83 Comments
Is there any information on when a voice will be added? I feel studying such a complex tonal language without any sense of how to pronounce the words would be fruitless.
The team is working on this matter. They will add pronunciations for all words and sentences as soon as possible. In mean time, you may try http://forvo.com/ to listen to pronunciations from real Vietnamese people. Cheers!
You said as soon as possible, but when? 3 months have passed now since you said this:(
Lol, how do I know? I'm not part of the team. ;( They seem to have difficulties in finding someone whose voice and pronunciation is qualified for the course, I guess.
Hello, could you please tell us how accurate the Vietnamese robot's pronunciation is on Google translate?
Is it accurate enough for beginners to get an idea of how the alphabet sounds? the language looks so weird to me as a beginner :) with all the little added lines & dots everywhere.
Thanks.
Yes. The google translate voice is quite realistic. If you want to learn all of the sounds and spelling rules, I would recommend finding "Learn Vietnamese With Annie" on YouTube. She goes over all of the consonants, vowels, diphthongs, and spelling rules. Note that she has a South Vietnamese accent (meaning she pronounces d less like z and more like y, etc.) If you want the table of IPA pronunciations for each letter (in both Northern and Southern Vietnamese), refer to this article. Good luck learning Vietnamese!
I feel the same way. I don't know how you're supposed to pronounce it with out a voice guide. : (
Wow. I also put "I am a person".
Oh darn. I'm wrong, dd721411 is right, because there is no 'một' ('one' or 'a'). This language is going to require a whole new way of thinking.
I put "I am an human" and it was accepted, and "I'm a person" was also accepted when I retried.
[Edited] "I am a person" = someone with their own particular character - "Tôi là (một) (con) người" = ai đó với tính cách, suy nghĩ riêng của họ.
"I am (a) human" = "I am not an animal, a ghost or a machine"- "Tôi là (một) (con) người" = "Tôi không phải là (một) (con) thú vật, (con) ma, hay (cỗ) máy móc".
A bit complicated?
Tôi là người, anh là ma = I am human, you're a ghost (of a human but not a human).
Tôi là người, anh là mèo = I am human, you're a cat.
Technically a person is correct, but it doesn't give the "human being" aspect of it.
We do sometimes say "I'm a person, not a number on your spreadsheet." So I guess it does emphasize the "human-being" part of it.
D/d makes the same sound as the letter Z/z in English.
Đ/đ is similar to the English letter D/d, except the sound should be made with your tongue and the roof of your mouth, not your tongue and the back of your teeth.
Ok, for the beginning of my learning, I will consider English D = Vietnamese D, it would be simpler.
Anyway, the only d I'm able to do the right way are French D.
As 'IAmCalumBlack' said, "D/d makes the same sound as the letter Z/z in English" , but only in Northern accent.
In Southern accent, you pronounce <D/d> as /j/ in English (young, yard, university, etc.) or <ll> in Spanish (ella, llave, amarillo, etc.)
And for the part "I will consider English D = Vietnamese D, it would be simpler.", it's a big NO-NO. You may pronounce <Đ> as <D> in English but the sound would be too strong and funny. Think about <Đ> as the tapping <T> in American English (letter, better, butter, etc). They're not exactly the same but I think it's fine to pronounce <Đ> that way.
Ans as "y" or "ill" in french? (Because French is the only language I can prononce very well)
Yeah, French y/ill is ok for D from what I've been told and what I've heard.
And to me the northern accent D sounds just like a French "Z", but I'm not sure.
I really wish we had voice here, I don't think I'll be able to do anything without it :/ but I understand it's not an easy thing to do.
I don't know French so I have no idea how you would pronounce "y" or "ill". But I think you know how to pronounce "y" in the English "you", right? 'd' in Vietnamese sounds like 'y' in 'you'. ;)
The pronunciation of a few words is correct after the north vietnamese accent. However, the sentences sound a bit ''disrupted'' like each word is pronounced by itself not in the flow of the sentence. The pronunciation sounds overall correct to me. I am by the way a vietnamese who grew up outside of Vietnam and who wants to freshen up and learn more vocabulary and grammar.
In "Tôi là người. Can someone explain me the accent? I guess it's tonal like Chinese? (ô, à, ờ) But for ư and ờ, the coma like accent?
Yes, Vietnamese is a tonal language. (`) is one of the diacritics. 'ô, i, a, ư, ơ' are vowels.
I believe there's a brief note of the alphabet and the accents at the beginning of the course. :)
I would have translate this by "I am", because: - I don't think English ppl will say "I am human". Or it will be in a very specific context. - also, in Vietnamese, when you say "Toi la nguoi dang ong", we translate this by "I am a man" and not "I am a man kind of human specie"... Please can someone comment my thinking?
But what is the difference between "Toi la nguoi dang ong" and "Toi la dang ong"?
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Dude, I think it must be "Tôi là người ĐÀN ông". Hope you enjoy learning Vietnamese. :))
But we don't have this keyboard yet. They accept "D" as a transliteration for "Đ".
Why "Toi la dan ong" is "I am A man" but "Toi la nguoi" is "I am human" and not "I am A human" ?
@PERCE_NEIGE: Yep. http://tratu.coviet.vn/hoc-tieng-anh/tu-dien/lac-viet/V-A/ng%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Di.html
@FishyLicious: I think Tôi là người can be translated as both 'I am HUMAN' ('human' is an adjective) and 'I am A HUMAN' ('human' is a noun).
this doesn't help me at all because i need to know how to say it, i can't get any help with this at all.
A lot! You can look up translations for each word at: http://tratu.coviet.vn/hoc-tieng-anh/tu-dien/lac-viet/V-A/t%C3%B4i.html , https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/t%C3%B4i or https://vi.wiktionary.org/wiki/t%C3%B4i#Ti.E1.BA.BFng_Vi.E1.BB.87t
why is this the very first thing I am supposed to translate when you show me only man and woman? Am I supposed to get it wrong? Its the third damn question
Maybe that's what the team's real intention: you'll remember a word much longer when you get it wrong the very first time :D
you can copy and paste this sentense on google translate or just make new friend with a vietnamese. he/she can help you practice
So i just started to learn the language and i don't if it's my computer or the system but the audio isn't working.
why in the first lesson its asking me to translate this. First it asked me which picture is the women and which is the man and then this. Translate.
Any updates on adding the sound? It's really hard for me to connect with the language without the audio.
Why is there no pronunciation? How on earth could you expect to learn the language without hearing it? What a joke.
They seem to be putting a voice on some of the exercises, but it would be nice if they would add the Vietnamese letters underneath when we are supposed to type Vietnamese like they have in Spanish and Portuguese.
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Morning to you all at Duolingo. Your program is amazing. On the other hand, is it really that hard to find a Vietnamese speaker? I am the boss of a lot of Vietnamese people and only 1 speaks English which makes it hard. I have tried and waited for almost a year for this to have a voice and still nothing. Please push for this. It can help a lot of people in the future. Thank you very much.
Hello, there is still no voiceover for pronunciation. Honestly, the course is rather poor quality without any voice; comparable to a beta version, rather than a fully fledged course. It has been 2 years since the original question was posed: when will there be a voiceover added? Please advise.
A useful phrase if zombie apocalypse happens and I get stranded in Vietnam
I think doulingo is the best I have already learned Spanish and i am on my way to learn this language
