Pronunciation:
Unlike European languages, Vietnamese words are pronounced syllable by syllable, and the last letter of words is often silent. There are three regional dialects: the north, the centre and the south. There are six tones used in Vietnamese:

Alphabet:
The letters F, J, W, and Z are the only roman letters missing from the Vietnamese script, though the sounds of these letters are often used in speaking. Most Vietnamese letters are pronounced the same as the Roman alphabet, allowing the visitor to read with ease road and store signs. The Vietnamese alphabet had two letter Ds: D is pro-nounced as a Y in the south, a Z in the north, and SH in the centre; and Đ is pronounced across the country just like the Roman D.

Grammar:
Vietnamese grammar is not complicated like English and French, with plurals of words omitted, and future and past tenses conjugated simply by adding a modifier in front of the verb. Colloquial Vietnamese omit even more words when speaking to each other. For example, the sentence “I am going to the market” becomes simply “Di cho”, “go market”.

Greetings & Pleasantries:
The choice of pronoun is important when speaking Vietnamese, depending on whom you are speaking to. There is no commonly used word for you, or I; instead, greetings like brother, sister, aunt, uncle and grandmother are used to greet people, because in the highly structured society of the Vietnamese, people are most often never on the same social standing. For example, when greeting:

# Used when greeting someone younger
* Used when greeting someone about the same age
Hello: Xin Chao (sin chow)
Personal pronouns are matched with this basic greeting; so when greeting an elderly woman, the correct phrase is, Xin Chao Ba; and when greeting a young man, it is correct to say, Xin Chao Chu.

Typically, Vietnamese do not say thank you for everything as in the West, a thankful smile or nod is far more important that what they believe to be hollow words.

Because ‘Xin Chao’ simply means ‘greetings,’ there is no official word for goodbye in Vietnamese, who prefer to use the phrases Hen Gap Lai (hen gahp lie) (see you again) or Tam Biet (tam beet) (bye bye) instead.

Numbers:
Upon learning the numbers one to ten, forming numbers up to 00 are easily done; twenty, is simply 2 - 0; fifty five, is simply 5 - 10 - 5. With the exchange rate of Vietnamese currency in the thousands against major world currencies, learning the words for thousands and millions are useful, too.

Questions:

Directions:
Vietnamese use the phrase ‘o dau’ to ask directions, preceded by the place they are looking for.
For example:

Accommodation:

Food:

Health:

Shopping:

Emergencies: