Vietnamese sounds that do not exist in English
A working list of Vietnamese consonants and vowels with no English equivalent, how to position your tongue for each, and word pairs to check yourself against.
Pronunciation
The six Vietnamese tones, and what the marks actually tell you
What each Vietnamese tone mark means for pitch and voice quality, why two of them involve more than pitch, and how the southern system differs from the northern
Final consonants and vowel clusters in Vietnamese
Why Vietnamese final consonants are never released, how that differs from English, and how to handle the vowel clusters that make written Vietnamese look intimi
Vietnamese sound pairs that learners keep mixing up
The vowel and consonant pairs that English speakers merge in Vietnamese, with example words for each and a simple test to find out which ones you are merging.
Ten minutes a day on Vietnamese pronunciation
How to structure a ten minute Vietnamese pronunciation session, what to listen for, and how to tell whether a session was actually useful.
How to check your Vietnamese pronunciation without a teacher
Four ways to check your own Vietnamese pronunciation when studying alone, what counts as good enough, and the false signals that make learners stop too early.
Vietnamese pronunciation: what actually matters first
The three things that decide whether Vietnamese speakers understand you, why word order of practice matters, and what you can safely ignore at the start.
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