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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Hello and welcome to Southern Vietnamese Survival Phrases brought to you by VietnamesePod101.com. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Southern Vietnam. You’ll be surprised at how far a little Vietnamese will go.
Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by VietnamesePod101.com. There, you’ll find the accompanying PDF lesson notes and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

Lesson focus
Southern Vietnamese Survival Phrases lesson 40 - Foreign Exchange in Southern Vietnam.
Exchanging money in Vietnam is quite convenient! You can exchange money at airports, banks, hotels and what’s known as gold stores. In Vietnamese, gold stores are known as tiệm vàng. Gold stores are the American equivalent of jewelry stores. It’s a place where they sell gold and silver jewelry, but also foreign currencies can be dealt. You can also withdraw money from ATMs. Rates apply when withdrawing money from an ATM are likely to be the best. However, when using an ATM, it’s advisable to make one large withdrawal since you may be charged by both the local bank and your home country bank.
First, let’s review some previous phrases and patterns we’ve already covered.
In Vietnamese "Is there an ATM near here?" is Có ATM (a-tê-em) gần đây không?
Let’s break this down by syllable: Có ATM (a-tê-em) gần đây không?
Let’s hear it again, Có ATM (a-tê-em) gần đây không?
The word pair có - không is the beginning and end of a sentence and means "is there” or “are there" or "does one have." Có is rising and không is flat.
có - không
có - không
The word after có is "ATM," which in Vietnamese is pronounced a-tê-em and means the same as in English.
a-tê-em
a-tê-em
So to recap here, we have Có ATM không? This literally means "Is there an ATM?"
The next word, gần, gần, means "close" or "near" and is the falling tone.
gần
gần
The last word of the phrase is đây, đây and means "here."
Đây is flat.
đây
đây
So all together, we have Có ATM (a-tê-em) gần đây không? Literally this means "Is there an ATM near here?"
Now, to ask if there’s a bank, we just replace the word for ATM with bank, so the phrase will sound like this. "Is there a bank near here?" is Có ngân hàng gần đây không?
Có ngân hàng gần đây không?
As you can see, the only thing that changes is the thing you’re looking for, ngân.
Ngân is flat and hàng falls gradually.
ngân hàng
ngân hàng
For times when there is neither a bank or an ATM, you can ask, “Where can I exchange currency?" which is Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu?
Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu?
Let’s break this down by syllable: Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu?
Once again, Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu?
The first word, tôi, we know means "I, me or myself" and is flat, tôi.
tôi
The next two words, có thể, có thể means "able to” or “possible."
Có is rising and thể is falling-rising.
Let’s hear it again, có thể.
có thể
This is followed by đổi, đổi which is Vietnamese for "change" or "exchange" and is the falling-rising, đổi.
đổi
Let's take a look at the next word, tiền.
tiền
This means "money" or "currency" and falls gradually.
tiền
tiền
The last two words are ở đâu, ở đâu and means "where."
ở is falling-rising and đâu is flat.
ở đâu
ở đâu
So all together we have, Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu? Literally this means "Where can I exchange currency?" Exchanging currency is pretty straightforward. You usually have to just fill out a form and then present them out you want to exchange. One extremely useful phrase is smaller denominations, please. This is a useful phrase because having smaller amounts of currency on you is better for paying for bus fares, taxis, and food.
In Vietnamese "Smaller denominations please" is Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn.
Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn.
Let’s break this down by syllable: Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn.
Once again, Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn.
The first two words, cho tôi, are both flat.
cho tôi
cho tôi
Cho means “give.”
cho
cho
This is follwed by tôi, which means “me” or “myself.”
tôi
tôi
Next we have loại, loại, which means "type" and is the low tone, loại.
loại
Tiền, as you already know, is money.
tiền
tiền
So together, loại tiền means "type of money" or "denomination."
The next word nhỏ simply means "small" or "little" and is the falling-rising tone.
nhỏ
nhỏ
The last word, hơn, means “more” and is flat.
hơn
hơn
So, nhỏ hơn means "smaller."
nhỏ hơn
nhỏ hơn
So altogether, we have Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn. Literally this means "Give me smaller types of money" or in other words "Smaller denominations, please."
Finally, you can also use the phrase break this please to indicate that you would like smaller amounts of currency. In Vietnamese "Break this please" is Xin đổi tiền lẻ giùm.
Xin đổi tiền lẻ giùm.
Let’s break this down by syllable: Xin đổi tiền lẻ giùm.
Let’s hear it again, Xin đổi tiền lẻ giùm.
The first word, xin, means "please" and should be a review. Xin is flat.
xin
xin
This is followed by đổi, which we already know means "to change."
đổi
đổi
The next word, tiền, is also a review and means "money."
tiền
tiền
This is followed by lẻ.
lẻ
Lẻ is falling-rising.
lẻ
lẻ
So tiền lẻ in Vietnamese means "small sum of money."
The last word giùm, giùm is a polite way of asking if someone could please do you a favor.
So all together, we have Xin đổi tiền lẻ giùm.
Xin đổi tiền lẻ giùm
Literally means "Please do me a favor and break this" or simply "Break this please.."

Outro
Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so chúc may mắn, this means “good luck” in Vietnamese.
Okay, here we go!
“Is there an ATM near here?” - Có ATM gần đây không?
Có ATM gần đây không?
Có ATM gần đây không?
“Is there a bank near here?” - Có ngân hàng gần đây không?
Có ngân hàng gần đây không?
Có ngân hàng gần đây không?
“Where can I exchange currency?” - Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu?
Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu?
Tôi có thể đổi tiền ở đâu?
“Smaller denominations please.” - Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn.
Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn.
Cho tôi loại tiền nhỏ hơn.
All right, that's going to do it for this lesson. Remember to stop by VietnamesePod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF lesson notes. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Bye!

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