The short answer: what costs Vietnamese speakers marks
The pronunciation and grammar habits that cost Vietnamese speakers marks in VSTEP Speaking mostly come from the way Vietnamese builds a syllable: dropped final consonants (and with them the -s and -ed endings), consonant clusters broken up, th said like the Vietnamese th, regional mergers such as l and n in parts of the north or final n and ng in the south, tones carried onto English syllables in place of word stress, statements that rise at the end, and four grammar habits (missing articles, present tense for the past, yes and no to negative questions, and one-sentence turns). Fix final consonants first, because they carry grammar. This page takes each habit, explains where it comes from, says which regions it is most common in, and gives the fix and a drill. These are tendencies, not rules: your own recording decides which of them you have.
Why it matters in this test: Speaking is 12 minutes in three parts, per the ULIS format page, and at ULIS it is taken on a computer, so your voice reaches the marker as a recording, with no face, no gestures and no chance for the listener to ask "sorry?". ULIS’s guide to the computer test tells candidates to keep the microphone close to the mouth and to speak loudly enough for the volume bar to rise, and a quiet voice loses final consonants first. ULIS’s Speaking criteria summary (a Word file linked from its format page, read 21 October 2026) lists pronunciation as one of five criteria and names what it covers: accurate, clear sounds, word stress, and sentence stress and intonation. It gives no weights, so we cannot tell you how much pronunciation counts. The ULIS scores and levels page does describe what each level can do: at Level 4 (B2), a speaker "can produce fluent communication to native speakers without obstacles". Everything below is about removing obstacles.
| Habit | What the listener hears | Most common in | Fix first? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final consonants dropped or swallowed | "five" as "fi", "he walked" as "he walk" | All regions | Yes, first |
| Clusters broken up or cut | "street" with an extra vowel, "texts" as "tex" | All regions | Second |
| th as Vietnamese th or d | "three" as "tree", "they" as "day" | All regions | Third |
| l and n swapped | "light" as "night" | Some speakers from parts of the northern delta | If you have it, early |
| sh as s; tr as ch | "ship" as "sip", "train" as "chain" | Northern speech | With your region’s pairs |
| Final n as ng, final t as k | "ten" as "teng", "light" as "like" | Southern speech, and much central speech | With your region’s pairs |
| Every syllable equal, tones on syllables | A flat, choppy rhythm; stress in the wrong place | All regions | Week 4 |
| Statements that rise | Sounding unsure, as if asking permission | All regions | Week 4 |
| Articles, tense, plurals, one-sentence turns | "I live in small town", "Last year I go" | All regions | Alongside final consonants |
Final consonants and the grammar they carry
Where it comes from. A Vietnamese syllable can end in a vowel, a glide, or one of a small set of consonants: the sounds written p, t, c or ch, m, n, ng or nh. The final p, t and c are not released: the mouth closes and stops, with no puff of air. English allows far more endings (s, z, f, v, l, d, g, b, sh, ch, j and the two th sounds) and many of them are released. Three things follow. Endings Vietnamese does not have get dropped: "five" becomes "fi", "nice" becomes "nai", "school" loses its l. Endings Vietnamese does have get swallowed, so "cat" and "cap" end the same way. And voiced endings lose their voice, so "bag" sounds like "back".
Why it costs more than pronunciation marks. In English the endings are grammar: plural -s, the -s on he, she and it verbs, past -ed, the possessive ’s, and the contractions ’s, ’ll and ’d. "My brother work in a bank and he visit us two time a month" may be grammatically correct in your head. On the recording it is three mistakes.
The fix. Slow down at the ends of words for a week. Release final t, d, k and g with a small puff of air when the next word starts with a vowel: "walked_in", "looked_at". Say the -ed ending the way it sounds: /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked, asked), /d/ after voiced ones (played, lived) and a full extra syllable /ɪd/ only after t and d (wanted, needed). Link a final consonant into the next vowel instead of stopping: "five_hours", "nice_idea".
The drill. The -ed endings read-aloud drill and the -s and plural endings drill on TalkDrill. Then answer a Part 1 question about last weekend or about your family, recorded, and count the endings you kept.
Consonant clusters
Where it comes from. Vietnamese has no consonant clusters. The spellings ch, nh, ng, tr, th, kh and ph are each one sound. English stacks consonants at both ends of a word: "street", "spring", "split" at the start; "texts", "months", "asked", "helped" at the end. A Vietnamese speaker either adds a small vowel between the consonants ("sờ-tờ-reet") or drops one or two ("tex", "as" for "asked", "mon" for "months"). At the start of a word the extra vowel adds a syllable and changes the rhythm. At the end, the dropped consonant is often the grammar ending again.
The fix. Build the cluster from the vowel outwards: "eet, reet, treet, street". At the end, build backwards: "tex, text, texts". Keep your mouth from opening between the consonants; there should be no vowel sound in the gap. If a three-consonant ending is too hard at speed, keep the last one, because it is usually the grammar: "aks-t" is better than "as".
