Learn how to make a polite request
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone. I’m Becky. Welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com This is the Absolute Beginner series, Season 1, Lesson 14 - Taking a Taxi in Vietnam. |
| Huyen: Xin chào! I’m Huyen. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make a polite request in Vietnamese. The conversation takes place on the street, and is between Minh and the taxi driver. |
| Huyen: They’re meeting for the first time, so they’ll be using formal Vietnamese. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Minh: Tắc xi! |
| Taxi driver: Cô muốn đi đâu ạ? |
| Minh: Làm ơn đưa tôi tới phố cổ. |
| Taxi: Vâng, mời cô lên xe. |
| (Mười phút sau) |
| Minh: Làm ơn cho tôi xuống đây. Bao nhiêu tiền ạ? |
| Taxi driver: Hai mươi nghìn. |
| Minh: Gửi anh. |
| Taxi driver: Cảm ơn. |
| Minh: Taxi! |
| Taxi driver: Where do you want to go, Miss? |
| Minh: Please take me to the Old Quarter. |
| Taxi: Okay, please get in. |
| (10 minutes later) |
| Minh: Please let me get off here. How much is it? |
| Taxi driver: Twenty thousand. |
| Minh: Here you are. |
| Taxi driver: Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Huyen, could you tell our listeners something about the Old Quarter in Vietnam? |
| Huyen: Sure. The Old Quarter is a must-see tourist destination, that’s in the center of Ha Noi, the capital city. |
| Becky: What’s special about this place is that it has the unique architecture of the old Ha Noi. It’s also called the “36-street area”, isn’t it? |
| Huyen: Right. The quarter contains 36 small streets and is a very exciting shopping area. Each street specializes in selling particular kinds of goods. |
| Becky: And the street name describes the goods that are being sold. It sounds interesting, and I’m sure our listeners will find a lot of nice items there when they visit! |
| Huyen: Definitely. You’ll see a lot of traditional Vietnam when you walk around this area. |
| Becky: We hope you have a chance to go there one day, listeners. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Huyen: ...Tới. |
| Becky: In this lesson, this word is used as a preposition meaning “to” in the sentence... |
| Huyen: Làm ơn đưa tôi tới phố cổ. |
| Becky: “Please take me to the Old Quarter.” However, this word can also be used as a verb meaning “to arrive” or “to go to”. Let’s hear some examples. |
| Huyen: Sáng nay tôi tới trường muộn. |
| Becky: “I went to school late this morning.” |
| Huyen: Tắc xi tới rồi. |
| Becky: “The taxi has arrived.” Next is a pair of prepositions. |
| Huyen: Lên and Xuống |
| Becky: This is very commonly used. They respectively mean “up” and “down”. When used with a vehicle, they respectively mean “get on” and “get off”. To say to get on a bus, car, or bike, use... |
| Huyen: Lên xe. |
| Becky: To mean “get on a train”, you say... |
| Huyen: Lên tàu. |
| Becky: On the contrary, to get off a bus, car, or bike is... |
| Huyen: ...Xuống xe. |
| Becky: And “get off a train” is... |
| Huyen: ...Xuống tàu. |
| Becky: This pair of words is sometimes used alone without an object. It’s when you know exactly what vehicle you are talking about. |
| Becky: For example, when a taxi driver opens the door and tells the passenger... |
| Huyen: ...Mời anh lên (male version) or Mời chị lên…(female version) |
| Becky: ...it means “please get in”. When a passenger is in a vehicle and wants to get off, he or she can just say... |
| Huyen: Cho tôi xuống đây. |
| Becky: “Let me get off here.” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make a polite request in Vietnamese. In the dialogue, we had... |
| Huyen: ...Làm ơn đưa tôi tới phố cổ. |
| Becky: “Please take me to the Old Quarter.” The request starts with... |
| Huyen: ...Làm ơn, which means “please”, followed by the main verb. |
| Becky: In our sentence, the main verb is “to take me”, so the speaker says... |
| Huyen: ...Làm ơn đưa tôi.... |
| Becky: Then the object, which is a location. |
| Huyen: ...tới phố cổ. |
| Becky: “to the Old Quarter”. The whole request again is... |
| Huyen: ...Làm ơn đưa tôi tới phố cổ. |
| Becky: So basically, to make a polite request in Vietnamese, start with… |
| Huyen: ...làm ơn… |
| Becky: ...meaning “please”, followed by the main verb. Then add… |
| Huyen: ...tôi or cho tôi… |
| Becky: ...meaning “me” or “for me”, and finally add an object if necessary. Huyen, could you give our listeners some more examples? |
| Huyen: Sure. In the dialogue we also have the request Làm ơn cho tôi xuống đây. |
| Becky: “Please let me get off here.” Let’s hear some examples in other situations. |
| Huyen: Làm ơn bán cho tôi 2 vé tàu đi Hà Nội. |
| Becky: This request literally means “Please sell me two train tickets to Ha Noi.” |
| Huyen: Làm ơn chỉ đường cho tôi tới phố cổ. |
| Becky: “Please show me the direction to the Old Quarters.” |
| Huyen: Làm ơn giúp tôi. |
| Becky: “Please help me.” Listeners, have you got the gist of the grammar point in this lesson? We hope you’ll be able to make simple requests in Vietnamese after this lesson! |
| Huyen: And you can always review what we have learned, by reading the lesson notes. |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and see you next time. |
| Huyen: Tạm biệt. |
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