “ng” sound
Example
- The word for “hello” is “xin chào”
- The tone on the first syllable distinguishes it from other words with the same syllable, such as “xinh” (pretty)
Vocabulary
- Vietnamese words are often formed by combining words or adding particles
- Vietnamese has many loanwords from Chinese and French
- Some words have different meanings in different regions
Example
- The word for “car” is “xe hơi”
- The word for “motorbike” is “xe máy”
- Both words are used in Vietnam, but “xe máy” is more common in Hanoi
Grammar
- Vietnamese has no grammatical gender
- Adjectives come after the noun they modify
- Vietnamese verbs are inflected based on tense, mood, and aspect
- Vietnamese has a subject-verb-object word order
- Vietnamese has a formal and informal register, with different verb conjugations and vocabulary
Example
- The sentence “I am a student” is “Tôi là sinh viên”
- The word for “student” is “sinh viên”
- The word order is subject (I), verb (am), and object (student)
Resources