what's the difference between dau hoi and dau nga?
I always struggle with my spelling with these two tone marks because they sound very similar. I know there is a difference but it's kind of hard to hear.
1 answer from our tutor
Best answer
Hello! The two can be hard to differentiate between for non-native speakers, especially when hearing people speak in the southern accent, because people do tend to sound the same (kind of like when Americans say "water" but the "t" sounds more like "d"). The tones follow the shape of the marks. For dấu hỏi, your voice goes up and comes down, like you're asking a question. Similarly for dấu ngã, your voice goes up and down (like asking a question), but then it goes back up a little. It kind of sounds like a mix between dấu hỏi and dấu sắc. When learning new words with these two dấu, try to read them out loud with accurate tones and practice them. This way you can remember how the words sound in order to spell them out correctly. If you are doing listening practices, remember what I mentioned above to differentiate the two.
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- What is something you would like to learn/improve on?
Các bạn muốn học/tiến bộ thêm những gì về tiếng Việt của mình? Let me know and I would love to have a lesson with you if I can help!
- Khi học tiếng Việt, các bạn thấy mình hay gặp những khó khăn gì?
Như muốn tìm hiểu thêm để Như biết được bằng cách nào mình có thể giúp các bạn! What are some struggles/difficulties you face when learning Vietnamese? I would love to learn more so I can understand what I can do to help!
Best answer
Hi Vincent, it's always good to improve on your speaking and aim to sound like a native speaker in any language. If you are asking about learning English, it is not necessary if you are just trying to learn for conversational purposes. Because English is widely spoken around the world, many people sound different speaking it. If you are trying to learn Vietnamese, pronouncing like a native is quite important. Vietnamese is a tonal language, and the words have strong accents, compare to other languages. Not pronouncing the words clearly can make it very hard to understand and very easy to miscommunicate meaning. I hope this helps!
