Vietnamese Name Pronunciation for dummies (tips on pronouncing common Vietnamese names)

Here’s a quick primer on Vietnamese names and peculiar pronunciations.  **   Do click like if you find the article helpful.  I look forward to any comments.

 

** Disclaimers/Reminders:

1. This is just a crash course for people in a hurry; most of the words are missing their proper intonation marks.  It was never intended to be a Vietnamese language lesson.

2. This particular accent in Vietnamese pronunciation is common only in the southern region of Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City; it is NOT the “official accent” for Tiếng Việt that can be heard on National audio-visual media.  This official accent originates from the northern region, which includes Hanoi – the capital of Vietnam.  My sincere thanks to Miss Khánh khánh for her reminder.   (edited Apr 2019)

 

Vietnamese Names

Usually in 3 parts, <Family/surname> <”given” name”>

Examples:
1. (Mr) Vo Van Quang
2. (Miss) Nguyen Thi Thuy Vinh

We address Vietnamese people by using the 3rd (given) name, same examples above (1) Mr Quang, (2) Miss Vinh (they use this convention mainly because certain surnames are very common)

Pronunciations (general rules only)

1. The name “Dang” is pronounced with the sound of “a” in the English word “far”. This “D” has a horizontal cross/dash at the vertical stroke; take a close look at the Vietnam “Dong” currency to see what I mean, and it is pronounced with the regular “D” sound
2. The “normal” “D” (without the cross dash) is pronounced with a “y” sound – the D is SILENT.  An example would help: “Dung” is pronounced “yoong” (sound of “oo” in “zoo”), eg. the name of Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung (actual Vietnamese spelling: Nguyễn Tấn Dũng) is pronounced as “nguin tan yoong” (remember the “a” is pronounced with same sound as “far”)
3. “Binh” is pronounced with the sound of “e” in the English word “fern”. (You’ll notice this sound comes up a lot)  The same sound goes for Minh and Linh.
4. Uniquely, “Sinh” and “Vinh” are pronounced as spelt.
5. “Xuan” is pronounced as “swerng” and “Thuan” is pronounced as “twerng” (the sound of “e” in “fern”)
6. “Van” is pronounced as “verng” (the sound of “e” in “fern”)
7. “tr…” is pronounced as “ch…” Hence, the name “Trang” is pronounced “chang” (sound of “a” in the English word “bang” or “fang”).  However, peculiarly, the name “Tran” is pronounced as “cherng” (sound of “e” in fern).   Side note: A non-name example of the “tr” sound is iced tea, spelt “tra da”, pronounced “cha da”. The 2 syllable sound is similar to the “uh huh” that Americans say when they are in agreement with a speaker in face-to-face dialogue. (here are the actual VN words: trà đá.  Do take note of that cross/dash on the “d”, denoting the regular “d” sound)
8. “Nguyen” is pronounced “nguin”, “Thuyen” is pronounced as “thuin”, “Quyen” is pronounced as “quin”, you get the drift.  All these are pronounced with the sound of “ruin”. But, peculiarly for Quyen, the “Q” is almost silent, so it’s regularly pronounced as “uin”. It gets somewhat more confusing … because there’s another name, Uyen, which is pronounced with a heavier accent on the “U”, hence pronounced as “uuin”
9. “Phuong” is pronounced as “feng”, (the sound of “e” in “fern”).  Wait! It’s not so simple … the second part is accentuated, so it’s more like “ferrnng”.  This name is very common, but particularly tricky.  You really HAVE to ask your Vietnamese friends if you want to learn the exact sound.

If you see any Vietnamese word and need the English equivalent, check out Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/#en|vi|

It won’t be 100% accurate, but it’s a start.  Apart from that, do ask your Vietnamese friends if you need any clarification.  Good luck!

Some history:
Although everyone uses this spelling of “Vietnam”, the local population strongly and vehemently prefer to spell it as “Viet Nam”, since Vietnam was coined by the West.  * Its origin was “Nam Viet”, a name first used by the Chinese.  Nam means “South” and Viet means “the Chinese generic name for peoples to the south of core region of China”, i.e. literally “South Region”.  (* source: wikipedia)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam

(in case you are wondering about my interest in the language: I stayed in Ho Chi Minh City – or Saigon – for 3 years, and returned to Malaysia end of 2011)