Updated 07-22-10. You need only read a few of my posts on this site and you’ll understand my passion for pho. I take my pho seriously. And personally, I’m not one to make fun at my favorite, beloved and respected chow. Certainly not in substance, not in name, and definitely not in pronunciation.
Fuh? foe? FO? Fu-uuuuuhh? PhuUUH? What the P…? Well, you will find no funny stuff here. On the other hand, pronouncing “pho” can be challenging if you don’t have the correct pho pronunciation to go by.
Use your favorite search engine and you’ll find various ways that people suggest how to pronounce pho. If you care and search long enough you’ll discover one or two ways to say “pho” getting propagated by many people. Well guess what, regardless of how widely spread and popular these Internet versions are, and how well-intentioned the individuals may be, these “pho” versions are incorrect pronunciation.
Since my goal aims to stop further proliferation of such ‘slanderous’ treatment of my favorite noodle dish called pho, I won’t mention them here to further the butchering of the word. Instead I’ll offer the following for your reading (and listening) enlightenment.
First let’s set the record straight. I’m not a hard-liner. I believe in freedom and capitalism as the next sensible person. But I think we can all do better with pho pronunciation. It’s not difficult, and with minimal effort, proper guidance/demonstration and practice, you’ll impress a Vietnamese-speaking person or enjoy watching him/her in shock with such unexpected fluency and command of the language and your knowledge of the dish. Yes, no more “f…” or “ph…”, or whatever. So here goes.
Wikipedia correctly makes a distinction between Vietnamese and English versions of written and pronunciation of pho. That is not to say that it is necessarily acceptable or there is nothing more to it. Granted, written words and their pronunciations in other languages have been “Americanized” before (read ‘butchered’,) so this is nothing new. But in this global economy it’s probably a good thing to try saying non-English words as correctly as possible. Hey anything to help foster international friendship and understanding, right? And when it involves “pho“, it’s even more important to pho lovers and newbies alike.
So, using the International Phonetic Alphabet, the Wiki explains that Phở is pronounced phonetically as [fə̃ː] which sounds like this:
“Pho” pronunciation from Wikipedia.
Below are my own versions. There are differences which will be explained below. Both wiki’s and my versions are correct pronunciation.
Normal speech.
Slower speech.
Note: the Wikipedia pronunciation is from a Southern Vietnamese speaker, whereas my pronunciation has both Southern and Northern accents, with probably a 40-60% (South-North) influence. Also I deliberately accentuate to demonstrate the different sounds that exist in the word. Both are phonetically correct and legitimate pronunciation of the word phở.
Sometime a single sound doesn’t really do justice. So below are a few additional phrases with proper pronunciation of “pho” in conversational usage so you get a better sense of the word “pho” and its inflections. You should be able to identify “pho” with no trouble. But more importantly you can now identify “pho” even when spoken in Vietnamese. Try numbers 3 and 4 below.
1. “Let’s go have some pho today.”
2. “I had pho with a friend this past weekend.”
3. “Let’s meet for pho at about 8 tonight” in Vietnamese.
4. “How is your beef pho?” in Vietnamese, to lady friend.
There. It’s pretty easy isn’t it?
Well there is another challenge. North, Central or South Vietnamese accents. Encountering one when you’re familiar with another can throw you off, but that’s for another post. I can tell you one thing, of the two Vietnamese phrases above, one is Northern and the other, Southern accent. Can you tell which is which? If you promise not to cheat, take this poll below, and the answer is at the end of this article.
I hope that if you enjoy eating pho and care about this noodle dish (and who doesn’t after the first bowl?), please pass on the proper pronunciation, or maybe gently correct a friend who has been misled. Better yet point them to this post so they can experience the recordings above themselves.
So what variety of pho pronunciation have you encountered? Share your views with us with a comment below.
By the way if you need help with Vietnamese pronunciation or would like some guidance or even request help, head on over to read my post on “Pronunciation of Pho and Other Vietnamese Words and Phrases,” and leave a request.
#3: Southern Vietnamese accent
#4: Northern Vietnamese accent
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Making me look bad there Cuongis. This is a killer post!
Thanks Tim. Hopefully this will help other lost souls find pho nirvana. Hey Mr. Chicken pho! you skipped the poll! Should have taken a crack for the fun of it.
Pho Saigon is my favorite pho restaurant so far. There are still many more restaurants I need to try in town before I can pass judgement. I could eat pho every day. Thanks for visiting my blog.
