Pronunciation tip: Nguyen 

"A thiNG WE INtend to do!" - *mindblowing*. Well said, sir!

"A thing we intend to do" ... That - that's brillant

This video is great. Your frank teaching style is awesome. Thank you for sharing. Apparently I was butchering my friend's last name for years!

As a kiwi, I felt proud that he used 2 māori words at the end, “Ngaire” and “Ngati whatua”

Mind blown. Now I know how to say this last name correctly at work. Thank you so much for making this video.

The only video that made me actually understand how to say it.

very clever!! i love it! subscribed! i'm a huge fan of language and you clearly know what you're talking about so i look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

Thank you! I'm trying to give someone credit in a podcast...I was practicing my script and had a dead stop once I tried to pronounce his name. I wanted to make sure I gave this man his praise properly.

Love you bruh! I'm Maori and you just made my day saying Ngati Whatua!🤣🤣🤣 Chur to the Chur. 💛💛💛

As a Filipino, we have NG included in our alphabet so it's also easy for us. I wonder if it's also included in other asian countries alphabet.

Phonomenally clear, thank you!

Such a help!! Thanks James. Love your attitude to life.

" a thing we intend to do" I DOD NOT EXPECT THAT THATS AMAZING THANKS!!

THank you for the lesson. You thought on us on multiple levels.

Come to think of it, most Asian languages are pretty straightforward. I have always pronounced Nguyen the way you did. And I am from Malaysia. But most Vietnamese-American here pronounced it in different ways including “When” or “Win.” But I believe that “ngu” should be pronounced especially considering it’s a an Asian language where we don’t really silent anything.

Incredible-this guy knows what he's talking about, and I'm impressed XD What a great trick for pronouncing Nguyen!

I actually like it when people are creative with it. :)) I should start collecting how people pronounce or write it wrong just for entertaining reasons.

Thank you so much. It's important to me to be able to pronounce people's names and I've struggled with Nguyen. I know many people anglicise its pronunciation to "make it easier" but that's just meant I've heard 5 different variations. I loved your phonetics and phonology differentiation. Any tips for finding the word among other words to help with learning pronunciation?

0:35 I've heard "Engine", haha.

I always pronounced it Nuh-goy-en as a kid back in the 60s watching the war on television and reading the newspapers.

That "a thing we intend to do" tripped me out lol

As a person with this last name, I would be perfectly content if an English speaker were to pronounce my name like "win". I don't really expect them at all to nail the right accent and tone.

This was very understandable to me, I appreciate your video.

There's a Nguyen at work and pronouncing her name correctly is really a thing I intend to do.

@1:10 you're welcome everyone.

Now let's talk about standard English as spoken by southerners, New Yorkers, New Jersey, Californians, etc. I've read 200 comments by people named Nguyen in two different tubes. I'm going with....nwin. One syllable and I fucking TRIED. So there.

I've been teaching my American friends pretty much the same way. When they see the first 2 letters NG, they get thrown off right away. And then, I told them that if they can say riNGiNG, siNGiNG, or any present participle English word, then, they certainly can say Nga (my name) and Nguyen. It takes seconds and most of the time, they could say it correctly on the 1st try. It's truly quite simple.

In the Delta Region of Vietnam the name Nguyen us pronounced win. That was my wife's last name until we married. Ciao!

I'm a HKer. Cantonese have the velar nasal (ng) in the front of syllables too!!! But most modern ppl are too lazy to pronounce it and just drop it instead:(

Thanks for helping us. I have to laugh at native English speakers who can't pronounce my surname correctly. It's Freestone...just free + stone but they yell out Fress-stun at the chemist and doctors. So, I think most English speakers have incredible amounts of fear over pronouncing family names.

this is the most accurate pronunciation so far. thanks for this video

I study Chinese. Which is a tonal language. When want to ask Nguyen something you say Nguyen? That asking tone is how it has to sound always. The tone is part of his name and never changes.

Don't know if this is accurate way to say it, but as i was watching other videos about the pronunciation, what was tripping me up was the "ng".. I just couldn't figure it out, but your tip worked!! I can say it now!

