Vietnamese/Lesson 1

< Vietnamese

Đối thoại (對話) - Conversations

Chào hỏi (嘲𠳨) - Greetings

When Vietnamese greet each other, they will use Chào and the relevant personal pronoun, or the title, or name. Unlike English, they do not distinguish between the times of the day (morning, afternoon, evening).

Chào is a term that can be used to greet someone at any time. Ông is the term to address elderly men (aged around 50). Bà is the term to address elderly ladies (aged around 45).

Anh is a term to address older men, while chị is to address older women.

Cụ is a term to call a very old person. em is a term to call a child, or a younger person. ạ at the end of a sentence indicates respect.

vâng means yes.

This is a simple, yet not very elegant, greeting formula.

Hỏi thăm sức khoẻ (𠳨𠽄劸飾) - Inquiring about health

khoẻ stands for good or fine, không for not. Adding không at the end of an affirmative sentence is one of the many ways to form a question. Please refer to the grammar part for more details. Cám ơn means thank you.

rất means very. còn, at this place, means and. cũng stands for also.

bạn means friend and takes the place of a personal pronoun here. mình is, next to tôi, a personal pronoun meaning I, it also stands for body.

bình thường means normal. vẫn means still.

Giới thiệu (介紹) - Introduction

là means to be. vui means glad, gặp stands for meet and được for can, may.

đây means this, here. bạn tôi means my friend.


Tạm biệt (暫別) - Saying good bye

Tạm biệt is the most common formula for saying good-bye in Vietnamese.

Also chào can have this meaning.

Expressions

Chào (嘲)
Chào buổi sáng (嘲𣇜𤏬)
Chào buổi chiều (嘲𣇜𣊿)
Chào buổi tối (嘲𣇜𣋁)
Chào tạm biệt buổi tối (嘲暫別𣇜𣋁)
Anh mạnh giỏi? (英猛𡤟？)
Anh mạnh giỏi? (英猛𡤟？)
Vẫn mạnh (刎猛)
Tạm biệt (暫別)
Tạm biệt (暫別)
Hẹn gặp lại (𠻷﨤吏)
Hẹn gặp lại (𠻷﨤吏)
Bảo trọng (保重) / Cẩn thận nhé !

Vocabulary

Grammar

Personal pronouns

In this lesson, we have learned a number of personal pronouns. In Vietnamese, personal pronouns can be used as subjects or objects but, unlike English, they never change their forms.

Usage, however, is fundamentally different. There is not simply a word meaning you, but Vietnamese actually use different pronouns depending on the relation between the speaker and his/her audience. This relation takes gender, age, and status into account. Basically, Vietnamese refer to everyone as a family member.

Here are the personal pronouns we have encountered so far:

For more, go to the grammar section directly: Personal pronouns.

Sentence structure

The basic Vietnamese sentence structure consists of a subject and a predicate.

Subject Predicate
Nam gặp Jack.
Tôi cũng khoẻ.
Tôi là Hoà.

Yes-no-question

There are several ways to form a question in Vietnamese. The most simple form is to add không at the end of an affirmative sentence to turn it into a yes-no-question. In some cases, it is better to add phải không instead of không. Both are still the same in some context.

Examples:

Practice


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