Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Xin chào các bạn! Tôi là Linh.
Hello, everyone! This is Linh and welcome back to Vietnamese Top Words.
Today, we will talk about Top 25 Vietnamese Phrases and this is very easy and very useful especially when you travel to Vietnam. So let’s go now.
1. Xin chào! "Hello."
Okay, in Vietnamese, actually we don’t say good morning or good afternoon or good evening but we only simply say xin chào to everybody, everywhere, every time. And if you want to be more polite and you can put the subject before the word chào!
For example,
Em chào anh
Em chào chị
Cháu chào bác
Cháu chào cô
And we have so, so many subjects based on who you are and who you talk with. So that’s why if you want to just remember how to say hello to people, you can just say, Xin chào!
Xin chào! Tôi là Linh.
Xin chào!
2. Chào bạn. "Hi."
Chào bạn is a closer and more friendly way to say hello to someone that you’re close or someone younger than you and, actually, it sounds, still, very polite and you can use both Xin chào or Chào bạn. It is very polite and is, is okay. It’s very normal, it’s very common. And you can put the pronoun behind the word chào.
For example, chào anh, chào chị, chào bạn.
3. Tôi đến từ Mỹ. "I come from America."
After saying hello, it’s supposed to be where you’re from, right and you can answer by very simple way.
Tôi đến từ Mỹ. “I am from America.”
Tôi đến từ Đức. “I am from Germany.”
Tôi đến từ and country. Tôi is “me.” Đến từ, “come from” and the last one is your country or your city where you’re from.
Tôi đến từ Hà Nội. “I am from Hanoi.”
Xin chào. Tôi là Linh. Tôi đến từ Hà Nội. “Hello, this is Linh and I am from Hanoi.”
4. Chúc ngủ ngon! "Good night."
Chúc ngủ ngon is when you want to say goodnight to someone before you go to sleep or when you are chatting and texting and you want to inform them that this is my bedtime. I am about to go to sleep and goodnight. You can say -
Tôi chuẩn bị đi ngủ đây. Chúc bạn ngủ ngon! “I am about to go to sleep. Goodnight.”
Or you can put the pronouns behind the word chúc to make it sound more friendly or more close, closer.
For example, chúc em ngủ ngon!
Chúc bạn ngủ ngon!
Chúc mẹ ngủ ngon!
Chúc ngủ ngon!
5. Tên bạn là gì? "What's your name?"
Tên bạn là gì? This one is very common and very useful because every time you talk to someone, you have to know their name, right? So you can say Tên bạn là gì? Actually, in English, that means “what is your name?” right, but in Vietnamese, it means, bạn tên là gì? “Your name is what?” You put the pronouns and the subject before and the “to be” verb behind.
Bạn tên là gì?
Tên chị là gì?
Tên anh là gì?
Tên bạn là gì? Tên tôi là Linh. “what is your name? My name is Linh.”
Tên bạn là gì? Tên tôi là Trang. “what is your name? My name is Trang.”
6. Tôi là [tên]. "I'm [name]."
Tôi là Linh.
Okay, to answer the question “what is your name?” you can answer - Tôi là [Linh].
“I am,” and your name behind.
Tôi là Linh.
Tôi là Thanh.
Tôi là Thủy.
“I am Thanh” or “I am Thuy” or I am (something). My name is something.
Tôi tên là Linh. “My name is Linh.”
“My name is Trang.” Tôi tên là Thanh.
“What’s your name?” My name is Linh." Tên bạn là gì? Tôi tên là Linh.
7. Rất vui được gặp bạn. "Nice to meet you."
Rất vui được gặp bạn is very common in Vietnamese because after saying hello or introduce where you’re from, what is your name, you should say, “nice to meet you”, right? So I would talk again from beginning.
Xin chào. Tôi là Linh. Tôi đến từ Hà Nội. Rất vui được gặp bạn.
“Hello, this is Linh. I am from Hanoi and it’s nice to meet you.”
That means, nice to meet you or I am glad to meet you. I am glad to see you. Rất vui được gặp bạn.
Or if you meet someone again one more time, you can say, Rất vui được gặp lại bạn. “It’s nice to meet you again.”
Xin chào. Tôi là Linh. Rất vui được gặp lại các bạn trong video này.
“Hello, this is Linh. It’s nice to meet you in this video.”
