Common mistakes with Numbers

• Mistake #1: "Không" (0)

One common mistake is with the number "Không" (zero). When trying to pronounce the "ng" sound at the end of "không," many students tend to open their mouths too much. However, you need to close your lips slightly when saying "không."

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

Around 90% of Vietnamese sentences and questions include "strange" or "ambiguous" words that we call function words, functors, or particles. They have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but specify the attitude or mood of the speaker*** 

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 confuse "Không" (no) with "Cũng" (too, also), and vice versa. Therefore, when I respond to their greeting with "I'm also good. Thank you!", they often get worried and ask me, "Are you okay?" because they understand it as "I'm not good."

In speaking, mixing up "Cũng" (too) and "Không" (no) is a common mistake among my students. So, it's time for you to practice 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 to how your voice rises and falls (intonation) than to the "ese" sound at the end?

This happens because Vietnamese doesn’t have many ending sounds like the "s" in cats, the "d" in God, the "sh" in cash, the "kst" in text, or the "ng" in sing. As a result, don’t be surprised if you hear different ending sounds for the same word when spoken by different Vietnamese people.