There are 14 vowels in Vietnamese, including 11 monophthongs, represented by 12 monographs, and three diphthongs, represented by eight digraphs. Note that a vowel can have multiple spellings due 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 pair of long & short vowels: a — ă and ơ — â. In each pair, the former is long, and the latter is short. The vowels a and ơ are long, so they can function on their own as the rime of a syllable (final consonant optional). In contrast, the vowels ă and â are short, which means any syllable whose main vowel is any of them must be closed, i.e., a final consonant is mandatory instead of optional as usual.
The three diphthongs can be a little confusing because not only do they have multiple spellings but the spellings also don’t match the actual sound (at least ươ comes close).
| Standard spelling | IPA | Pronunciation-based spelling |
|---|---|---|
| ia/ya | /iə/ | iơ |
| iê/yê | iâ | |
| ưa | /ɨə/ | ươ |
| ươ | ưâ | |
| ua | /uə/ | uơ (conflict with the rime uơ, which sounds like /wə/) |
| uô | uâ (conflict with the rime uâ, which sounds like /wə̆/) |
Vowels in dialects
Vowels do sound differently between the dialects, but the right approach is learning the rimes associated with them.