Pronunciation: Thanh ngang (mid-level tone) & Thanh huyền (low-falling tone)

After a long time teaching Vietnamese, we realize that saying correct tones is one of the biggest difficulties for most of our learners. Moreover, tones are of the top importance in Vietnamese. Words without tones may cause misunderstandings in communication.  We have a funny clip about that situation. (Click here to watch) In this lesson, we focus on differentiating “thanh ngang” (mid-level tone) and “thanh huyền” (low-falling tone)

Thanh ngang (Mid-level tone)

Mid-level tone starts at the middle of the normal speaking voice and remains stable when the word is pronounced.

For example:

Con ma                            –                          ha ha                                –                          lon bia

 

Thanh huyền (low-falling tone)

Low-falling tone begins just a bit lower than the normal speaking voice and fall down to the bottom when you finish pronouncing the word.

For example:

gà                                     –                          màu mè                            –                          đầu bò

COMPARISON

ma	mà
che	chè
phi	phì
thương	thường

Watch the video below for our pronunciation