There are 24 (including semivowels) consonants, or phụ âm, in Vietnamese. Almost all of them can serve as initial consonants while only a third can serve as final consonants. A consonant can be spelt in different ways according to the spelling rules.
Initial consonants
There are 22 initial consonants in Vietnamese, represented by 16 monographs, nine digraphs, and one trigraph. Among them, the monograph g is the special one: it can represent either the hard g sound or the soft g sound, depending on what follows, according to the spelling rules.
| Consonant | IPA | English | Other languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| b | /ɓ/ ~ /b/ | be | |
| c/k/q | /k/ | cat | |
| ch | /c/ | ||
| d | /j/ | yes | |
| đ | /ɗ/ ~ /d/ | do | |
| (hard) g/gh | /ɣ/ | Spanish & European Portuguese amigo | |
| (soft) g/gi | /z/ | zoo | |
| h | /h/ | hat | |
| kh | /x/ | German Buch, Spanish gente, Mandarin 河 hé | |
| l | /l/ | long | |
| m | /m/ | man | |
| n | /n/ | no | |
| ng/ngh | /ŋ/ | sing | |
| nh | /ɲ/ | French & Italian gn, Spanish ñ, Portuguese nh | |
| ph | /f/ | film | |
| r | /r/ | raw | |
| s | /ʂ/ | Mandarin 是 shì, Russian ш | |
| t | /t/ | still | |
| th | /tʰ/ | Mandarin 他 tā, Korean ㅌ | |
| tr | /ʈ/ | ||
| v | /v/ | van | |
| x | /s/ | see |
Final consonants
There are eight final consonants in Vietnamese, divided into three categories: semivowels, nasals, and stops.
| Consonant | IPA | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semivowel | i/y | /j/ | boy |
| u/o | /w/ | cow | |
| Nasal | m | /m/ | ham |
| n | /n/ | can | |
| ng/nh | /ŋ/ | sing | |
| Stop | p | /p/ | cap |
| t | /t/ | hat | |
| c/ch | /k/ | lock | |
Consonants in dialects
As is the case with pretty much every other language, there are differences between the standard language and how Vietnamese speakers actually pronounce the consonants. There are two major dialects in Vietnamese: Northern and Southern.
In each dialect, there are major and minor features. Major features are “core” and systematic features, and apply to the majority of the speakers. In contrast, minor features don’t apply to the majority.
The Northern dialect
The Northern dialect is formally called phương ngữ Bắc Bộ, colloquially giọng miền Bắc, or giọng Bắc for short.
Major features
The Northern dialect (Hanoi) pronounces:
- r and d as gi (a.k.a. soft g)
- s as x
- tr as ch
Note: ch is pronounced /t͡ɕ/ (similar to English chalk, but not exactly the same) instead of the standard /c/, and so is tr.
Examples:
| Syllable | Standard IPA | Northern dialect pronunciation spelling | Northern dialect IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| rồi | /roj/ | giồi | /zoj/ |
| dân | /jə̆n/ | giân | /zə̆n/ |
| sẽ | /ʂɛ/ | xẽ | /sɛ/ |
| trước | /ʈɨək/ | chước | /t͡ɕɨək/ |
| chợp | /cəp/ | ∅ | /t͡ɕəp/ |
Minor features
Many speakers in the Northern regions of the country have trouble pronouncing l and n correctly. This phenomenon generally and traditionally doesn’t affect Hanoi, but nowadays it does, partly because the region has turned into a messy mishmash of different accents due to internal migration. In general, we can divide the phenomenon into three categories:
- Some people pronounce all ns as l (can’t pronounce n)
- Some people pronounce all ls as n (can’t pronounce l)
- Some people pronounce some ls as n and/or some ls as n (can pronounce both but not distinguish them correctly)
In Vietnamese culture, the consensus is that this phenomenon is very bad. It has a name: nói ngọng, which means “speech impediment”. That’s enough to see how bad it is. It’s so bad that people often don’t want to talk about how bad it is because they don’t want to make the other person feel guilty. It makes you appear unserious, unprofessional, and poorly educated. It gets you mocked and laughed at. It confuses the listener badly.
On a similar note, the same phenomenon is also experienced in many regions in Southern China: the so-called “NL不分”. Maybe geography is a factor?
The Southern dialect
The Southern dialect is formally called phương ngữ Nam Bộ, colloquially giọng miền Nam, or giọng Nam for short.
Major features
The Southern dialect (Saigon a.k.a. HCM city) is more conservative than its Northern counterpart when it comes to consonants. There are two major features:
- v and gi (a.k.a. soft g) are pronounced as d.
- q, h, and the null initial (/ʔ/) disappears before the medial /w/ (u or o).
Examples:
| Syllable | Standard IPA | Southern dialect pronunciation spelling | Southern dialect IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| vì | /vi/ | dì | /ji/ |
| giảm | /zam/ | dảm | /jam/ |
| quang | /kwaŋ/ | theoretically unfeasible (wang) | /waŋ/ |
| hoang | /hwaŋ/ | ||
| oang | /ʔwaŋ/ |
Minor features
The Southwestern accents (Mekong River Delta), or giọng miền Tây, pronounce r as g or a guttural R.