Section 8: Combined Consonants 1

Beside the single consonants, Vietnamese has a range of combined consonants. They are:

• CH – GH – GI – KH
• NH – NG – NGH
• PH – QU – TH – TR

These consonants are important in terms of both phonetics and spelling/writing.

We will deal with them in the next two sections.

First, let’s start with some simple consonants:

1. CH vs. TR

a. CH

Pronunciation

• Raise your tongue to the roof of your mouth, with the tip of the tongue staying just behind the upper teeth.
• Curve the middle and tip of the tongue down a bit, while making the air flow out of your mouth quickly.
• Control the explosiveness of the air when flowing out. Unlike the English /tʃ/ sound (as in Change, Check), the Vietnamese CH does not sound explosive.
• If the CH stands at the end of a word, the air is not released. The position of the tongue remains the same.

Examples

• Chú – Chị – Cha
• Ếch – Ách – Ích
• Mạch – Tách
• Chích – Chệch

b. TR

Pronunciation

• The TR sound is the equivalent of the /tʃ/ sound in English, with the same level of explosiveness when pronounced. Don’t confuse it with the /tr/ sound in English.
• In the North, however, most people turn the TR sound to the CH sound for ease of pronunciation.

Examples

• Trai – Trú – Trang – Trị

Standard/Southern:

Northern:

2. GH

Spelling and Writing

This sound is another variation of the G sound. However, they are used for different spelling rules:

• GH is used before E, Ê and I.
• G is used before other vowels.

Examples

• Gà – Gánh – Gù – Gông – Gỡ
• Ghê – Ghé – Ghi – Ghềnh

3. GI

Pronunciation

• This is the equivalent of the /dʒ/ sound in English (as in Join, Just).
• Don’t confuse this sound with GHI. GI is an entirely different sound with a separate pronunciation.
• In the North, people tend to turn this sound into the D sound for ease of pronunciation.
• Meanwhile, in the South, people tend to turn this into the /j/ sound in English (as in Yard, Year).

Examples

• Giỏi – Giang – Giàu – Giải

Standard:

Northern:

Southern:

4. PH

Pronunciation

• This sound is similar to the /f/ sound in English (as in Four, Father).

Examples

• Phố – Phải – Phòng – Phim

5. QU

Pronunciation

• This sound is similar to the /kw/ sound in English (as in Queue, Question, Quit).

Examples

• Quả – Quý – Quyết – Quen – Quay

Activities

Let’s have some practice: