How to Say No and Reject in Vietnamese

Lesson Transcript

Want to speak real Vietnamese from your first lesson?

There might be plenty of times that you don't want to go out with someone

or you just simply want to say no.

So how do you say that in Vietnamese?

In this video today, I'm going to share with you how to say no or how to reject someone.

In a polite way, of course.

And I'm going to share with you maybe some formal ways

and also some informal ways so that you know when to use them.

Hello, everyone. My name is Linh.

Welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com.

The fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Vietnamese.

So let's get started.

The first and the most common one, you just want to simply share that you're busy.

So let's say you're talking to someone who is older than you, right?

And it's a man.

So in Vietnamese, we can say

Em bận rồi

Em bận rồi means “I'm busy already”.

This one is very common and is not impolite at all.

It's just probably you're not busy, but this is like the most common way to reject.

So…

Em bận rồi

Or if you're a man, we say

Anh bận rồi

Okay, so remember em and anh for someone who is younger.

And if just for friends, we can just simply say...

Tớ bận rồi

Another way to say em bận rồi in Vietnamese, we can also say

Em có việc rồi

Em có việc rồi means “I have something to do.”

Em có việc rồi.

“I have…”

việc is like “stuff" or “something"

rồi- “already"

Em có việc rồi.

Easy, right?

One way to say that your schedule is full or your schedule is very tight or you have a full schedule...

Em kín lịch rồi

Em- “I”

kín- “full” or “tight”

lịch- “schedule”

rồi- “already”

“My schedule is full already”

Em kín lịch rồi.

Em có hẹn rồi

Em có hẹn rồi means like “I have a plan already” or “I've got an appointment”.

hẹn is like “a plan” or “an appointment”.

Em có hẹn rồi - “I've got a plan”, “I've got an appointment”.

Sorry, I can't go.

You'll see that these sentences that I've just mentioned are pretty short, right?

So in Vietnamese, when we talk in a casual way, usually we just say it very short.

We just use very short sentences, so it's still polite, okay? Don't worry.

Another way to say no is “I'm very tired”, right?

So in Vietnamese, we say...

Hôm nay em hơi mệt

That means “today I feel a little bit tired”.

So remember that you can always replace em by another pronoun such as tôi

Hôm nay tôi hơi mệt

Hôm nay anh hơi mệt

Hôm nay tớ hơi mệt depends on who you're talking to, okay?

Hôm nay tôi hơi mệt

Right, so those are sentences that you can just simply say no to someone and those are very direct.

In some situations that you don't really want to say no, there are some ways to maybe to buy some time that you can use

so that the other person doesn't feel like you're saying no to them.

And it sounds a little bit more polite and you just don't want to make the other person feel hurt or something like that.

So in this situation, you can say

Để em xem đã

Để tôi xem đã

That means “let me see”.

Để tôi xem đã

Hôm nay em có bận không?

Để em xem đã

Another way to say”let me see”, you can also say

Tôi chưa biết được

“I'm not sure”.

Or “I don't know yet”.

Like maybe like “I don't know my schedule yet”.

So that means you want to say no but you're just trying to be polite and the other person can feel the vibe so that they won't disturb you anymore.

Another way to say no but it's very polite and it gives the other person feel like you're contacting them later.

In this situation, you can say...

Có gì tôi nhắn sau nhớ?

It means “I'll text you later” or “I'll send you a message”, something like that, ok?

Có gì tôi nhắn sau nhớ?

nhớ here you see, there are a lot of times you’ll see those single words standing at the end of the sentence to finish or to close the sentence. Those words don’t really mean anything.

So usually each just plays a role as a supporter, a supporting word, ok? So don't worry if you don't use them, that's fine.

You can either say

Có gì em nhắn

Có gì tôi nhắn

Right, so another way to say no but you really want to make a time for the person and you just want to change the schedule so that it'll be available for you.

So in this situation, you can say

Chuyển sang hôm khác được không?

Chuyển sang...

Chuyển here means like “can we move” or like “change”.

hôm khác means “another day”.

hôm is another word for “day” instead of using ngày.

We can say hôm khác is different.

được không? like “is that ok?”

So “can we change to another day” or “can we change to another time?”

Chuyển sang hôm khác được không?

So if you want to sound like closer to the person, you can say

Chuyển sang hôm khác được không em?

If you're talking to a younger girl.

Chuyển sang hôm khác được không anh?

If you're talking to an older man.

So usually we'll put the pronoun at the end of the sentence to sound more friendly, ok?

Chuyển sang hôm khác được không anh?

Right, in the case that you want to go out with the person and you just want to make it immediately.

You don't want to wait until the time that they've set.

In this situation, we can say

Chiều nay luôn được không?

Means like “let's make it this afternoon”.

Chiều nay “this afternoon”.

luôn is like “immediately”

được không?- “Is that okay?”

Instead of saying “this afternoon”, we can also say like “today”.

“Let's make it today.”

Hôm nay luôn được không?

So those are some ways that you can say no to someone.

If you don't want to go out with them or if you just want to change the schedule.

And they are very suitable, very friendly and you don't have to worry at all.

And they are very practical and they are used very commonly.

When I share with you some sentences, usually I will try to make use of them.

So that it's gonna be like most practical for you to use.

So that's it for today. Thank you so much for watching the videos guys.

I know that the situation everywhere in the world is still tough.

But I hope that you guys stay safe and please take care of yourself.

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Thank you so much again and see you in the next one.

Xin chào và hẹn gặp lại các bạn.

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