8. Bạn có khỏe không? "How are you?"
Okay, after introducing yourself, what’s your name, where you’re from, I am from somewhere and nice to meet you and you can say, Bạn có khỏe không? to ask if someone is doing well.
Or you can change the pronouns -
Chị có khỏe không?
Anh có khỏe không?
Chi or Anh instead of Bạn.
Chị có khỏe không?
Anh có khỏe không?
Bạn có khỏe không? "How are you?"
Xin chào. Tôi là Linh. Rất vui được gặp bạn. Bạn có khỏe không?
“Hello, I’m Linh. It’s nice to meet you. And how are you?”
9. Tôi khoẻ. Cảm ơn bạn. Còn bạn? "I'm fine, thanks. And you?"
To answer the question how are you, you can say with your friend,
Tôi khỏe. Cảm ơn bạn. Còn bạn thì sao? “I am good, thanks, how are you?” or “I am good, thanks. And you?”
Tôi khỏe. is “I am fine.” Cảm ơn bạn is “thank you.”
Còn bạn thì sao? or Còn bạn? “And you?” or “how are you?”
So… Tôi khoẻ. Cảm ơn bạn. Còn bạn? “I am fine. Thanks. How are you?”
10. Làm ơn "please"
Okay, this one obviously we need to use all the time to be polite, right. And for example, Làm ơn cho tôi một kem sô cô la. “can I have a chocolate ice cream, please?”
Or, làm ơn cho tôi mượn menu. “Can I have a menu please?”
Làm ơn đến đúng giờ. “Please come on time.”
So don’t forget it. Làm ơn. Làm ơn.
11. Cảm ơn "thank you"
Okay, so the rhyme is similar a little bit with the word “please,” Cảm ơn, làm ơn, right? But actually in English, the C sound is a little bit lighter than Vietnamese. In Vietnamese, you pronounce a bit stronger, heavy and clear, more clear, just like cảm ơn because some of my foreign friends, they pronounce cam on or come-on, but actually it’s cảm ơn, just like K. So you pronounce stronger and clearer, cảm ơn instead of cam on.
12. Không có gì. "You're welcome."
Không có gì. "You're welcome.” Or “no problem.”
Không có gì.
Actually this one is a phrase. It is, if you translate, Không is “no” and có gì is “yes”, it’s confusing, right? But just use it, không có gì.
Cảm ơn bạn. Không có gì.
Cảm ơn. Không có gì. It’s not a big deal.
13. Vâng. "Yes."
Actually, the word “yes” mean vâng or có. “Yes, I will do it” or “Yes, I want it.”
So if someone asks you, Em có muốn ra ngoài ăn tối nay không? “Do you want to have dinner together?” Vâng. “Yes.”
Em có muốn ra ngoài ăn tối nay không? Vâng.
Or if someone asks you, “Do you want to party together?”
Em có muốn đi tiệc cùng nhau không? Có.
“Yes, I want to” or “yes, I will.” So vâng / có is “yes.”
14. Không. "No."
Không is "no." And there is only one way to explain the word “no”. It’s Không. So if someone asks you and if you don’t want to go, don’t want to do it or you want to refuse something, you can answer Không.
Em có muốn ra ngoài ăn tối cuối tuần này không?
“Do you want to have a dinner together this weekend?”
Không is “no”. “I don’t want to” or “I will not.”
And also, không is “zero”, too.
0-1-2-3-4. Zero, one, two, three, four. So the word Không means “no” and also “zero”.
15. Ô-kê "Okay."
Ô-kê is okay.
Okay, Vietnamese use okay too and someone pronounce “Ok” or someone pronounce “okay” but it’s okay to say yes, yeah. Instead of yes, you can say Ok or okay but actually if you want to pronounce really, really strong Vietnamese, you can say Ô-kê, okay?
16. Xin lỗi. "Excuse me."
Actually this one you can use for both excuse me or I am sorry but this one is very easy and very simple and very common. So for example, if you can say -
Xin lỗi, ở đây có nhà vệ sinh không? “Excuse me, is there a restroom here?”
Or - Xin lỗi, làm ơn cho tôi đi. “Excuse me, can I go?”
So yes, remember to use xin lỗi, it is very common and still polite. Don’t worry.
17. Tôi xin lỗi. "I'm sorry."
Okay, this one sounds formal and very polite to say I am sorry or I very apologize, tôi xin lỗi. So if you use xin lỗi only, you can use for “excuse me” or “I am sorry” but if you want to express that you really regret or you are very, very sorry for something or something wrong that you’ve done, you can use tôi xin lỗi, em xin lỗi “I am sorry.”
