Writing on signs in Vietnam
Latin letters full of accents
Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet with stacked accents: one letter can carry two marks, like ế or ộ. Words are short, one syllable each.
- Letters ư and ơ have a little horn on the right.
- Đ with a bar through it is very common.
- Short words with spaces, like Phở Bò or Cửa Hàng.
11 photos, grouped by the clue they show.
Key clue Shop sign 8
Key clue Street sign 3
Vietnam: what its writing looks like
Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet, but with more accents than any other language. A single letter can carry two marks, like ế or ộ, and the letters ư and ơ have a small horn.
Words are short, usually one syllable each, so a sign reads like a row of little words: Cửa Hàng, Phở Bò, Nhà Thuốc.
Vietnamese is written the same way across the country, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.
Look-alikes: how to tell them apart
Turkey
RomaniaTurkish and Romanian also add marks to Latin letters, but never two at once. A stacked accent means Vietnam.
Questions about the writing in Vietnam
Why does Vietnamese have so many accents?
Vietnamese is a tonal language. The marks show the tone of each syllable and some vowel sounds.
What does Đ mean?
It is a separate letter in Vietnamese, pronounced like a d. The plain D is pronounced like a z or y.