High Frequency Sino-Vietnamese Vocabulary: Top 100 Characters

Mark J. Alves Montgomery College Created January 18, 2016

Material overview: This document is aimed at helping those with Chinese language background
to learn written Vietnamese. The chart below is a list of 114 high frequency Sino-Vietnamese
syllables, t in Vietnamese and in Chinese (Mandarin z, Japanese ji, Korean ja). The syllables
were selected from the top 200 of over 14,000 syllables collected from a Vietnamese
newspaper corpus of about 850,000 words of text (Tang 2006). The list includes the following:
individual syllables (VIET), representative Chinese characters (CH), and examples of two-syllable
words that are in both languages (EX) and their Vietnamese Quc Ng spellings (QN). The
sample two-syllable words were selected based on my own judgment, but in general they are
common vocabulary in newspapers and similar type texts.
Learning application: Reviewing this vocabulary should help learners learn written Vietnamese
vocabulary and get a sense of the sound correspondences between Vietnamese and Chinese.
Some of the words do not require two-syllable samples as they are stand-alone words
themselves (e.g., tin "money" qin). Only simplified Chinese is provided in this text in the
interest of concise presentation. The user is encouraged to review this author's PowerPoint
handout "Learning Vietnamese for Those with Chinese Language Background" to see notes on
the sound correspondences of consonants, vowels, and especially tones.
Source: Tang, G. 2006. Corpora of Vietnamese Texts. Accessed: September 24,
2006. www.vnspeechtherapy.com/vi/CVT.
VIET
b

CH

EX

QN

an

an binh

kinh

bc kinh

th

ban dia

ban

ban dia

bo

bao chi

bi

bi

cc

cac

cao

cao

ch

ch

ch tao

chi

chin

chin tranh

tranh

chin tranh

ang

chinh ang

ba

chi

chnh

chinh phu

chu

chu quan

trng

chu trng

chc

chc nng

c hi

cng

cng cng

cng

cng nhn

cng ty

cp

cung cp

ai

ai hc

ao

ao c

cu

ia cu

iu

iu kin

do

i thoai

ng

ng hc

ng t

ng vt

d bao

ng

ng Triu

gia

gia inh

gi

gia tri

tri

gia tri

giai

giai thc

gio

giao s

Ha Ni

hng

hang khng

tai

hin tai

hin

hin tai

hoa

sinh

hc sinh

hp

hp phap

kt

kt qua

hc

khoa hc

do

hoa

kinh t

k quai

lin

lin lac

tip

lin tc

lut

lut s

lc

lc lng

m thut

nguyn

dn

nhn dn

nhn

nhn dn

nhn s

vin

nhn vin

nht

inh

nh

nh

nhng

nhng

ni

ng

php

phap lut

pht

phat hin

nhn

phu nhn

qua

qun i

quan

quan h

qun

qun s

quc

quc gia

hi

quc hi

quyn

quyn lc

quyt

quyt inh

san

san phm

s hc

thc

s thc

ti

tai chinh

gii

th gii

Nguyn

nht

nht inh

ni b
ng

qua

thi

thi nhn

thi

thi gian

thng

thng qua

thu

thu thut

thng

thng thng

tin

ton

toan b

tng

tng cng

thng

tng thng

trung

trung tm

tm

trung tm

trng

thnh

nhin

t nhin

vn

ng

vn ng

vn

vn hc

vi

vi tri

nam

Vit Nam

vit

Vit Nam

xut

xut hin

khng

hang khng

trong

trung quc

anh

anh hung

cch

hnh

hanh ng

t tin

tin

trng

trng thanh
t

cach