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Vietnamese/Consonants

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  • There are 17 single consonants:
Vowels Phoneme English equivalent sounds
b /ɓ/ but
c /k/ sky
d /z/ zoo (Northern)
d /j/ yes (Southern & Central)
đ /ɗ/ do
g /ɣ/ go
h /h/ hat
k /k/ sky
l /l/ long
m /m/ me
n /n/ no
p /p/ sport (cannot occur initially, except in loan words)
q /k/ square
r /z/ zoo (Northern)
r /ɹ/ run (Southern & Central)
s /s/ stay (Northern)
s /∫/ show (Southern & Central)
t /t/ stop
v /v/ video
x /s/ see


  • There are 10 consonant digraphs:
Vowels Phoneme English equivalent sounds
ch /c/ cha-cha
gh /ɣ/ go
gi /z/ zoo (Northern)
gi /j/ yes (Southern & Central)
kh /x/ loch
nh /ɲ/ canyon
ng /ŋ/ sing, but can occur initially.
ph /f/ Philip
th /tʰ/ as in top (aspirated "t"), not as in thin
tr /c/ cha-cha (Northern)
tr /ʈʂ/ straw (Southern and Central)
qu /kw/ square (Northern & Central)
qu /w/ world (Southern)

There is one consonant trigraph: ngh /ŋ/: nghỉ, nghiêm, nghiêng

  • There are 8 final consonants:
Vowels Phoneme English equivalent sounds
c /k/ rack
ch /k/ sick (cut in the South)
m /m/ gym
n /n/ ban
nh /ɲ/ canyon
ng /ŋ/ sing
p /p/ tap
t /t/ pat