Easy Vietnamese: Learn to Speak Vietnamese Quickly! (Free Companion Online Audio)

By Bac Hoai Tran and Sandra Guja

Easy Vietnamese is the perfect beginner's book for anyone who wants to learn Vietnamese on their own or with a teacher.

This invaluable guide introduces all the basics of the Vietnamese language, as well as vocabulary and tips for practical daily conversation. There is also a glossary of commonly used words and phrases, useful notes, pronunciation, greetings, sentence structure, idiomatic expressions, etiquette, and cultural dos and don'ts included throughout.

Filled with useful practice exercises, and online audio recordings for all the dialogues, vocabulary and exercises,

Easy Vietnamese will have you communicating effectively very quickly!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Release date: May 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781462918782

Book preview

AUDIO TRACK LIST

CHAPTER 2: Greetings and Introductions

Ch 2 Dial 1: First Day at the Office

Ch 2 Dial 2: First Introductions

CHAPTER 3: In a Restaurant

Ch 3 Dial 1: Ordering Food

Ch 3 Dial 2: Talking About Food

CHAPTER 4: Shopping

Ch 4 Dial 1: Buying Clothes

Ch 4 Dial 2: At a Bookstore

CHAPTER 5: Asking Directions

Ch 5 Dial 1: Finding the Saigon Central Post Office

Ch 5 Dial 2: Finding Landmarks

CHAPTER 6: Visiting a Vietnamese Home

Ch 6 Dial 1: Dinner at a Vietnamese Home

Ch 6 Dial 2: Conversing in Vietnamese

CHAPTER 7: Daily Activities

Ch 7 Dial 1: Talking About Your Daily Routine

Ch 7 Dial 2: Work and Hobbies

CHAPTER 8: Sightseeing

Ch 8 Dial 1: Touring Around Vietnam

Ch 8 Dial 2: Checking Into a Hotel in Da Nang

CHAPTER 9: Making Phone Calls

Ch 9 Dial 1: Calling Someone at Their Office

Ch 9 Dial 2: Calling a Friend at Home

CHAPTER 10: Health Matters

Ch 10 Dial 1: Seeing a Doctor

Ch 10 Dial 2: How to Stay Healthy

CHAPTER 11: At the Bank

Ch 11 Dial 1: Opening a Bank Account

Ch 11 Dial 2: Depositing & Exchanging Money

CHAPTER 12: Email and Texting

Ch 12 Dial 1: An Email Dinner Invitation

Ch 12 Dial 2: Deciphering a Text Message

CHAPTER 13: Colloquial Language and Slang

Ch 13 Dial 1: Slang Used for Vehicles & Phones

Ch 13 Dial 2: Slang Used in Daily Activities

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EASY

Vietnamese

EASY

Vietnamese

Learn to Speak Vietnamese Quickly!

Bac Hoai Tran

Contents

CHAPTER 1 Introduction and Pronunciation Guide

CHAPTER 2 Greetings and Introductions

Dialogue 1: First Day at the Office

Kinship Terms/Vietnamese Word Order/Omitting Words

Cultural Note: Asking Personal Questions

The Question Word Nào = Which

Dialogue 2: First Introductions

Cultural Note: How Are You?

Cultural Note: Formal Introductions

CHAPTER 3 In A Restaurant

Dialogue 1: Ordering Food

The Word Muốn = Want

Cultural Note: Noodles in Vietnam

Dialogue 2: Talking About Food

Conversations Among Friends/The Intensifier Quá = So

CHAPTER 4 Shopping

Dialogue 1: Buying Clothes

Classifiers

Cultural Note: Bargaining

Dialogue 2: At a Bookstore

The Words Hay or Hoặc = Or/The Word Very in Vietnamese

Forming Plurals

CHAPTER 5 Asking Directions

Dialogue 1: Finding the Saigon Central Post Office

Giving Directions

Verb Tenses

Dialogue 2: Finding Landmarks

The Word Bị = To Suffer From/We in Vietnamese/Auxiliary Verbs

CHAPTER 6 Visiting a Vietnamese Home

Dialogue 1: Dinner at a Vietnamese Home

Dialogue 2: Conversing in Vietnamese

Cultural Note: Asking About Age

Cultural Note: Matchmaking

The Word Chýa = Yet

The Word Bao Lâu Rô`i = How Long Have You Been…?

