fsck.vmap

These are the major "gotchas" of the Vietnamese alphabet I have come across. 1. An ơ is not an o is not an ô The o and ô are both rounded vowels (lips pursed). The ơ, on the other hand, is unrounded. It's position is more front than the other two. That is, the tongue is placed further toward the front of the mouth. The difference between the o and the ô is that the o is pronounced with the tongue further down. As tongue and mouth usually move in unison, that means the mouth is also more open when pronouncing the o vs. the ô. Similarly, a, ă and â are quite deceiving. The rule that appears to be most commonly taught is that ă is a short a and â is a short ơ. But this may not be entirely accurate. Certainly in the Southern dialect, the â sounds different from an ơ, at least to my ears. However, I have only found contradicting claims during my online research so far. Perhaps, it depends on the dialect. 2. Implosives Đ/b at the beginning of a word as well as c/ch/p/t at the e...

Both thì and là can be used in similar ways to mean "if...then". According to my understanding, the difference is that thì can be understood as an abbreviated form of nếu...thì. On the other hand, là is a short form of cứ...là. The former is the standard way to say "if...then", while the latter means something more along the lines of "every time (something happens) (something else also happens)". So, thì is more likely to be a specific case, while là is more general. These short forms often appear in short sentences, sometimes just connecting two verbs. If I'm not mistaken, là can also mean "as soon as" (see the last example). Examples Thích thì ăn đi! If you like it, eat it! Hứng lên là xách xe đi luôn Every time I feel like it, I hop on my bike and go (traveling) Thích là lấy If I like (someone), I will get married straight away