This has and will withstand the tests of time say that 5× fast if you've learned anything 🤣

My life has been a lie

you blew my mind! thanks a lot sir. :D

THANK YOU SIR.

I kinda admire your effort but here the nightmares: NGUYÊN # NGUYỄN # NGUYỆN # NGUYỀN # NGUYẾN # NGUYỂN. Sometimes youtube cannot show it correctly, you guys can copy those words into google translate and let the fun begin. P/S: I know own language is kinda weird but its kinda simple when you grab the basic tone, and from that you can read pretty much it.

More accurate than most overseas vietnamese that thinks its pronounced when. you just forgot the small higer pitch ngã tone :)

That was awesome and hilarious!

you...you covered your face up with NGUYEN in big white letters when you pronounced it! both times! i am a lipreader >.

Thank you! This is amazing(uyen)!

This is similar to the process of learning to pronounce the つ sound in Japanese. Many are people are tricked by the idea that because TS sounds only occur at the ends of words in English phonology, English speakers can't pronounce them at the beginning of words. All it takes to overcome this is repeating a phrase like "bats Uber" or something

Wow! Your pronunciation is right on. I love Nu-gen though.

Wow! Thank you 🙏🎀👍

Awesome thanks 😊 🙏 👍

THANK YOU SIR! Finally I can say it!

Yeah good ol' Phonetics / Phonology / Orthography butting into our consciousness. I grew up in Ngāti Whātua rohe btw 🙂

"I've heard nuyen but it's actually nuyen"

Dang U just explained 2 things to me . HOW TO pronounce my friend NGUYEN'S name (almost new yen (currency) .And the mental thing: What happened to Nancy Pelosi thinking she said:do the dirty laundry. And why she cannot get anyone else to do the dirty laundry. She heard it: Do as I think I'm saying, not as I'm saying to do? 🥴🤣🤯😜🤪

This pronunciation is very likely not 100% authentic (I dont know any Vietnamese - I am just responding to others' comments) but this video offers a clever way of using sounds familiar to any English speaker to get a close approximation. Learning the correct intonation is not really useful unless you are actually learning to speak Vietnamese (as opposed to learning to pronounce one Vietnamese name), since it would be confusing in an English context. English has its own system of intonation, playing a completely different linguistic role from that of Vietnamese and throwing in a word with its own inherent intonation is likely to interfere with English prosody, sounding, for example, like a question is being asked, or like an expression of surprise, disappointment etc.. The toneless pronuncation offered in this video sounds sufficiently unlike any English word, I think, to be recognisable to anyone bearing the name - and also corresponds sufficiently well to the spelling for an English speaker to get their head round.

Hello Jim. In Bob McNamara's book he spells Vietnam, Vietnihm or similar. Can you explain?

Well done

You rule dude, thank you!

This is a good video, I just wish it explained how the velar nasal is its own consonant in a more explicit way (especially as opposed to using the alveolar nasal during the pronunciation).

Nguyen, a Chinese-based family name used by a royal dynasty dating from around the 11th century, is estimated by some to be used by around 40 percent of the total population of Vietnam. In 19th century, Vietnam was a territory of the French. The French had a large scale population investigation during that period and faced a huge challenge which was that many Vietnamese people didn't have a correct last name. So the French decided to give those people a last name, and they chose Nguyen. What does Nguyen mean in Chinese? Musical instrument. Meaning "musical instrument" and actually rooted in Chinese, Nguyen is an interesting name that you'll encounter throughout the world. Alternate spellings include Nyguyen, Ruan, Yuen, and Yuan

im still really confused. i think i pronounce "thing" differently than in this video?? he is doing a harder n and a quieter g, where as my n is almost non-existent and my g is hard. so if i were to take his advice, id be saying "gwee-ehn", which doesnt sound like what hes saying in the beginning.

It's also the final syllable of the word "Sanguine?" And if you say it as is you are asking a question, then you even get the pronunciation right.

Do we pronounce it nu we in?

Thank you! That was brilliant.

I'm embarrassed I've been pronouncing it "Nwen" and thought I was doing so much better than "Win". Thanks!

