Section 5: Combined vowels – Diphthongs 2

In the previous section, we looked at some combined vowels in Vietnamese.

We continue with the following sounds in this section:

OA – OĂ – OE – OI

ÔI – ƠI

UA – UÔ – UÂ – UÊ

UI – UY

ƯA – ƯƠ

ƯI – ƯU

1/ Sounds starting with O, Ô and Ơ

Some of the sounds appear in English, making them easy to pronounce:

+) OA: as in Washington

Họa – Xóa – Lòa – Đóa

+) OE: as in Where, When

Xòe – Hoe – Lòe – Loét

+) OI: as in Boy, Toy

Coi – Sói – Hỏi – Đòi

+) OĂ: as in Walk

Hoặc – Xoắn – Ngoặt

*Notes: In terms of spelling and writing, OĂ is always followed by another consonant, such as C, N, or T.

+) ÔI: To produce this sound, you must “glide” between the two vowels constituting it. First, open your mouth to a medium width, then push your lips forward to form the position of “Ô”. Then quickly widen the side of your mouth to form the “I” sound.

Tôi – Cối – Đổi – Mỗi – Đội

+) ƠI: To produce this sound, you also need to glide between the two vowels. First, open your mouth and relax your cheeks, lips and tongue to form the position of “Ơ”. Then push your tongue toward your upper teeth to form the “I” sound.

Nơi – Tới – Chơi – Đợi – Mới

2/ Sounds starting with U

a/ UA & UÔ vs. UÂ

+) UA & UÔ: as in Tour, Sure

These are the two variations of spelling for the same sound.

• UA is used when there is no other consonant after the pair.
• UÔ is used when there are other consonants after the pair.

Examples:

• Mua – Chùa – Lúa – Của – Đũa
• Luộc – Muốn – Chuồn – Cuộn

+) UÂ: sound like the vowel in Won’t

Tuần – Luật – Truất – Khuất

What’s the difference?

To many learners, UA, UÔ and UÂ sounds similar. However, phonetically, there are subtle differences between them:

• For UA and UÔ, the width of the mouth when gliding from U to A/Ô increases minimally.
• For UÂ, the width of the mouth when gliding from U to  is greater. Imagine you say wow when expressing surprise. That’s how the width of your mouth should change. If you don’t open your mouth wide, it’s likely you will produce the UA/UÔ sound.

Fortunately, there are very few cases where you need to distinguish between these sounds.

b/ UÊ – UI – UY

+) UÊ:  To produce this sound, round your mouth a little and push your lips forward to form the position of “U”. Then widen your mouth and push the lips to the sides to make the Ê sound.

Huế – Thuê – Quê

+) UI: To produce this sound, round your mouth a little and push your lips forward to form the position of “U”. Then push the side of your tongue so that it touches your teeth, while retracting your lips. You will produce the I sound and thus make the UI sound.

Tui – Mùi – Củi – Chũi

+) UY: Sounds like “We” in English

Tuy – Thủy – Quý – Xúy

3/ Sounds starting with Ư

+) ƯA & ƯƠ:

These are the two variations of spelling for the same sound.

• ƯA is used when there is no other consonant after the pair.
• ƯƠ is used when there are other consonants after the pair.

To produce this sound, start at the position of the Ư sound by closing your teeth with your tongue not touching your teeth.

Then, open your teeth and widen your mouth a little. This will form the Ơ sound, which in turn produce the ƯA/ƯƠ sound.

Examples:

• Mưa – Trưa – Vừa – Dứa – Tựa
• Tưởng – Hướng – Dương – Xước – Trượt

+) ƯI: To produce this sound, start at the position of the Ư sound. Then keep your teeth in the same position while pushing your tongue forward. This helps form the I sound, which in turn produces the ƯI sound.

Ngửi – Cửi – Chửi

+) ƯU: To produce this sound, start at the position of the Ư sound. Then push your lips forward and round them a little to form the U sound. This will help you produce the ƯU sound.

*Notes: Normally, in the North, people turn ƯU into IU. However, the writing will remain unchanged:

Examples: MƯU – CỬU – TỬU:

• Standard pronunciation:
  
• Simple pronunciation:
  

Let’s have some practice :