Learn how to ask, "What are you doing?"
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| Introduction |
| Eric: Welcome to 3-Minute Vietnamese Season 1, Lesson 12 - Asking What Someone is Doing. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask and answer the question What are you doing? in Vietnamese. |
| Body |
| Eric: Here's the informal way to ask "What are you doing?" in Vietnamese. |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] Bạn đang làm gì vậy? |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning "you" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] bạn [Slow] bạn |
| Eric: Next is the helping verb denoting the present continuous tense. |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] đang [Slow] đang |
| Eric: Next is the verb meaning "to do" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] làm [Slow] làm |
| Eric: Next is the question word meaning "what" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] gì [Slow] gì |
| Eric: Last is the sentence ending particle. |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] vậy [Slow] vậy |
| Eric: Note the rising intonation. Listen again to the informal question meaning "What are you doing?" |
| Hoang Anh: [Slow] Bạn đang làm gì vậy? [Normal] Bạn đang làm gì vậy? |
| Eric: Now, imagine you're speaking to a stranger. Here's the formal way to ask, "What are you doing?" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] Anh đang làm gì vậy? |
| Eric: First is a word meaning "you" for a man |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] anh [Slow] anh |
| Eric: Next is the helping verb denoting present continuous tense. |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] đang [Slow] đang |
| Eric: Next is the verb meaning "to do" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] làm [Slow] làm |
| Eric: Next is the question word meaning "what" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] gì [Slow] gì |
| Eric: Last is the sentence ending particle. |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] vậy [Slow] vậy |
| Eric: Note again the rising intonation. Listen again to the formal question meaning "What are you doing?" |
| Hoang Anh: [Slow] Anh đang làm gì vậy? [Normal] Anh đang làm gì vậy? |
| Eric: Here's a response meaning "I am studying." |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] Tôi đang học. |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning "I" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] Tôi [Slow] Tôi |
| Eric: Next is the helping verb denoting present continuous tense. |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] đang [Slow] đang |
| Eric: Last is the verb meaning "to study, to learn" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] học [Slow] học |
| Eric: Listen again to the response, "I am studying." |
| Hoang Anh: [Slow] Tôi đang học. [Normal] Tôi đang học. |
| Eric: Here's a response meaning, "I'm doing nothing special." |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] Tôi không làm gì cả. |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning "I" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] Tôi [Slow] Tôi |
| Eric: Next is the determiner meaning "no, not" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] không [Slow] không |
| Eric: Next is the verb meaning "to do" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] làm [Slow] làm |
| Eric: Next is the pronoun meaning "anything" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] gì [Slow] gì |
| Eric: Last is the adverb meaning "at all" |
| Hoang Anh: [Normal] cả [Slow] cả |
| Eric: Listen again to the response meaning "I'm doing nothing special." |
| Hoang Anh: [Slow] Tôi không làm gì cả. [Normal] Tôi không làm gì cả. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Eric: Now it's time for a quick cultural insight. |
| Hoang Anh: Vậy is a sentence-ending particle which is commonly used to end a question. Vậy makes the question softer, more intimate, and shows that the speaker really cares and wants to know the answer. Questions without particles still make sense but sound emotionless. Vietnamese people like to be informal and intimate in daily conversation, so they use a lot of sentence-ending particles to show feeling in their words. |
Outro |
|---|
| Eric: And that’s all for this lesson. Don’t forget to check out the lesson notes, and we’ll see you in the next lesson! |
| Hoang Anh: Tạm biệt. |
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