The drill. The final consonant clusters drill, then three sentences of your own with "asked", "months" and "texts", recorded twice: once slowly, once at Part 3 speed.
th, and the sounds that depend on your region
th, everywhere. In Vietnamese spelling, th is a t with a puff of air. Read with Vietnamese spelling habits, "think" becomes "tink" and "three" becomes "tree". The voiced th of "this", "they" and "other" often becomes d, or z for northern speakers. In a long answer the listener can usually guess "tink", so th is third on the list, after endings and clusters. The pairs where it does change meaning are worth a drill: tree and three, tin and thin, day and they, den and then. Put the tip of the tongue lightly between the teeth and blow; for the voiced th, add voice. Our th guide has the mouth position step by step.
The rest of this section depends on where you grew up. Vietnamese regional varieties differ in exactly the sounds English cares about, so a habit that is common in Hà Nội may be rare in Cần Thơ, and the other way round.
| Region | Vietnamese pattern | What can happen in English | Pairs to drill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern (Hà Nội and the delta) | s and x are the same sound; tr and ch are the same sound; r, d and gi are all said like z | sh becomes s ("ship" as "sip", "she" as "see"); tr becomes ch ("train" as "chain"); when reading aloud, r and j can come out as z | sip and ship, see and she, chain and train, chew and true |
| Northern, some speakers in parts of the delta | l and n swapped in Vietnamese | "light" as "night", "low" as "no", or the reverse | light and night, low and no, line and nine, lot and not |
| Central (Huế, Quảng Nam, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh and others) | Varies by province; s and x and tr and ch are often kept apart; many areas from Huế south share the southern final-consonant merges; vowels and tones differ from the north and the south | The southern final merges below, and vowel pairs that blur depending on the local vowel system | Your recording decides: start with ten and tang, light and like, ship and sheep |
| Southern (Hồ Chí Minh City and the Mekong delta) | Final n and ng merge after many vowels, and so do final t and c; v, d and gi are often said like an English y | "ten" as "teng", "thin" as "thing", "light" as "like"; v can weaken towards y ("very" closer to "yery") | thin and thing, ran and rang, light and like, kit and kick, vest and yes |
A useful test for l and n: pinch your nose and try to hold the sound. You can hold a long l; an n stops, because n needs the nose. For sh, round your lips a little and pull the tongue back from s. For tr, start with the tongue in the t position and let the r follow, rather than jumping to ch. For southern final n, finish with the tongue tip touching the ridge behind your top teeth; for ng, the tip stays down and the back of the tongue does the work. A mirror helps more than a description.
Tones used as stress
Where it comes from. Vietnamese is a tonal language: each syllable carries its own tone (ngang, huyền, sắc, hỏi, ngã or nặng), and much southern speech merges hỏi and ngã. Each syllable is also roughly the same length and strength. English works the other way. Each word has one strong syllable, longer, louder and with a pitch change on it, and the syllables around it shrink, often to the weak vowel schwa, the "uh" in the middle of "banana". Small words such as a, the, of, to and and are weak in normal speech.
What happens. Three things, often together. Every syllable is said full and equal, so "computer", "banana" and "economy" have no strong syllable and a long answer sounds choppy. The stressed syllable gets a Vietnamese tone shape, a sharp rise like a sắc or a heavy drop like a nặng, which can sound surprised or abrupt. And because no syllable stands out, stress lands in the wrong place, which matters most in word families that move it: PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy, photoGRAphic.
The fix. One strong syllable per content word: make it longer and louder, not higher in a tone shape. Let the small words go weak: "a cup of tea" is closer to "uh CUP uh TEA". Mark stress in your notes with a capital letter when you learn a new word. The stress-shift read-aloud drill trains exactly the word families that move their stress.
Statements that rise
Where it comes from. Vietnamese shows questions and attitude largely with particles at the end of the sentence (à, hả, nhé, đấy, không) and with the tones of the words themselves. English uses the pitch line of the whole sentence. A statement normally falls at the end. A yes or no question normally rises. A rise at the end of a statement tells the listener "I am not finished" or "I am not sure".
What happens. Many learners end statements on a rise, or on a flat, unfinished pitch, especially in Part 2 and Part 3 when they are thinking about the next idea. On a recording, a talk in which every sentence rises sounds as if you are asking the examiner whether your choice is allowed. In our judgement, content at B2 can still sound like B1.
The fix. Fall on the last strong syllable of every statement: "I think the dormitory is the best CHOICE." Rise only on yes or no questions. When you list options in Part 2, rise on each item and fall on the last one: "the dormitory, a shared room, or her AUNT’s house". Use a fall-rise on a contrast you have not finished: "It’s cheaper, BUT..." Replace Vietnamese fillers (ờ, à) with English ones that buy time without sounding unsure: "Well,", "Let me think about that,", "The way I see it,". Practise with our intonation practice sentences.
