It is said that Vietnamese sounds like music and when you speak Vietnamese, it seems like you are singing a song. Those who have some knowledge about music may find it easier to learn since they can attribute each accent to a musical note. You can’t read notes? It doesn’t matter since at VinaTown, we provide authentic audios so that you can easily listen and learn.

Let’s continue with Vietnamese accents from the last lesson:

Lesson 3: VIETNAMESE ACCENTS

(pt2)

Last time, we learned that for vowels with 3 variations, accents only work with A, O, Ô, Ơ. How about the vowels with 2 variations? The good news is that accents can go with all of members of this group. 1. As you have learned a little about accents last time, why dont you first try to pronounce those combinations below by yourself, then compare with our audio files? It may be fun!

Ready? Here we go:

1/E Ê

E É È Ẻ Ẽ Ẹ

Ê Ế Ề Ể Ễ Ệ

2/U Ư

U Ú Ù Ủ Ũ Ụ

Ư Ứ Ừ Ử Ữ Ự

3/I Y

I Í Ì Ỉ Ĩ Ị

Y Ý Ỳ Ỷ Ỹ Ỵ

Note that as “i” and “y” are homophonetic, so they sound the same when combining with accents.

Only a few of the above combinations convey some meaning. If you try looking them up your Vietnamese Dictionary, you definitely will learn something "interesting". It may be awkward to learn pronouncing something that makes no sense at all. However, you will see how helpful it is when these combinations are accompanied with consonants.

In waiting, keep on practicing!