The six tones, and the keys that make them
In Vietnamese the tone mark is not an accent on a letter. It is part of the word, and leaving it off produces a different word or no word at all.
Drill the tones · free accountCreate a free account to open Fire Force.What each mark does
| Mark | Name | Sound | Telex | VNI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| á | sắc | rising | s | 1 |
| à | huyền | falling | f | 2 |
| ả | hỏi | dipping, asking | r | 3 |
| ã | ngã | broken, rising | x | 4 |
| ạ | nặng | heavy, dropping | j | 5 |
The sixth tone is the unmarked one, called ngang — level and mid. Southern speech merges hỏi and ngã into one sound, but writing keeps them apart, so a learner still has to know which word takes which.
Telex in one paragraph
Type the base letter, then the tone key: as → á, af → à, ar → ả, ax → ã, aj → ạ. Letter variants come from doubling or w: aa → â, aw → ă, ee → ê, oo → ô, ow → ơ, uw → ư, dd → đ. So nguwowif produces người. It looks alien for a day and then disappears into your fingers.
Why the game waits for you
Because Telex builds a letter over several keystrokes, the game does not count a keystroke wrong until the sequence can no longer become a valid target. You get to type a, then w, then s and land on ắ without being punished halfway.