Em xin lỗi, “I am sorry.” Tôi xin lỗi.
18. Bây giờ là mấy giờ? "What time is it?"
So if you are outside and you don’t have a watch, you don’t have a cell phone and you want to ask what time it is, so you can come to anyone and say,
Xin lỗi, bây giờ là mấy giờ? “Excuse me, what time is it?”
Xin lỗi, bây giờ là mấy giờ? And after they answer - Bây giờ là ba giờ. “It's 3 o'clock.” You can say cảm ơn.
- Xin lỗi, bây giờ là mấy giờ?
- Bây giờ là bốn giờ.
- Cảm ơn.
19. Nhà vệ sinh ở đâu? "Where is the restroom?"
So in the mall or in the place you’ve never been to and you don’t know where is the restroom, you can approach anyone and say, Xin lỗi, nhà vệ sinh ở đâu? “excuse me, where is the restroom?” or Xin lỗi, nhà vệ ở đâu? “Excuse me, where is the toilet?” And after they show you where is the restroom and where the way to go there, you can say, cảm ơn.
- Xin lỗi, nhà vệ sinh ở đâu?
- Đi hướng này.
- Cảm ơn.
20. Đợi tôi một chút "Wait a moment."
In Vietnamese, this means, “wait me for a moment.” Đợi tôi một chút
So you also can say Đợi một chút “wait a moment.”
Ê ê đợi tôi một chút. “Wait me for a moment.”
21. Cái này bao nhiêu tiền? "How much is this?"
So when you are buying or shopping for something and before you decide to buy, you should kindly say Cô ơi, cái này bao nhiêu tiền? “ma’am, how much is this?” or Chú ơi, cái này bao nhiêu tiền? “sir, how much is this?” because Vietnamese people really like foreigners especially when they can speak a little bit Vietnamese. So maybe they can have discount for you. So don’t forget.
Cô ơi, cái này bao nhiêu tiền?
And if you got a discount from them, you can say, cảm ơn.
22. Tính tiền cho tôi! "Could I get the check, please?"
Tính tiền cho tôi! “Excuse me, could I have a check, please?”
Tính tiền cho tôi! So after finishing your meal or after you decide to buy something, you can say - Xin lỗi, làm ơn tính tiền cho tôi. “Excuse me, could I have a check, please?”
Xin lỗi, làm ơn thanh toán cho tôi. “Excuse me, can I pay, please?”
So you can use both Tính tiền cho tôi./ Thanh toán cho tôi. “Could I get a check please?” “Can I pay please?”
Xin lỗi, làm ơn tính tiền cho tôi.
23. Cứu tôi với! "Help!"
Cứu tôi với! “Help me”
Cứu tôi với!
I really hope that you don’t have to use it when you are traveling in Vietnam but just in case you really need someone’s help or you are really in tough situations, you should say Cứu tôi với!
And you should say it very, very clearly because if you don’t pronounce it correctly, then maybe nobody knows that what you want or what you need. So you should say Cứu tôi với!
24. Hẹn gặp lại. "See you later."
So the conversation or the meeting is going to be the end and you want to say goodbye, I want to see you again or goodbye, hope to see you again. You can say, Hẹn gặp lại. Hẹn gặp lại is “I want to see you again” or “see you later” or “See you next time.”
Cảm ơn các bạn đã theo dõi video và hẹn gặp lại ở video tiếp theo!
“Thank you so much for watching the video and see you in the next video. Bye!” tạm biệt! Oh no, not yet but yeah, don’t go.
25. Tạm biệt. "Goodbye."
Yeah, I know this one is a bit hard for foreigners because you don’t have this accent in English but actually this sound is very common in Vietnamese. So you better practice and time to time, slowly, slowly, you will get used to it. Tạm biệt.
But actually if you really, really cannot pronounce this one, then you can say Xin chào instead because yeah, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal. Xin chào or tạm biệt, you can use it to say hello or goodbye but actually only tạm biệt is for goodbye. But you can use Xin chào for both Xin chào, hello and goodbye.
Xin chào, tạm biệt.
Okay. Done. We just had 25 Vietnamese phrases and I hope you enjoyed it. It’s easy, right? Thanks so much for watching the video and see you next time.

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