Learn how to use the verb "to do"
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| Xin chào, tôi là Giang. Hi everybody! I’m Giang. |
| Welcome to VietnamesePod101.com’s “3 phút học tiếng Việt”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Vietnamese. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb đi which means "to go" in Vietnamese. |
| In this lesson, we will continue our series dedicated to common Vietnamese verbs. |
| Our second verb is làm, which means "to do." |
| So imagine someone asks you Bạn đang làm gì thế? |
| That means "What are you doing?" |
| So if you are doing your homework, for example, you will say Tôi đang làm bài tập về nhà. |
| So let’s break down this answer. |
| Tôi is "I" |
| Next we have đang, which is added before the main verb to express an action in progress. |
| Làm means “to do” |
| And bài tập về nhà means "homework." |
| Let's talk a little about this word đang, which you put before a main verb to say that you are doing something right now. |
| If someone asks you to come and give him a hand but you are busy cooking a meal, you can say Xin lỗi, tôi đang nấu ăn! which literally means "Sorry, I am cooking a meal!" Nấu ăn means “to cook" or "to prepare a meal”, and when you put đang before it, you’re expressing that the action is in progress. |
| So now, let’s have a broader look at what you can say with this verb làm. |
| It is one of the most useful verbs in Vietnamese, because you can say many things with it. |
| It can mean "to make”, “to build” or “to create" |
| For example- |
| làm nhà: build a house |
| làm bánh: make a cake |
| làm vườn: do the gardening |
| làm thơ: write a poem |
| It can mean "to work", as in |
| Tôi đang làm việc - “I’m working” |
| It can also be used to refer to a responsibility, duty or function. |
| làm bác sĩ: work as a doctor/be a doctor |
| làm mẹ: be a mother |
| làm chủ ngữ: functions as the subject of the sentence |
| làm đòn bẩy: be the driving force behind something |
| Another common meaning of làm is “to hold, to organize an event” |
| làm lễ khánh thành: organize an opening ceremony |
| làm cỗ: prepare a feast |
| Now it’s time for Giang’s Insights. |
| In spoken Vietnamese, làm can be used to express daily activities like eating, drinking or playing. For example- |
| làm một cốc bia: drink a glass of beer |
| làm một giấc: go to sleep |
| làm một ván bài: play cards |
| This way of speaking expresses your excitement and readiness to act. You will definitely surprise Vietnamese people if you say things like this. But remember that they are very informal. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to use the verb làm. I'm sure this will help you a lot! |
| Next time we’ll learn another interesting verb, thích. |
| Do you know what this means? I’ll be waiting for you in the next 3 phút học tiếng Việt lesson. |
| Tạm biệt! |
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