There are 14 vowels, or nguyên âm, in Vietnamese, including 11 monophthongs represented by 12 monographs, and three diphthongs represented by eight digraphs. A vowel can be spelt in different ways according to the spelling rules.
| Vowel | IPA | English | Other languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| e | /ɛ/ | bed | |
| ê | /e/ | (approx.) make | German eh & ee, French é, Portuguese ê |
| i/y | /i/ | meet | |
| a | /a/ | hat | |
| ă | /ă/ | cut | |
| ơ | /ə/ | water | |
| â | /ə̆/ | diet | |
| ư | /ɨ/ | Mandarin 是 shì, Russian ы | |
| o | /ɔ/ | hot | |
| ô | /o/ | (approx.) go | German oh & oo, French & Portuguese ô |
| u | /u/ | food | |
| ia/ya/iê/yê | /iə/ | fear | |
| ưa/ươ | /ɨə/ | ||
| ua/uô | /uə/ | tour |
There are two pairs of long and short vowels: a & ă and ơ & â. In each pair, the former is long, and the latter is short. The vowels a and ơ can function on their own as the rime of a syllable (final consonant is optional) because they are long. In contrast, the vowels ă and â are short, which means they must be followed by a final consonant.
The three diphthongs can be a bit confusing because not only can they be spelt in different ways but most of the spellings also don’t match the (corresponding) actual sounds.
| Standard spelling | IPA | Pronunciation spelling |
|---|---|---|
| ia/ya | /iə/ | iơ |
| iê/yê | iâ | |
| ưa | /ɨə/ | ươ |
| ươ | ưâ | |
| ua | /uə/ | uơ (conflict with uơ /wə/) |
| uô | uâ (conflict with uâ /wə̆/) |
Vowels 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 vowels. However, the right approach is learning the rimes associated with them because the combination of a vowel and a final consonant is not always straightforward.