Articles, tenses, yes and no, and short turns
Four grammar habits come straight from Vietnamese and show up in every part of the test.
| Habit | Why | Sounds like | The rule to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missing articles | Vietnamese has no a, an or the; it uses classifiers (cái, con, chiếc) and words like này and đó | "I live in small town", "Dormitory is near school" | A singular countable noun needs something in front: a, the, my, this. Our article rules guide covers the rest. |
| Present for past | Vietnamese verbs do not change; time comes from words such as đã, đang, sẽ, rồi or from context | "Last year I go to Đà Lạt", "My town change a lot" | Answer in the tense of the question: "did you" takes the past, "how has it changed" takes "has become", "there are now", "used to be" |
| Plurals and he, she verbs without -s | Vietnamese marks plural with những or các and verbs do not agree; the final consonant drop hides the rest | "many student", "my mother work" | Say the -s on purpose for a week; it is both grammar and pronunciation |
| Yes and no to negative questions | In Vietnamese, "vâng" agrees with the speaker, so it can mean "right, I don’t" | Q: "You don’t like big cities?" A: "Yes." (meaning "I don’t") | English answers the fact: "No, I don’t" or "Yes, I do". Add a short sentence so there is no doubt. |
Short turns and silence. Classroom habits teach many of us to answer in one short sentence and wait. In VSTEP that wastes the clock. At ULIS you speak to a computer, so nobody will rescue a silence with a follow-up, and silence is simply empty recording. In Part 1, every answer is a direct answer, a reason and one detail. In Parts 2 and 3, if you lose the thread, say so in English and continue: "Let me put that another way." The Part 1 guide shows the answer shape at B1, B2 and C1.
Six drills and a worked example
Each drill takes about ten minutes. Do one a day, recorded, and replay the recording before you move on. Model audio pairs for each drill are planned but not recorded yet; until then, the TalkDrill read-aloud drills linked below give you a model to copy and feedback on what you said.
- Endings. Read these slowly, then fast: "row, road, rows; die, died, dies; play, played, plays; walk, walked, walks". Then: "Last weekend I visited my grandparents, cooked dinner and watched two films." Drill: -ed endings.
- Clusters. Build up and back: "reet, treet, street; ask, asked; tex, text, texts; month, months". Drill: final clusters.
- th. "tree, three; tin, thin; day, they; den, then". Then: "I think there are three things that matter." Drill: voiceless th and voiced th.
- Your region’s pairs. Northern speakers: sip and ship, chain and train, and light and night if you have the l and n habit. Southern and many central speakers: thin and thing, ran and rang, light and like. Say each pair five times, then put both words in one sentence. More pairs: minimal pairs practice sentences.
- Stress and schwa. "PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy, photoGRAphic; eCOnomy, ecoNOmic". Then a Part 3 sentence with the small words weak: "There are a lot of benefits to working part-time." Drill: stress shifts.
- Fall at the end. Record a Part 2 answer and listen only to the last word of each sentence. Every statement should fall. Then do it again with the TalkDrill AI as the examiner in role-play practice, which also gives you feedback on what it heard.
Worked example: one Part 2 answer, before and after (written by TalkDrill, not a real candidate)
The task, from our practice bank: Lan has a university place in Hanoi and must choose between the dormitory, a rented room with two friends, or her aunt’s house ten kilometres away.
Before: "I tink Lan should live in dormitory. Because it near school and cheap. Last year my friend live there and she like it very much. Rent room with friend is also good, but it expensive and far. Live with aunt is OK?"
What a listener hears: "tink" (th); no article before "dormitory" or "school"; no "is" in "it near school" and "it expensive"; "live" and "like" without -d and -s, so the past and the third person disappear; "Rent room" and "Live with aunt" where English needs "Renting a room" and "Living with her aunt"; a rise on the last sentence, which turns a rejected option into a question; and the four moves are not there, because the aunt’s house is never argued against.
After: "Lan has three options, and I think the dormitory is the best one. Renting a room with two friends sounds fun, but it would cost more, and she would have to pay for electricity and water as well. Living with her aunt is free, but the house is ten kilometres away, so she would spend a lot of time travelling, especially in the rainy season. The dormitory is on the campus, it is cheap, and she can meet other first-year students quickly. My friend lived there last year, and she said it helped her settle in. So for her first year, I would choose the dormitory."
The after version keeps the same ideas. What changed: articles, the past tense said with its ending, -s on "students", th in "think" and "three", a fall at the end of every statement, and the two rejected options argued against before the choice, which is what the ULIS format PDF asks Part 2 candidates to do.
Where this fits: the six-week B2 plan uses these drills in order, endings in week 2, clusters and th in week 3, stress and intonation in week 4. If you want to see what the levels mean in numbers, the scale page explains 4.0, 6.0 and 8.5, and the VSTEP hub has the format, the dates and the rest of the module.