@Croix82. Thanks for dropping a comment. I’ll have to try Pho Saigon if/when I get to Houston (last time there myself was, let’s see, in the late 80′s!) Anyway keep up your interesting blog and enjoy pho. You’re in the hotbed of pho outside of Vietnam and CA:)
what confused me is the similarity of vietnamese to thai and cambodian, and in thai a “PH” is pronounced like a “P” as in Phuket or “Poo-ket” and just a “P” is pronounced “B” as in Pai or “Bye”
Naturally I assumed, that the “ph” in Pho was pronounced like the “ph” in Phuket, like a letter “p” and i guess this is not so, and I think that’s strange.
@markon. Interesting point and dilemma you have. Though if you look at it closely, Vietnamese language is much different from Thai and Cambodian. I think Viet is much more different from the other 2 languages than English is different from French, for example. Or saying it another way, English is more similar to French than Viet is similar to Thai and Cambodian.
So the “ph” in pho is pronounced like an “f” and in Viet language there is no word that begins with “p” alone; has to be “ph”. The Western or Roman alphabets are only representation of what these languages really sound. In the end I guess you’ll just have to know the convention. Like the “f” and “v” sound in Volkswagen
I’ve actually come across some Americans who have corrected my pronunciation. I pronounce it like #3. The Americans I have spoken with swear that their Vietnamese friends have told them that it is pronounced PHO as in the American “fo”. I am Lao and grew up with pho in our house. My mom is fluent in a few languages including Vietnamese and she pronounces it like #3. So I picked that up from her. I have never had anyone, including Vietnamese, correct my pronunciation. I’ve actually been complimented. I have posted this on my Facebook. Hopefully, this will settle the argument. Hopefully.
dvlachos: Thanks for sharing this story. I think a Laotian should have no problem pronouncing Viet, and vice versa. On more than one occasion I have tried to explain to an American friend the following facts.
Many Vietnamese, both young and old, and especially those more fluent in English, in an effort to assimilate themselves in American life, have deliberately pronounced Vietnamese words incorrectly while teaching their American friends how to say Viet words (using an American accent no less!) This is because of the following reasons: 1) it’s easier for Americans to learn, 2) it takes less time to teach (instead of repeating 20 times and still not getting it,) and 3) it doesn’t make them sound foreign. As many can attest, not sounding foreign in the U.S. is the way to get accepted.
This seemingly innocent practice has actually caused lots of misunderstanding and confusion about how Vietnamese words are pronounced, and you guessed it, pho included. It’s quite bad to the point that some of these Vietnamese even avoid speaking Vietnamese in the presence of Americans. I’m sure you have experienced similar situations.
How about fa, as in do re me fa so la tee doe..the music scale? Is this closer?
JimH, thanks for the question, but the pronunciation is as demonstrated above.
FINALLY someone who knows what the hell they’re talking about AND provides an audio file to boot!! Thank you!
Santiago: Thanks for visiting and your kind words. Glad you found the pho audio files useful.
For those who lack speakers, it is pronounced “phaw,” as in “paw” or “raw.”
Dear GB: Thanks for the help, but regretfully your method contributes to the misinformation that is rampant on the Internet. “phaw” is not the pronunciation of phở. In fact it’s not even close. The purpose of the audio files on this site is to provide readers a way to hear how the words should be pronounced correctly. Any other methods, including your suggestion, using similarly pronounced English words would be lacking to say the least.
So there’s a restaurant in my town named Pho King. Am I to understand that it is actually pronounced “f[edited]?” Because that’s pretty hilarious to me.
Hi Holly: you’re on your own with this one. Personally I think the owner of this pho chain should have a little more respect for what many consider VIetnam’s national dish to the world.
I agree with you, Cuong. Do you think I should demand to speak to the Pho King manager? I just can’t believe anyone would show such blatant disrespect for Vietnamese cuisine. I won’t be able to eat another Pho King meal without thinking about this travesty. I mean, honestly. It’s a Pho King disgrace!
Don’t worry, Cuong. I’ll take care of this matter as soon as I can. When I storm in there with both guns blazing, those Pho King morons won’t know what hit them!
Sorry Holly to hear you have such strong feelings about such nonsense, and you’ve made your point.
I am Vietnamese and we at my home have always pronounced it pho, like foeh.
