The Vietnamese alphabet (Vietnamese: chữ Quốc ngữ, "script of the national language") is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally developed by Portuguese missionary Francisco de Pina (1585 – 1625).The Vietnamese alphabet contains 29 letters, including seven letters using four diacritics: ă, â/ê/ô, ơ/ư, đ. There are an additional five diacritics used to designate tone (as in à, á, ả, ã, and ạ). The complex vowel system and the large number of letters with diacritics, which can even stack twice on the same letter (e.g. nhất meaning "first"), makes it easy to distinguish the Vietnamese alphabet from other Latin scripts.The Vietnamese system produces words that have no silent letters, with letters and words consistent in how they are read and spoken, with rare exceptions. The elaborate use of diacritics produces a highly accurate sound transcription for tonal languages.

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