Hello Friend!
My name is Audrey Nguyễn, but I’m not Vietnamese. I changed my last name to Nguyễn after getting married to my husband, Huy, who is from Vietnam. When I first met him, I had NO IDEA how to pronounce his last name. I figured I’d better learn quickly since it was going to eventually be MY name.
Today I wanted to share a quick video and guide on how to pronounce the Vietnamese last name “Nguyễn”. You might be like me and are marrying into a Vietnamese family, have Vietnamese friends, or actually BE VIETNAMESE but learning Vietnamese as a second language.
I have literally heard all the variations of ways people incorrectly pronounce the name Nguyễn. In graduate school my professor couldn’t say my last name so when he did roll call he would call everybody else’s last name and when he got to me he would just say my first name or say “Nyun!”. 🤣
Nguyễn is really difficult to pronounce for English speakers, but it’s not impossible! So before I explain, here is a video of me saying the name correctly. You can watch it a few times and read the explanation below.
How To Correctly Pronounce The Vietnamese Last Name “Nguyễn”
Now let me break it down for you…
Ng — say the word “king”. Now practice saying the “ng” part of king by itself. This is the first part.
U — the “u” is pronounced like “ooo” so pretty simple. Try saying the “ng” with the “u” so it sounds like “ngoo”. Hehe, you just said “ngu” which means stupid. 😅
Yên — this part is pronounced like the name “Ian”. Don’t let the accent over the “e” scare you. Put “Ngu” and “Ian” together. You have to say it without pausing. Starting to make sense?
Falling tone — you can see there is a cute little squiggle over Nguyễn. That accent mark is called “ngã” which literally means “to fall”. Words with this accent will make a quick rise and dip on the sound with the accent above it.
The falling tone is probably the hardest part of pronouncing Nguyễn so if you can say Nguyên that is already amazing! If you are trying to impress your Vietnamese in-laws, then just making the effort to try and pronounce Vietnamese names correctly will go a long way!
If you are an English speaker and are terrified of all of the accents and pronouncing things wrong — don’t be!! The only way you will be able to learn Vietnamese and improve your pronunciation and accent is by actually trying to speak Vietnamese!!
Trust me, I know exactly how you feel. I was so worried I would make a mistake that the first time I traveled to Vietnam, I was pretty quiet. I did have a moment where I tried to call my father-in-law “dad” which is “bố” in Vietnamese, and I ended up saying “bò” which means cow or beef. We laugh about it now but in the moment when it happened I was mortified!
How was my explanation on how to pronounce Nguyễn? Did it help? Let me know if you want more Vietnamese lessons like this!
Thanks for reading!
Read next: 10 Ways To Impress Your Vietnamese In-Laws
xo
Mother of Fawn