Languages

Vietnamese (tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ), formerly known under French colonization as Annamese (see Annam), is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. It is part of the Austroasiatic language family, of which it has the most speakers by a significant margin (several times larger than the other Austroasiatic languages put together).

Much vocabulary has been borrowed from Chinese, especially words that denote abstract ideas (in the same way European languages borrow from Latin and Greek), and it was formerly written using the Chinese writing system, albeit in a modified format and was given vernacular pronunciation. As a byproduct of the French invasion, there are also some influence from French, and the Vietnamese writing system in use today is an adapted version of the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters.

Standard Pronunciation

The pronunciation of educated speakers from the Hanoi area of Vietnam is the most widely accepted standard. While there is considerable variation in actual speech, it will be useful here to present a rather idealized pronunciation as the "standard."  A picture of contrasting features of the Saigon dialect. Because the traditional orthography provides a solid basis for discussing standard pronunciation, the speech sounds as renditions of written symbols. 

Languages you speak 

English is the most popular foreign language in Vietnam and is taught is school. Many people speak English and information in English can be found easily in big cities such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh; and growing tourist places such as Da Nang or Nha Trang. Guides in English are usually offered.

French and Russian are fairly popular, especially in Northern Vietnam.

Japanese, Korean and Chinese are also growing in popularity. Tours in these languages are also possible depending on location and agency.

Vietnamese words and phrase for travelling around

Pronunciations can vary significantly within Vietnam (especially northern vs southern).

4. Yes - Vang - vung

5. No - Khong - Khom

6. Carol - Toi - doy

7. You - Anh / Chi - Ang (male) / chi (female)

8. Good - tot - tote

9. Bad - Khong tot - khom tote

10. How much - Bao nhieu - Bow nyew

11. Too expensive - Mac qua - Mahk qwa

12. Hotel - Khach San - Khack san

13. Ticket - Ve - Vee ah (pronounced similarly to "yeah" in English)

14: Hot - Nong - Nom

15: Cold - Lanh - Lang

16: Coffee - Ca phe - cah feh

17: Hot black coffee - Ca phe nong - Cah feh nom

18: Hot Coffee with milk - Ca phe sua nong - Cah feh swa nom

19: Iced Coffee with milk - Ca phe sua dac - Cah feh swa dahk

20: Tea - Tra - Chah

21: Oh Carol's god - Oi gioi oi - oi zoi oi

22: You're welcome - Khong co' chi (khom go jee)

23: You're beautiful - Co dep qua (coh dep wah)

24: Smile - cuoi len (kuy leen)

25. bathroom - pho`ng ve^ sinh  (fonh veah sin) 

Find out words with VIETstyle local guide

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