CHAPTER 7 Daily Activities

Dialogue 1: Talking About Your Daily Routine

Time Expressions

Dialogue 2: Work and Hobbies

Cultural Note: Parts of the Day

Telling Time

CHAPTER 8 Sightseeing

Dialogue 1: Touring Around Vietnam

Cultural Note: Measurements

The Word Bằng = By

Dialogue 2: Checking In at a Hotel in Da Nang

CHAPTER 9 Making Phone Calls

Dialogue 1: Calling Someone at Their Office

Cultural Note: French and English Loanwords

The Vietnamese Past Tense/When

Dialogue 2: Calling a Friend at Home

The Word Bị = Things Happening to Us

CHAPTER 10 Health Matters

Dialogue 1: Seeing a Doctor

The Word Vậy = Used to Soften Questions

Dialogue 2: How to Stay Healthy

CHAPTER 11 At the Bank

Dialogue 1: Opening a Bank Account

The Word Mó’i = Just or Then

Dialogue 2: Depositing & Exchanging Money

CHAPTER 12 Email and Texting

Dialogue 1: An Email Dinner Invitation

The Question Word Ai = Who?

Dialogue 2: Deciphering a Text Message

Cultural Note: Texting Lingo

The Question Word À = Confirming Information

The Word Ðã = Past Tense Marker or Emphasis Marker

CHAPTER 13 Colloquial Language and Slang

Dialogue 1: Slang Used for Vehicles & Phones

Dialogue 2: Slang Used in Daily Activities

Cultural Note: Common Expressions in Vietnam

Tag Questions/The Word Hả = Huh

ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE GLOSSARY

VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH GLOSSARY

CHAPTER 1

Introduction and Pronunciation Guide

We have done everything possible in Easy Vietnamese to make the study of Vietnamese simple and straightforward. Our goal is to help you develop an initial interest in the language and culture of Vietnam and make your first or second trip to this country thoroughly enjoyable, giving you a feel for the language by the time you reach the end of the book. We hope that after you complete this book, you will continue to further explore this wonderful language, along with the beauty of Vietnam and its unique culture. Let us now take a look at the alphabet and then move on to pronunciation.

THE ALPHABET

The Vietnamese language has 12 vowels and 17 consonants, listed in the charts below.

Vowels:

aãâeêioôõuýy

Consonants:

bcdðghklmnpqrstvx

PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

This guide is aimed at practicality rather than precision, since many readers will need to practice the language as soon as they finish the book, or maybe even while still turning the pages. Thus, you will not find a detailed description of the pronunciation of each tone and sound. Instead, you will find approximations. We hope that once you listen to the recordings you will be able to mimic these sounds and then practice what you have acquired by communicating with native speakers. We will now look at the Vietnamese tone, vowel, and consonant systems.

THE TONE SYSTEM

Vietnamese is a tonal language, which means that the tone used for a sound can cause it to become a different word conveying a different meaning. In written Vietnamese, there are only five tone marks indicating five different tones, with the sixth tone – the level tone – receiving no marking. Bear in mind that different dialects may or may not produce all these tones in their speech. For example, the southern dialects normally use only five tones out of six, and this can sometimes cause some misunderstanding for language learners. Fortunately, spoken words always carry enough contextual information to tell us what is being said.

In southern dialects, the broken, low-rising tone represented by the tilde is generally replaced by the low-rising tone, making mã sound very much like mả. We can now sum up the tone system in the following table:

THE VOWEL SYSTEM

Single Vowels

Vowel Combinations

THE CONSONANT SYSTEM

We will look at initial consonants and consonant combinations, and then final consonants to see the distinctions in the way they are pronounced.

I. Initial Consonants

Single Consonants

Consonant Combinations

II. Final Consonants

Final consonants in Vietnamese are always silent. The mouth forms the shape of the consonant but no air is released and no sound is made. For example, in English we pronounce the final k by releasing the air from our mouth in a little burst. In Vietnamese the back of the tongue does need to be pressed against the soft palate to form a silent k. The following are common final consonants in Vietnamese.

When a is followed by a final c, it keeps its sound quality (which is a full a sound). However, when it is followed by a final ch, its pronunciation changes to ai. Likewise, when a is followed by a final ng, its sound quality doesn’t change. However, when followed by a final nh, it sounds like ai as in Thailand.

Foodnote

¹Sino-Vietnamese is used to refer to Vietnamese words of Chinese origin. These are numerous, probably accounting for over half of the Vietnamese vocabulary.

CHAPTER 2

Greetings and Introductions

Jane