Type Vietnamese
A regular keyboard has no dedicated tone-mark keys — you type letters (Telex) or digits (VNI) to add them. This page covers the full key table for both styles, with examples. Either style works, and you can switch anytime (the menu-bar menu or Settings → Typing).
General principles
Type the letters first, the tone mark after: finish typing the letters of a syllable, then add the tone-mark key — a tone-mark key placed at the end of the word still lands in the right place (typing hoaf or hofa both give "hoà").
Repeating a tone-mark key undoes it. Typed the wrong tone? Type the same key again: the tone mark disappears and the letter appears as-is. For example las gives "lá"; typing s again gives "las". This is also how you naturally type English words: tree briefly becomes "trê", but finishing with e gives you "tree" back.
To remove just the tone mark (keeping the letters): Telex types z, VNI types 0.
Telex table
Type letters to add marks. Tones: s f r x j; letter marks: double the vowel, or use w, dd.
| Type | Get | Example |
|---|---|---|
| s | sắc (rising tone) | las → lá |
| f | huyền (falling tone) | laf → là |
| r | hỏi (dipping-rising tone) | lar → lả |
| x | ngã (creaky rising tone) | lax → lã |
| j | nặng (heavy tone) | laj → lạ |
| aa ee oo | â, ê, ô | caan → cân; vieejt → việt |
| w | ă (after a), ơ (after o), ư (after u); on its own → ư | trawng → trăng; mow → mơ; tuw → tư |
| w with the uo cluster | ươ (auto-completes the whole pair) | thuongw → thương; dduwowngf → đường |
| dd | đ | ddi → đi |
| z | remove tone mark | lasz → la |
iGo auto-completes ư + o into "ươ" (typing nguwoif gives "người") — no need to type w twice.
VNI table
Type digits to add marks. Tones: 1–5; letter marks: 6 7 8 9; remove tone: 0.
| Type | Get | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | sắc (rising tone) | la1 → lá |
| 2 | huyền (falling tone) | la2 → là |
| 3 | hỏi (dipping-rising tone) | la3 → lả |
| 4 | ngã (creaky rising tone) | la4 → lã |
| 5 | nặng (heavy tone) | la5 → lạ |
| 6 | dấu mũ (circumflex: â, ê, ô) | can6 → cân; viet65 → việt |
| 7 | dấu móc (horn: ơ, ư); uo cluster → ươ | mo7 → mơ; thuong7 → thương |
| 8 | ă | trang8 → trăng |
| 9 | đ | di9 → đi |
| 0 | remove tone mark | la10 → la |
Repeating a digit also undoes it, just like Telex: la11 gives "la1".
Try typing a phrase
Telex: Tieengs Vieejt → Tiếng Việt
VNI: Tieng61 Viet65 → Tiếng Việt
A tone-mark key typed at the end of the word still lands in the right place — no need to type it right after the vowel.
Tips
You don't need to turn off the typing engine when mixing in English: when iGo mistakenly applies a tone mark, typing that same key again restores the original letters (e.g. tree self-corrects this way).
The "hoà" vs. "hòa" tone-mark placement can be changed on the Typing page (the Old-style tone placement setting).
Toggle Vietnamese typing on/off quickly with its own shortcut.