Learn the bricks. Build your sentences.
Instead of memorising lists of phrases, you learn reusable words and the rules that put them together. You build, transform and listen to sentences you have never seen before.
Six families of bricks
Every word comes with its phonetic transcription (IPA, Hanoi accent), its audio and a meaning in context. The tone of each syllable is marked.
The pronoun depends on the age of the speakers and their relationship (anh, chị, em, cô…). In the demo, bạn serves as a neutral “you”.
Verbs never change: tôi uống, cô ấy uống, chúng tôi uống.
No articles, no gender, no plural. The place follows the verb directly: đi nhà hàng.
không goes before the verb to make it negative; a yes/no question wraps around the verb: có … không.
The rules for putting bricks together. Nothing is glued word for word.
Six tones, marked by accents. The tone is part of the word: ma, má and mạ are three different words.
The same bricks, everywhere
At a restaurant, on the move or meeting someone new, a few bricks are enough to make yourself understood.
Where is Vietnamese spoken?
Vietnamese was born in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam before spreading south as far as the Mekong Delta; it is the country’s official language. Since the colonial period, and above all after 1975, emigration has formed large communities in the United States, France, Australia and Canada, and others have grown up in Central Europe and East Asia.
- Vietnam — homeland: the Red River Delta
- France — Paris, a community dating from the colonial period
- Czechia — recognized national minority since 2013
- United States — Little Saigon, Orange County (California)
- Canada — Montreal and Toronto
- Australia — Sydney and Melbourne
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Taiwan
- South Korea
- Japan
Homeland or official language Community · Approximate positions. Natural Earth.
The sentence builder
Every combination is checked against the grammar. Bricks marked ≠ don’t go with your choice: pick them to find out why.
Fifteen minutes a day
Adjustable from 5 to 30 minutes. Missing a day costs you nothing: your progress waits for you.
Eight weeks of discovery
A path, not a promise of a level. Each week targets a skill you can see for yourself.
Six tones, a Latin alphabet.
Vietnamese is written in Latin letters, with marks for the vowels and for the six tones. Spelling is regular: once you know the marks, every syllable is read the way it is written.
Learn the tones and soundsLearning Vietnamese with KilaTalk
What is KilaTalk, and what does learning “by construction” mean?
KilaTalk is a language-learning app. Instead of memorising lists of phrases, you learn reusable words — people, actions, things, places — and the rules that put them together, then you build, transform and listen to your own sentences.
Do I need an account? Is it free?
The sentence builder and the method, pronunciation and reading pages are open to everyone, with no account. The eight-week course, reviews and your word list require an account, which is free to create.
How much time does it take each day, and what is in the eight-week course?
A session lasts fifteen minutes, adjustable from 5 to 30: the day’s reviews, new bricks, sentences to build and a listening task. The eight weeks go from the first sounds to real-life dialogues, through negation, questions, numbers and polite requests; it is a discovery path, not a promise of a level.
How is pronunciation taught?
Every word and sentence has audio you can play at normal speed or slowly (0.5×, without distorting the voice). Words come with a transcription suited to the language: pinyin for Mandarin, Yale romanisation for Cantonese, rōmaji for Japanese, Revised Romanization for Korean, the International Phonetic Alphabet for Vietnamese and most European languages, and a transliteration for Russian.
Which languages can I learn from?
The interface is available in six languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and French. Explanations and translations are written for each of them, with comparisons drawn from the learner’s own language.
Who is behind KilaTalk, and can I trust the sentences?
KilaTalk is designed and published by SDiTech, a software publisher based in France. Every sentence in the builder is checked by a grammar engine: a combination that doesn’t work is refused, with the rule explained and correct alternatives offered.
Lay your first brick.
Choose your goal and your pace, and the first lesson starts straight away.