The five Vietnamese phrases that do 80% of the work
First time? Do this
- Audio is built in. Tap any phrase to hear it in a native voice — pre-recorded and cached, so it just works offline, no setup. (The voice bar can still pick a phone voice as a backup.)
- Phrases — drilled by situation: the quán, bia hơi, directions, the market. Hit play, then say it back out loud.
- Sounds — nine letters unlock almost everything. Ten minutes here pays off the most.
- Customs — the unspoken rules. This is where tourists actually give themselves away.
- Practice — hear / read / recall / speak. Use it on the plane.
Right thing, right moment.
Tap a chip to jump to a scene — or just search. Common holds the go-anywhere basics (hello, thanks, where's the toilet); a few phrases like drinks live under more than one scene.
Common — useful everywhere · greetings · basics · the toilet
Greetings & manners · the social handshake
At the quán (eatery) · ordering & dining
quán kwahn — a small local eatery, often plastic stools on the pavement
Bia hơi & nights out · your scene
bia hơi bee-ah HUH-ee — a street-corner beer joint, fresh draught by the glass
Rượu & local pours · rice wine & tasting
Finding your way · asking directions
Taxis, Grab & getting around · rides & fares
On Ha Long Bay · boat & island life
Markets & getting by · everyday
Sea & scenery · quick vocab
Numbers 1–10 · prices & ordering
Familiar letters, but the tones do the talking.
The alphabet is Latin — you can read it on sight. The catch is six tones: the marks above and below the vowels set the pitch, and the same syllable in a different tone is a different word. Aim for the melody, not just the spelling.
Knowing what a letter sounds like isn't the same as being able to make it. These five are where English mouths actually go wrong: what to do, what to stop doing, and a native recording you can slow down and copy.
What your mouth doesEvery syllable carries a pitch shape — level, rising, falling, dipping — written as a mark above or below the vowel, and it belongs to the word as much as its letters do. Pick the tune first, then say the word: ngon sits on one level note; the quá of Ngon quá! jumps up like a delighted question.
The mistakeFlattening everything into English intonation. The same letters on a different tone are a different word entirely — tones, not consonants, are why a correct-looking phrase goes unrecognised.
What your mouth doesđ — with the bar — is the ordinary English d: đẹp is "dep". A bare d is a y in the south and a z in the north: dạ is "ya" (or "za").
The mistakeReading the bare d as d. It is the one letter guaranteed to mislead an English eye — check for the bar before you trust it.
What your mouth doesng at the start of a word is the ng of siNGer — hum it into place with no vowel in front: ngon. nh is the "ny" of canyon in one beat: nhà is "nyah".
The mistakeSmuggling in a helper vowel — "un-GON", "nuh-HA". Start the hum first and let the vowel follow it.
What your mouth doesư: say "oo", then spread your lips into a flat smile while the tongue stays back — mười. ơ is the "uh" of fur with no r: cảm ơn is "kahm uhn". The horn on the letter is the un-rounding instruction.
The mistakeRounding them back into "oo" and "oh". "kahm OHN" for cảm ơn is close enough to be understood and far enough to be foreign — the flat lips are the letter.
What your mouth doesx is a plain s: xin chào is "sin chow". gi is a z in the north and a y in the south: giúp is "zoop" (or "yoop") — the i is part of the spelling, not a syllable.
The mistake"ks" for x or a hard g for gi. xin chào read the English way comes out unrecognisable — trust the rule, not the letters.
- The marks are pitch, not stress. Six tones on one syllable: ma flat, má rising, mà falling, mả dipping then up, mã broken in the middle, mạ dropped short. Six different words.
- Every syllable stands alone. Vietnamese writes each syllable separately — cảm ơn, xin chào — and gives each one equal weight and its own tone. Don't run them together.
- Final consonants are cut off. A syllable ending in c, t, p or ch stops dead, with no puff of air after it. English releases those; Vietnamese closes the door on them.
- Hats and hooks change the vowel. ơ ư â ê ô are separate letters, not decorated ones. The shape on the vowel changes the sound; the mark above or below it changes the pitch.
- North and south sound different. Hanoi says d and gi as "z", Saigon says "y", and the south merges a couple of the tones. Either accent gets you served.
The rules nobody prints on the menu.
Your Vietnamese rarely outs you. These do. Read once, and you'll move differently.
Greet by who you're talking to
Vietnamese has no neutral "you." Use chào anh (chow ang) for an older man, chào chị (chow chee) for an older woman, chào em (chow em) for someone younger. A guess is fine — the effort is what lands.
The tones are the language
Vietnamese has six tones, marked by the accents above and below the vowels. The same syllable — ma (mah) — can mean ghost, mother, rice-seedling, tomb, horse or "but" depending on the pitch. Aim for the melody, not just the letters.
Give and receive with two hands
Pass money, a card, a gift or a business card with both hands — or your right hand while your left touches your forearm — especially to anyone older. It reads as respect.
Don't lose your cool
Raising your voice or showing public anger makes everyone lose face and gets you nowhere. Stay smiling and calm — giữ thể diện (zuh teh zyen, "keep face") is how things actually get sorted.
Cross the street slow and steady
When a wall of motorbikes is coming, don't stop and don't sprint. Walk at a steady, predictable pace and the traffic flows around you. Freezing or bolting is what gets you hit.
Bargain with a smile
Haggling is expected at markets (chợ (chuh)) and with un-metered taxis, but not in shops with price tags. Open with Đắt quá! (daht KWAH, "too expensive!"), keep it light, and meet in the middle.
Temples & homes: cover up, shoes off
Cover shoulders and knees at pagodas and the imperial sites, and slip your shoes off where you see a pile of them. Never point your feet at a Buddha or a person, and don't touch anyone's head.
Bia hơi is the ritual
Bia hơi (bia HUH-ee) is fresh draft beer brewed that morning, poured on low plastic stools for pennies. Wait for the count-off — Một, hai, ba, dô! (moht, hai, bah, YOH) — and everyone drinks together.
Tipping: not expected, always welcome
There's no service charge at local spots and no obligation, but rounding up or leaving small change for good service is appreciated. Smarter restaurants and hotels may already add 5–10%.
"Từ từ" is the tempo
Từ từ (TOO too) means "slow down, easy does it." Over a cà phê sữa đá (gah-fay SUH-uh DAH) — thick coffee dripping onto ice — on a low stool, watching the motorbikes, is exactly where you're meant to be.
The plates and glasses worth going out of your way for — each with the name as you'd say it out loud.
Test the four channels.
Understanding Vietnamese by ear, reading, recall, and your own mouth. Quick rounds — do them twice.