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Learn to speak Hmong
Learn to read, write and speak Hmong the Jay Way
Created byJay Xiong
Last updated 10/2025
English
What you'll learn
- Learn to speak Hmong (hai loo Hmong) -- Xyaum hais lus Hmoob
- Show how to properly pronounce the Hmong consonants, vowels and tones
- There are plenty of short phrases with translations
- Able to engage in basic conversation in Hmong
Explore related topics
Course content
19 sections • 142 lectures • 6h 34m total length
Requirements
- The desire to learn Hmong. Hais lus Hmoob (hai loo hmong) = Speak Hmong.
Description
Welcome to Learn to speak Hmong course!
The Hmong people are an Asian ethnic group, the majority are in China, from the mountainous and many isolated regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Thailand. After the United States Secret War in Laos ended in 1975 many of the Hmong, estimated 100,000+, had migrated to the United States, Canada, France, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia. The Hmong culture is similar to many other cultures; however, one distinctive difference is that the Hmong people are organized into roughly 18 last names or clans.
The Hmong language is considered a tonal, monosyllabic and open syllable language. In other words, there are no words ending like the English words mom and map nor ending in moms and maps either. Hmong did not have a written language where it was taught and learned openly until 1952 and 1953 when a Protestant missionary Dr. Linwood Barney, a Roman Catholic missionary Father Yves Bertrais (better known as Txiv Plig Nyiaj Pov), and Dr. William A. Smalley who came to Laos to help create the Latin script for Hmong so they can learn the Bible. This Hmong language is what we currently use these days, also better known as the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) system.
There are eight distinctive tones in the Hmong language, and the creators mentioned above have designated the following letters B D J M G S V and a blank as the tone markers.
The Hmong language also follows the subject-verb-object syntax structure. Unlike English, Hmong do not have plural forms, “-s, -en” and verbs remain the same form regardless of whether you use it to refer to the first, second, and third person. Additionally, there are no participles in Hmong, i.e., “-ed, -ing, and -en” and no verbal nouns or gerunds, i.e., the writing of this book. More importantly, there is no verb conjugation, i.e., does, do, did and done, in Hmong. Hmong verbs have just one form like the English verbs “cut and put.” In addition, Hmong do not have long and short vowels – just one pronunciation for each vowel. Therefore, reading and writing Hmong is very consistent even words that you have never seen nor heard before.
In this course, you will learn how to properly pronounce the consonants, vowels and tones. In addition, I will also teach you the Hmong pronouns, simple Hmong words, Hmong greetings and basic phrases that you can apply in real life. And most importantly, I also included a PDF of my book called Learn Hmong the Jay Way 3rd Edition published in January 2023 which you will find it very useful for learning Hmong.
You will also have unlimited access to my website called Hmong Dictionary (upon request) with these benefits:
Search over 6500 Hmong words with English translations
Audio for all Hmong words
Pronouns, grammars, phrases and more
Thanks for your interest to learning the Hmong language. Ua tsaug (oua chao) -- Thank you.
Who this course is for:
- Anyone who wants to be able to read, write, and speak Hmong