Lessons › Lesson 7
Lesson 7 · How words end
Vietnamese allows only 8 final consonants: -m, -n, -ng, -nh, -p, -t, -c, -ch. Two new habits to build: never release the stops, and close your lips on the rounded endings. This lesson trains both.
Accent:
👃 The nasal endings: -n, -ng, -nh, -m
Same word, three tails — the only difference is where the tongue lands. Loop each trio until your ear separates them.
tan · tang · tanh
-n: tongue on the teeth ridge. -ng: tongue far back. -nh: tongue pressed to the hard palate (a closing “ny”).
lan · làng · lành
The same three tails on another body (tones differ a bit — listen to the tails, not the tones).
The -m tail you already own:
🤐 The stops: -p, -t, -c — park it, don’t pop it
English releases its final stops (“stop” ends with an audible pop). Vietnamese does NOT: the lips or tongue move into position and simply… stay. “mát” ends with the tongue parked at the teeth — no pop, no puff.
⚡ The checked-tone law
A word ending in -p, -t, -c or -ch can only carry TWO tones: sắc or nặng. That is why “bàt” or “mảt” cannot exist — see a stop tail and you already know the tone options.
🅰 The -anh / -ach twist
Before -nh/-ch the letter a changes color — “anh” comes out closer to “eng” than to “ang”. Southern speakers relax these tails toward -n/-t.
💋 The lip-closing endings: -ong, -ông, -ung, -oc, -ôc, -uc
After the rounded vowels (o, ô, u), the -ng and -c tails also close your LIPS — two doors shutting at once. Say “không” at a mirror: it must end lips-touching, as if an m were hiding inside.
ông · ong
A minimal ô/o pair on the same lip-closing tail — slightly puffed cheeks means you are doing it right.
more of them
All four of these end with the lips sealed. Tap, listen, and check the mirror.