Vietnamese Keyboard Online — Type in Vietnamese Free

A Vietnamese Keyboard That Handles Both Layers of Accents

Vietnamese looks almost like the Latin alphabet you already know, but it stacks two separate layers of marks on top of it — and that is exactly what an ordinary keyboard cannot produce. The first layer reshapes the letters themselves (the breve on ă, the circumflex on â ê ô, the horn on ơ ư, the bar through đ); the second is the tone mark over or under a vowel. This keyboard puts the whole system a tap away — click the on-screen keys, tap them on a touchscreen, or use your physical keyboard while a live character counter and copy button track your text.

The reason a plain keyboard fails at Vietnamese is stacking. A single vowel such as ế is really ê (a circumflex letter) plus an acute tone — two marks on one letter. This tool gives you the base letters as their own keys and adds the tone with a dedicated tone row, so the two layers combine cleanly.

Try it: Tiếng Việt — “Vietnamese” · phở — the noodle soup · cà phê sữa đá — iced milk coffee

Who Reaches for a Vietnamese Keyboard

Vietnamese is the official language of Vietnam and the first language of tens of millions of people, with large communities in the United States, Australia, and France. Most of them, at some point, sit at a computer with no Vietnamese input set up — a work laptop, a library terminal, a friend's machine — and suddenly cannot write a word with its correct tones. That is the gap this page fills.

Family Abroad

Overseas Vietnamese messaging gia đình back home want their words to read naturally, not as tone-stripped guesswork.

Learners & Students

Beginners drilling vocabulary and homework need every tone in place, because in Vietnamese the tone is part of the spelling.

Names & Forms

Anyone entering a name like Nguyễn or Phạm, or a place name like Đà Nẵng, on a document or booking.

A missing mark changes the word entirely — one syllable across all six Vietnamese tones:

ma (no mark, level tone) — ghost
má (acute) — mother
mà (grave) — but
mả (hook above) — tomb
mã (tilde) — horse, or code
mạ (dot below) — rice seedling

Six words, one set of letters — the mark is the meaning.

The QWERTY Base, the Seven Extra Letters, and the Tone Row

The layout starts from a familiar QWERTY arrangement — the same number row and letter block as any keyboard, so plain consonants and un-marked vowels sit where your fingers expect. Two things make it Vietnamese: seven modified letters parked along the right edge of the letter rows, and a separate tone-key row underneath.

Where the Seven Modified Letters Live

Vietnamese needs seven letters English lacks. Each is its own key, grouped on the right:

Top letter row, just past p: ư and ơ — the two horned vowels.
Home row, just past l: ô and ă — circumflex o and breve a.
Bottom row, just past m: â, ê, and đ — circumflex a, circumflex e, and the crossed d.

Press Shift for their capitals (Ư Ơ Ô Ă Â Ê Đ), just as with the ordinary letters.

The Five Tone Keys and the Remove Key

Below the letters is a dedicated tone row. Vietnamese has six tones but only five carry a written mark — the level tone (ngang) is unmarked, which is why you see five tone keys, not six:

´ acute (sắc) — high rising: a → á
` grave (huyền) — low falling: a → à
̉ hook above (hỏi) — dipping: a → ả
~ tilde (ngã) — creaky rising: a → ã
. dot below (nặng) — heavy, glottal: a → ạ

At the end sits a ✕ remove-tone key that strips the mark off. A tone always attaches to the most recent vowel, so stacking is automatic: type ê from its key, tap acute, and you get ế — shape plus tone on one letter.

Because the tone lands on the last vowel, place it right after the vowel it belongs to. For chào (“hi”), type c h a, tap grave to get à, then type o. Tapping the tone after the o would mark the wrong vowel.

Typing a Vietnamese Word, Step by Step

Here is the full path for a word that uses every feature at once — phở, which needs a horned vowel and a tone mark:

1

Type the plain consonants

Click or press p then h to get ph. Ordinary letters come straight from the QWERTY keys.

2

Add the modified vowel

Tap the ơ key at the top-right of the letter block; the text now reads phơ. All seven special letters work this way — one key, no combining.

3

Tap the tone

Tap the hook above key (hỏi). It marks the most recent vowel, turning ơ into ở, so the word becomes phở.

4

Fix a slip if needed

Wrong tone? Tap the ✕ remove-tone key, or tap the same tone again to toggle it off, then choose the right one. Backspace deletes a character and Clear empties the whole box.

5

Copy and paste

Press Copy to send everything to your clipboard, then paste it into a message, a form field, or a document with its tones intact.

More to practise: đường (đ · ư · ơ, then grave) and Hà Nội (a + grave, then ô + dot-below).

Vietnamese Typing Questions

Vietnamese has six tones — why are there only five tone keys?

Because the sixth tone, the level tone (ngang), carries no mark at all. A bare vowel already is the level tone, so only the five marked tones — acute, grave, hook, tilde, and dot below — need keys.

How do I put a tone on a vowel that already has a hat or a horn, like ế or ở?

Type the shaped letter from its own key first (ê or ơ), then tap the tone — the two marks stack automatically: ê + acute becomes ế, and ơ + hook becomes ở.

I tapped the wrong tone — can I fix it without deleting the letter?

Yes. Tap the ✕ remove-tone key to strip the mark, or tap the same tone key again to toggle it off. Then apply the tone you meant — no need to retype the vowel.

Can I type Vietnamese names like Nguyễn or Phạm correctly here?

Yes — and this is where the tool earns its keep, since names are dense with stacked marks. For Nguyễn, the most common Vietnamese family name, type N g u y, tap the ê key, then the tilde, then n. For Phạm, type P h a, tap dot below for ạ, then m.

The board has F, J, W, and Z keys — are those Vietnamese letters?

Not traditionally. The Vietnamese alphabet does not use F, J, W, or Z in native words. They stay on the keyboard so you can still write loanwords, brand names, and web addresses without switching layouts.