Vietnamese (tiếng Việt) is the national and official language of Vietnam and is spoken by a large majority of the population. It is also one of the few languages ​​in Asia that uses the Latin alphabet instead of symbols. This makes it a lot easier to interpret street signs and even learn to speak in Vietnamese.

Do they also speak English in Vietnam?

In major cities and tourist areas in the south, communicating in English is becoming increasingly easy as Vietnam is becoming increasingly touristy. Due to high demand, the government has set up programs to improve English-language lessons in schools. However, if you plan to go to smaller cities or rural areas, it may be useful to know at least one Vietnamese basis.

In the south, where the inhabitants have often worked for the Americans in the past, knowledge of English is the best. Assume that most older Vietnamese cannot speak a word of English. Young people in particular can speak better English. Although some of them are shy towards foreigners, they will be happy to help you if you get lost and ask for directions. Some others would like to talk to you because that helps them improve their communication in the English language. Hotels, restaurants in tourist areas most Vietnamese also speak English.

Greetings in Vietnamese

How you greet and then speak to someone in Vietnam depends very much on their gender, and on their age and social status compared to yours. As a general rule of thumb, if you address a man as b, and a woman as b, you can be sure that you are not rude. If you find yourself in a conversation, formal or informal, with someone of your estimated age, you can use anh (for a man) and chi (for a woman).

Pronunciation

The difficulty of the Vietnamese language is in the pronunciation. It is a tonal language with single-syllable words. Each syllable can be pronounced at six different pitches: toneless, ascending, rapidly descending, slowly descending, floating or interrupted. Characters above the letters indicate the pitch. By varying the pitch a word can have six different meanings and an erroneous pronunciation quickly leads to confusion.

Travel Dictionary Dutch – Vietnamese

General talk

Food and drink

Ask for directions