Common Vietnamese Surnames: Meaning, Pronunciation & Fun Facts
The meaning, pronunciation, and history behind Vietnam’s most popular family, such as Nguyễn, Ngô, Hồ, Trần, Dương and more, including Audio.
The meaning, pronunciation, and history behind Vietnam’s most popular family, such as Nguyễn, Ngô, Hồ, Trần, Dương and more, including Audio.
The Vietnamese letter g is pronounced like “g” as in “goat”, when it is followed by any vowel other than i. “Gi” is pronounced like “z” as in “zebra”, or like “yuh” in the Southern dialect.
The “ng” sound (ŋ) is not an n-sound, nor a g-sound. In English, it occurs at the end of “-ing” words, like running, talking, and writing. If you listen carefully, you can hear that ng really deserves its own unique character, being entirely unrelated to both “n” and “g”. Use our trick to train your tongue to correctly pronounce the Vietnamese ng-sound.
“Việt Nam” means “People of the South”, where “south” is in reference to the South-East Asian continent, especially south of China. Nam is likely of Chinese origin from “Annam” for the “pacified south”. Listen to audio for the correct pronunciation of Vietnam.
Phở can be Anglicized to “phuh”. But, ở must be spoken with a peculiar pitch-dynamic: it first descends, then rises. If not done correctly, you may say something naughty
Người means “people”, but it also functions like the English suffix “-er” when attached to a verb (e.g., driver).
Fish is “cá” in Vietnamese (pronounced like ga). But “cá” also includes some marine mammals, such as the “Pig Fish”…
Introducing our new series of Vietnamese pronunciation guides with audio, covering: tones, consonants, digraphs, and vowels.
Nguyễn can be anglicized to “win/when”, with an upward-pitch at the end, but the correct pronunciation is nearly impossible for foreigners, unless you learn this trick.
Bánh mì is pronounced like “bang me”. Bánh loosely means baked-good and mì means “wheat flour”…