Common mistakes: Numbers

• No.1 mistake is "Không" which is number 0.

When you try to make the "ng" sound at the end of "không", your mouth will open. However, you need to close your lips when "Không" is spoken. As I mentioned in the other article, Vietnamese doesn't have ending sounds, so please don't worry about the ending "ng". We don't make such ending sound, and even if you make the sound, we can't hear it. 😅😅😅

You can see from Xuan Vi’s many testimonials how much of a knowledgeable and professional teacher she is, so I might use this to touch on something else. I’m a small business owner with little spare time but have become motivated to learn Vietnamese by my wife’s parents who are originally from Saigon. I initially thought to attend beginner night classes run by my local college but found in the past when learning Spanish that I would get little out of the 3hrs classes due to the large group environment.

1. Ruby và Harry đi chơi, Harry gặp bạn quen

     Harry: Chào Sara, Sara có khoẻ không?

      Sara: Chào anh Harry. Cám ơn anh, tôi khoẻ. Lâu rồi không gặp anh. Dạo này anh đang làm gì?

      Harry: Tôi đang học tiếng Việt. Xin giới thiệu với chị đây là Ruby, bạn tôi.

      Sara: Chào chị.

 2. Ruby hỏi Harry về Sara

     Ruby: Cô ấy là người Việt Nam à?

      Harry: Không phải, người Thái Lan.

      Ruby: Cô ấy nói tiếng Việt giỏi quá.

Áo dài là một loại trang phục cách tân được thay đổi và cách điệu lại từ áo ngũ thân của người Việt Nam thời kỳ Tây hóa hay còn gọi đó là giai đoạn Tân thời. Áo dài thường được mặc với quần dài, che thân từ cổ đến hoặc có thể đến quá đầu gối. Thông thường, áo dài sẽ dành cho cả nam và nữ, tuy nhiên thường phổ biến hơn với nữ.

VIETNAMESE VS ENGLISH: FUNCTION WORDS

VIETNAMESE VS ENGLISH: TONE OR INTONATION

In response to my students’ complaint about the fact that Vietnamese tones are so difficult, I say: Yes, they are, but you still make them every day in English.

Vietnamese has six tones from low to high: low constricted tone (nặng), falling tone (huyền), level tone (ngang), rising tone (sắc), falling rising tone (hỏi) and high rising tone (ngã).

The tones are different from but actually similar to intonation in English.

Common mistakes: Cũng (Also, too) vs Không (Not)

Most of my students think of "Không" (no) when I say "Cũng" (too) and the same in reverse. Therefore, when I answer their greeting with "I'm also good. Thank you!", they often get worried and ask me: "Are you ok?". Because what they understand is: I'm not good.

In speaking, mixing up between "Cũng" (too) and "Không" (no) is also my students' common mistake. So it's time for you to practise your pronunciation with these two words.

VIETNAMESE VS ENGLISH: SHORT VOWELS AND LONG VOWELS.

Vietnamese doesn't have "Short vowels" like foot and "Long vowels" like food which is different from English. That's why many new English Vietnamese learners usually say "foot" and "food" the same.

Need /niːd/ was one of the words that I was struggled with. If I didn't really pay attention to my pronunciation, the sound I made would be knit /nɪt/

VIETNAMESE VS ENGLISH: ENDING SOUNDS

Do you know that when you say "Vietnamese"? We pay more attention on how your voice goes up or down to recognize the intonation than the "ese" sound at the end.

This occurs because we don't have ending sounds such as the "s" sound at the end of cats, "d" of God, "sh" of cash, "kst" of text or "ng" of "sing". So don't be surprised when you can hear different ending sounds from the same word said by different Vietnamese people. My advice is "Ignore the ending sounds".