Hi phozy: Thanks for your sharing your pronunciation of pho. My personal feeling, and still my original intent of this article, is to let people hear what it sounds like, because when one tries to show others how it should sound using words like “foeh”, it really does not help. Many people would pronounce “foeh” as “phooey” I would guess, which is no where near what phở should sound like.
After listening to the pronunciation, and if you know Romanian, I would say it’s said “Fă”
Hi Fă Fă: I’ll take your word for it. Not sure what “Fă” means though. Care to enlighten us?
Thanks very much for this. I was saying it ALL wrong!
Hi Sue: You’re very welcome. Of course Vietnamese is not the easiest language to learn, but the important thing is one tries to say it correctly. I’m glad to be of help.
Just think of the English word “fur” and say it in a confused manner (but don’t over-pronounce the ‘r’). That should be the rough pronunciation.
Hi Kẻ Không Tên: thanks for sharing your comment. Yes i would say that’s pretty rough pronunciation. How about just listen to the recordings? They’re more accurate and useful than any textual description anyway.
Lol, and if you know IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet), it is [fə̃ː]
Hi Kẻ Không Tên: IPA is fine, but the purpose of this article is to let people hear the pronunciation, plus IPA does not take into account differences in northern and southern accents.
Thanks very much for the audio files! As a linguist and speaker of 4 languages (Mandarin included), I find that translations into or using English letters or sounds can be challenging. (I also encountered this issue when learning pinyin.) One thing that I felt would be helpful for non-Viet speakers to know is the tones. It sounded like in the audio files that one Viet speaker used a tonal but the other didn’t, or it was hardly noticeable. Again, that may go back to what you were saying about North and South accents. I would say the closest English phonetic spelling would be “fuh” with a falling and then a slight rising tone. PLEASE correct me if that is not accurate. Thanks again, Cuong, for this post!!!
Hi Samantha: I think you are absolutely right. The tones are one of the most difficult but important factors for Westerners to learn to speak Chinese and Vietnamese, among other Asian languages.
Viet language requires tonal inflections to give correct pronunciation, but the majority of Western speakers do not have tonal training or even a concept of tonal inflection, which includes cadence, rhythm, accent, pitch, etc. I personally have no problem with the IPA system or doing the “fuh” or “fur” thing, but these do not convey the tones in anyway, which I estimate to be up to 75% of constituting to correct pronunciation. For phở, they’re definitely at least two tones, lower then rising. This is why I provided a slow version so people can hear the two tones. The southern accent has two tones, the northern accent has mostly the down tone without picking up.
Because the English language does not have such tonal variations, there is the following dynamic occurring. I’ve witnessed Vietnamese speakers teaching English speakers to pronounce a Viet word, but in the process of explaining the word during the conversation (of course the two are conversing in English,) the Viet speaker inadvertently pronounced the Viet word with an English accent, thus pronouncing the word incorrectly. This is because when speaking English it is not easy to suddenly change tone for just one word, then complete the rest of the sentence in English. Unaware of this, the English speaker took that as the correct pronunciation. This is how incorrect pronunciation spread widely, and the English speaker claimed that he heard it directly from a Vietnamese.
So the bottom line? I won’t correct you Samantha, because I can’t hear how you may pronounce it yourself
but one thing is for sure: since you are a linguist and speak 4 languages, I trust that you know what you are doing. Awareness is key to much of this, and I think you have it.
By the way, the recordings are all my own voice. I can’t claim to be 100% perfect, but can you clarify your comment about some “audio files have a tonal but the other didn’t, or was hardly noticeable?” If you can point to some examples, I will surely check for any problem that may exist. Thanks!
Thanks for your response, Cuong. I just meant that to the untrained ear, the tones might be missed all together or dismissed as simply part of the background noise that comes along with English speaking. I heard them….however, as awful as it may sound, making the tonals much more pronounced (as it was in the one audio file) might make it easier for untrained ears to pick it up faster and accurately. All speakers tend to modify their speech when speaking to someone in a foreign tongue i.e. English speakers slowing down, speaking louder, enunciating more exaggeratedly. I thought your audio files were great and wanted to express my appreciation for them. I just thought maybe drawing more attention to the tonal aspect of the language and to certain words might make it easier to explain to some WHY its so important to say them correctly…and HOW to do it.
Great post.
Hi Samantha: Thanks for the good words. I’ll definitely take your suggestions into account for future recordings, and probably will go back to redo some existing ones to improve quality.
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