Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning. Although some languages use pitch to express emotion, to emphasise, to compare or contrast ideas, tones in Vietnamese are used to distinguish words.  That means the very tone attached to each word can fundamentally change the meaning of that word. Tonal phonemes in Vietnamese are called tonemes.

For example, one word with exactly the same spelling with a rising tone conveys a completely different meaning from similar word with a low – broken tone.

As a result, in learning Vietnamese, it is very crucial that the learner must try to memorise all the tones, how to pronounce them and write the tone correctly.

If the learners try to memorise the words in Romanised version (as in Lonely Planet), it may help the learner a bit in the first few weeks, but will not help in the long run. When the learner cannot remember to record the tones in the writing system, it is also very difficult for him/her to recollect the pronunciation and how to say the word correctly.

As each change in the tone will carry a different meaning of the word, the incorrect tone will seriously affect the meaning and the listeners’ comprehension of a sentence.

Therefore, always remember to memorise your tones if you want to learn Vietnamese seriously and not for a few weeks just to survive in the country 😉