My personal policy, based on nothing but common sense and decency, is to pronounce names as closely as one can to the native sound, but using the nearest English sounds possible. Think of Versailles. It's a little insensitive to say "ver-sails"*, when "ver-sigh" will do the trick. If you pronounce it in a truly French way, it gets a little affected, and may push the listener away as a little too high-brow. Also, I find changing phonemes in mid-sentence irritating, especially when being politically correct with Spanish names, as is the practice in some areas of the broadcast media. Hell, we say "cologne" as "cul-own", and that's an English pronunciation of the French name for a German city (Koeln). How backward do we have to bend over? If you said it the German way, nobody would know what you're talking about. I liked the Ng part. There's a one-syllable street food called a knish, but it's often pronounced in two. Similar to James, I'll tell a friend "say 'dark night'". Of course, only a non-English speaker says "dark-a-night". Then I ask them to make it into two words, the first of which is "dar". It works in direct proportion to the friend's enthusiasm and how much they value "getting it right." Some enjoy it, some say "Who cares? You know what I meant!" Also, I knew a guy in high school named Richard Ng. Everyone said "eng" or "ing". But I got a kick of saying it with just the consonant and no vowel. It took a little practice, but it was fun ('cause I like that sort of thing.) It also makes me think of a conversation with a Spanish speaker regarding "stop". Of course, his inclination was to say "estop". I said "Start with a long 's', get a running start, then add the word 'top'. The result: "sssssssssssssssss-estop". It's okay. I knew what he meant, and neither of us really cared. *unless you're speaking of Versailles Kentucky.

You're fucking funny man. Also, thanks for the video.

So damn useful! 🤩📚🙌

What did he say though!? I need a phonetic spelling maybe. It sounded like he ended in an M sound. New-yem is that right or am I hearing it wrong?

I want to say it with the correct tone though, why I can't find a video 🤣🤣

😁 nice one professor!

Wow brilliant 💕

I love this guy!

Thank you! 😊👍🏿 .

It’s pronounced “nuyen” although often romanticized as “win”

Thanks, but the mental phontetic block really is hard for me. When I see THING....and try to drop THI....its like my mind goes blank on what the sound NG is by itself without the prefix is. So I''m still stumped on how you are pronouncing NG. It keeps sounding like "Nu" to me. I'm not hearing the G.

wow thats badass!

Based and Nguyen pilled

I think this could be improved by explaining the velar nasal sound at the beginning. I expect most anglophones would hear you're pronunciation as starting with an alveolar nasal. Even knowing what to listen for, I found it quite hard to hear the difference.

The best video I’ve seen on this! We have to remember, Nguyen is an english spelling to approximate as closely as possible the sounds. If it was “Win” or “Wing” then THAT is how it would have been spelled!

The Vietnamese surname Nguyen is pronounced N’win in the anglicized way!

this is it...

The first time you say it, it's clearly NOO-yin. The second time it's NOO-yən. [sigh]

thankyou!!

The correct pronunciation is fairly easy and follows the spelling to boot! _Once Shown that is!_ So WHY say it's "wen" which really confuses things. Too bad - if the G was left out: Nuyen and you would have just about everyone saying it fairly accurately. So I take issue with the G.

In the end it's about toungue placement

So you say win like you're from Belfast?

Mmmm. Still can't say it.

And the thing I intend to do is subscribe.

Im not sure this works with my ridiculous long island accent

Why does he sound so angry?

Nguyễn. Dễ nhỉ 😂😂

Brilliant, thanks

A cinch to us Filipinos. (:

Good

Thank you for this. Now can you please tell these so called educated Vietnamese journalists on prime time news to pronounce their damn surname correctly!! Yes I’m talking about Jeff, Leyna & Judy!!..or was it Julie?

My friend is named this. I watched the video and still can't pronounce it😮😅

you gwin!

U need to say it in a higher pitch if u ask why it’s because that’s my last name

I never knew what I needed from teacher was a condescending tone. He's the cold, distant teacher I never had.

That's odd bc Vietnamese ppl pronounce it as 'win'!

Hey

WHEN...lmao

Nguyễn not Nguyên or nguyen or nguyến