I looked it up on Wikipedia, and after some further research, I found that it is absolutely true that almost all Vietnamese surnames are Chinese in origin. My last name is Lê, which is the Vietnamese pronunciation of the Chinese character, 黎, or Lí in pinyin. In fact, my whole name is Sino-Vietnamese. There isn't a single native Viet word in my name. The surname Nguyễn is 阮（Ruǎn), and Trần is 陈(Chén). Why is this? I know that most Viets take their surnames from royal dynasties, why did they do that? And why did Vietnamese kings take Chinese last names?
If you don't believe me or want to know more, here's a site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_names
adiavoy, your last name is, I'm assuming, Đào. It would be 陶(Táo) in Chinese.

My boyfriend speaks Vietnamese, and yesterday he said to me in Vietnamese what he said translated to "I like you very much." I know what some of the words are, but I'm trying to figure out the others, just out of curiosity, so I know what they look like written. He doesn't know how to spell most of the words, so he can't really help me there.

I know 3 of the 5 words already.

He said:
Anh (---1---) em quá (---2---)

the first missing word sounds kind of like it would be spelled like "quai" (like kwai, rhyming with 'high'). I'm not sure what the tone on it is.

the second missing word sounded almost exactly like the word "chơi" (to play), but it sounded like the tone was lower.

He also speaks with a Southern Vietnamese pronunciation, he says, if that helps

I'm a real geek when it comes to languages, so I'd love to be able to figure this out.

I ask it here because there must be a lot of people from all over the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_Surnames

On the right you can see Korean or vietnamese pronunciation.

My friend's last name is Ngo. Most people say that you pronounce it as you would say "no" but what is the authentic Vietnamese pronunciation?
P.S. Please, if you can, include pronunciations for Nguyen, Hoang, and Huynh. Thanks! :]