Lessons › Lesson 4
Lesson 4 · The single vowels
Vietnamese has 12 vowel letters but only 11 vowel sounds (i and y spell the same one). The good news: only three sounds are truly new to an English mouth (ơ, ư, â), plus two long–short pairs. Every word on this page plays audio.
Accent:
🗺 The vowel chart
| a | like the a in father — open and long |
| ă | the same a but SHORT and clipped — it never ends a word, a final always follows |
| â | like the u in sun — this is ơ said short; it also always needs a final |
| e | like the e in bet — open |
| ê | like the ay in say but WITHOUT the little y-glide at the end — hold it pure |
| i / y | like the ee in see — two spellings, one sound |
| o | like the aw in law — open, rounded |
| ô | like the o in go but without the w-glide at the end — hold it pure |
| ơ | like the ir in bird with the r removed — jaw relaxed |
| u | like the oo in boo — lips rounded |
| ư | NOT in English: say “oo”, then spread your lips into a smile while keeping your tongue in place |
👂 The four confusable clusters
Each cluster below is a set your ear will merge at first. Loop each row until the words stop sounding alike.
a · ă · â
Three real words, three vowels: long a, clipped ă, and â (= short ơ). This is the single most important row on the page.
o · ô · ơ
Open-rounded (o) → close-rounded (ô) → relaxed and unrounded (ơ). Watch your mouth in a mirror as you drill.
u · ư
u is round-lipped; for ư keep the tongue exactly there and spread your lips into a smile. The hardest pair for English speakers.
e · ê
e is open like “bet”; ê is closer and pure. Hold ê flat — do not let it drift into an English “ay”.
✍️ Two things worth remembering
ă and â never end a word
They are the SHORT versions of a and ơ, so they always need a final consonant to stop them: ăn, mất, tắm — you will never see a word that ends in ă or â.
i and y — one sound, two spellings
Many words accept both: kì and kỳ are the same word. The spelling is convention; the sound never changes.