Section 7: Single Consonants

There are 17 single consonants in Vietnamese. Most of these sounds have similar sounds in English, making them easy to pronounce.

Below are the single consonants, their pronunciation and some examples along with their pronunciation in the Northern accents:

Vietnamese Consonants and their Pronunciations
No	Vietnamese consonant	Name of letter	Pronunciation	Examples	Equivalent sound in English	As in
1	B – b	bê	bờ	ba – bốn – bánh	/b/	bed, bad
2	C – c	xê	cờ	cá – cò – cóc – chắc	/k/	can, could
3	D – d	dê	dờ	dê – dám – dành	/z/	zip, zoo
4	Đ – đ	đê	đờ	đỏ – đá – định	/d/	dad, don’t
5	G – g	giê	gờ	gỗ – gà – gánh	/g/	go, get
6	H – h	hát	hờ	hổ – hỏi – học	/h/	home, hot
7	K – k	ka	ka	kênh – kiến – kinh	/k/	cook, can
8	L – l	e lờ	lờ	lớp – lo – lạnh	/l/	low, look
9	M – m	e mờ	mờ	mấy – mình – làm – phim	/m/	my, meet
10	N – n	en nờ	nờ	nó – nóng – bán – tồn	/n/	need, now
11	P – p	pê	pờ	pao – patê – lắp – chắp	/p/	paste, pool
12	Q – q	quy/qu	quờ	quả – quyền – quý	/kw/	quest, queue
13	R – r	e rờ	rờ	rắn – rồng – riêng	/r/	row, red
14	S – s	ét – xì	sờ	sông – sợ – súng	/ʃ/	show, shut
15	T – t	tê	tờ	tiếng – tôi – tốt – mắt	/t/	two, ten
16	V – v	vê	vờ	vở – Việt – vào	/v/	very, vow
17	X – x	ích – xì	xờ	xu – xanh – xem	/s/	send, sad

Some Important Notes:

The only consonant that does not appear in English is Đ/đ. To write this letter, add a “-” mark in the middle of the letter D (upper case), or a little near the top of the letter d (lower case).
When producing sounds such as C, K, P, and T, unlike in English, there is no “explosion” when releasing the air.
When a consonant stands at the end of a word, we do not let the air flow out like in English. We find ways to stop the airflow from the throat:
- If the word ends with the letter C, the back of the tongue is raised and the pharynx is closed.
- If the word ends with the letters M or P, the lips are sealed.
- If the word ends with the letters N or T, the tip and side of the tongue touch the upper teeth to stop the air from escaping.