Learn about spatial prepositions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone. I’m Becky. Welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com This is Absolute Beginner series, Season 1, Lesson 19 - I Can’t Find Anything in Vietnam! |
| Huyen: Xin chào! I’m Huyen. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about basic spatial prepositions in Vietnamese. The conversation takes place at An’s house and is between An and her mother. |
| Huyen: The speakers are family members, so they’ll be using informal Vietnamese. |
| Becky: But it’s still with a respectful tone, as An is talking to her mom. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| An: Mẹ ơi, bút bi ở đâu ạ? |
| Mom: Ở trên bàn. |
| An: Cái đĩa ở đâu ạ? |
| Mom: Ở trong chạn. |
| An: Cái ghế ở đâu ạ? |
| Mom: Có lẽ ở dưới bàn hoặc ở ngoài sân. |
| An: Mom, where is the ballpoint pen? |
| Mom: On the table. |
| An: Where is the plate? |
| Mom: In the cupboard. |
| An: Where is the chair? |
| Mom: Perhaps under the table or out in the yard. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: The dialogue takes place in a Vietnamese house, which our listeners may be curious about. Huyen, could you tell us something about a typical house in Vietnam; what it looks like and so on? |
| Huyen: Sure. Vietnamese people love having their own house instead of living in an apartment in a high building. |
| Becky: So a typical private house would have a yard in front, a main living space including the living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom? |
| Huyen: Yes, exactly. |
| Becky: An’s house in the dialogue has the image of a typical house, doesn’t it? |
| Huyen: I think so. And Vietnamese people love living in a house with at least two stories. |
| Becky: But young people still prefer living in high rises, as it’s a trend now in Vietnam to buy or rent a condo-type of suite. It’s cheaper, more modern, and also cleaner. |
| Huyen: But when people have more money, they still want to buy land and have their own house built. |
| Becky: That’s interesting to know. 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. First we have... |
| Huyen: Mẹ. |
| Becky: “Mother” or “mom”. It’s basically a noun, but it can also be used as a pronoun when the speaker is talking with his or her mom. The child calls his or her mom... |
| Huyen: ...mẹ… |
| Becky: ...and calls himself or herself… |
| Huyen: ...con. |
| Becky: On the contrary, the mother calls herself… |
| Huyen: ...mẹ… |
| Becky: ...and calls her child… |
| Huyen: ….con… |
| Becky: no matter the gender of the child. Let’s hear an example. |
| Huyen: The mother would say, Mẹ vừa nấu cơm tối cho con đấy. |
| Becky: “I have just cooked dinner for you”. |
| Huyen: The child would say, Con cảm ơn mẹ. |
| Becky: “Thanks, mom”. The next word is a noun classifier... |
| Huyen: ...cái. |
| Becky: It’s a general noun classifier for objects. Nouns are not used alone in Vietnamese. They should be attached to their classifiers. For most objects... |
| Huyen: ...cái… |
| Becky: ...is added before the main noun indicating those objects. For example... |
| Huyen: Cái áo |
| Becky: “A shirt” |
| Huyen: Cái quần |
| Becky: “A pair of trousers” |
| Huyen: Cái ô |
| Becky: “An umbrella” |
| Huyen: Cái kẹo |
| Becky: “A candy”. Let’s hear those words in a complete sentence. |
| Huyen: Tôi vừa mua một cái áo. |
| Becky: “I have just bought a shirt.” |
| Huyen: Cái quần này nhìn rất sành điệu. |
| Becky: “This pair of trousers looks very stylish”. |
| Huyen: Tôi đã mua cái ô này ở Nhật. |
| Becky: “I bought this umbrella in Japan.” |
| Huyen: Tôi cho bé gái một cái kẹo. |
| Becky: “I gave the little girl a candy”. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use basic spatial prepositions in Vietnamese. We’re going to learn the first four basic prepositions for locations. |
| Huyen: Firstly, ở trên. |
| Becky: “on ”or “above”. In the dialogue we hear... |
| Huyen: Ở trên bàn |
| Becky: “On the table”. The second preposition is... |
| Huyen: ...ở trong. |
| Becky: “In” or “inside”. The example in the dialogue is... |
| Huyen: ...ở trong chạn |
| Becky: “In the cupboard” |
| Huyen: The third one is ở dưới. |
| Becky: “Under”. In the dialogue, we hear... |
| Huyen: ...ở dưới bàn. |
| Becky: “Under the table” |
| Huyen: And the last one is Ở ngoài. |
| Becky: “Out” or “outside”. The example in the dialogue is... |
| Huyen: ...ở ngoài sân. |
| Becky: “Out in the yard”. These prepositions are followed by a noun indicating the location. Let’s put these prepositions in complete sentences. |
| Huyen: Tôi treo một bức tranh phong cảnh ở trên tường. |
| Becky: "I hung a painting of a landscape on the wall.” |
| Huyen: Tôi để chìa khóa ở trong túi xách. |
| Becky: "I put the key in the handbag" |
| Huyen: Có một cái túi ở dưới bàn. |
| Becky: “There’s a bag under the table”. |
| Huyen: Có một đội diễu hành ở ngoài đường. |
| Becky: "There’s a march out on the street." Please note that... |
| Huyen: ...ở… |
| Becky: ...means “at” or “in” and in most cases, it’s optional. That means you can use the prepositions… |
| Huyen: ...trên, dưới, trong, or ngoài without adding ở before them… |
| Becky: ...and that does not change the meaning of the sentence. With the same examples we have just mentioned, you can also say: |
| Huyen: Tôi treo một bức tranh phong cảnh trên tường. |
| Becky: "I hung a painting of a landscape on the wall.” Here we use... |
| Huyen: ...trên tường… |
| Becky: ...instead of… |
| Huyen: ...ở trên tường... |
| Becky: ...and both phrases mean “on the wall” and can be used interchangeably. This is the same for the other three prepositions. You can also say... |
| Huyen: ...Ở trong túi xách, or trong túi xách. |
| Becky: “In the handbag” |
| Huyen: Ở dưới bàn or dưới bàn |
| Becky: “Under the table” |
| Huyen: Ở ngoài đường or ngoài đường |
| Becky: “Out on the street”. Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Now, have a go at practicing saying the locations of things in your room with the three prepositions we have just learned. |
| Huyen: Don’t forget to read the lesson notes to review what we have just learned. |
| Becky: And we’re going to learn the other spatial prepositions one by one in the coming lessons. |
Outro |
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| Becky: All right, that’s it for this lesson. Thank you very much for listening. We’ll see you again in the next lesson. |
| Huyen: Tạm biệt. |
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