Making Basic Comparisons - Part 1

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Lesson Transcript

Hello, everyone. My name is Linh.

Xin chào các bạn. Tôi là Linh.

Welcome to the Whiteboard Lessons.

In this lesson, you're going to learn comparisons, so sánh trong tiếng Việt.

In particular, I'm going to introduce to you some vocabulary, of course

some sentence structures

some examples, and how it looks in conversations.

And I have a lot of information behind me,

and I can't wait to share with you, so stay tuned.

The lesson structure today is going to be a little bit different,

because I want to introduce you the sentence pattern first.

Let's take a look.

Okay, the first one, we have place.

So this is going to be the location or the place you want to put in the comparisons.

And pay attention, it's going to be the subject of the sentence.

Place. Next one, we have thì or là.

Thì / Là

Thì / Là.

It means to be verb.

Next one is going to be the adjective.

Hơn.

And then, the place.

Remember, we're comparing two places, right? So,

place here is the subject, and place here is the object, okay?

Thì / Là / Hơn.

And what it means in English.

First one, we have the subject is.

Something is something, which is to be verb.

Adjective.

Then, something, okay?

One thing you may have noticed that to be is optional in this structure, okay?

Which means thì and là are optional.

In fact, thì, là are actually reduced in spoken Vietnamese, okay?

Place. Thì. Là. Adjective. Hơn. And place. Clear?

Now, let's take a look at how it shows in sentences.

Let's look at some speaking examples.

First one, we have

Hà Nội đông dân hơn Đà Nẵng.

Hà Nội is more populated than Đà Nẵng.

Easy, right?

So, Hà Nội is the place, which is the subject.

Đông dân is populated.

Đông dân is the adjective, which is tình tư.

Hơn.

Which is more.

And Đà Nẵng is the place, which is the object to be compared with, okay?

Hà Nội đông dân hơn Đà Nẵng.

Hà Nội is more populated than Đà Nẵng.

And the structure in Vietnamese is a little bit different

because here you will see more is before the adjective.

But in Vietnamese, hơn is behind the adjective.

Hà Nội đông dân hơn.

Okay? Now, let's take a look at the second example.

thành phố hồ chí minh lớn hơn cần thơ

which is hồ chí minh city is bigger than Can Tho.

thành phố hồ chí minh lớn hơn cần thơ

thành phố hồ chí minh

hồ chí minh is city

We have to put city here because city is in the name of Ho Chi Minh city.

thành phố hồ chí minh

[Place]

lớn

[Adjective]

hơn

cần thơ

[Place]

Again

Thì and Là are reduced.

thành phố hồ chí minh lớn hơn cần thơ

Ho Chi Minh city is bigger than Can Tho.

Now, let's take a look at the third example.

Đà Nẵng cổ kính hơn hải phòng.

Đà Nẵng is more ancient than hải phòng.

Đà Nẵng

place

cổ kính

adjective

hơn

hải phòng.

Đà Nẵng cổ kính hơn hải phòng.

Đà Nẵng is more ancient than hải phòng.

Now, let's move on to the next part, dialogue.

Let's look at the dialogue.

When I speak, I want you to pay attention to the city names and the adjectives.

Find where they are in the dialogues

because we're going to talk about them in the vocabulary, okay?

Let's start.

Hà Nội có nhỏ không?

That is the question and now how do we respond to that?

Không Hà Nội không nhỏ. Sài Gòn nhỏ hơn.

And this is how it sounds in real conversations.

Hà Nội có nhỏ không?

Không Hà Nội không nhỏ. Sài Gòn nhỏ hơn.

What does it mean in English?

Hà Nội có nhỏ không

is Hà Nội small.

Hà Nội, we have Hà Nội here.

có nhỏ

Actually, it's like the to be verb and it's not at the beginning of the sentence,

it's just like the normal sentence.

Hà Nội có nhỏ is small

and không is like the question word,

is it?

Hà Nội có nhỏ không?

Hà Nội is more, isn't it?

Something like that.

Is Hà Nội small?

Không, no.

Hà Nội không nhỏ.

Hà Nội is not small or it isn't.

Sài Gòn nhỏ hơn.

Sài Gòn is smaller.

Sài Gòn nhỏ hơn.

So pay attention to here, we have nhỏ hơn.

Hơn is like er here,

which is smaller, nhỏ hơn, smaller,

nhỏ hơn.

Hà Nội có nhỏ không?

Không, Hà Nội không nhỏ. Sài Gòn nhỏ hơn.

Is Hà Nội small? No, it isn't. Sài Gòn is smaller.

It's time to talk about vocabulary.

We've gone through the dialogue,

the examples,

the sentence pattern and now are you familiar with the words that appear today?

So we're going to have two categories.

The first one is the adjectives and the second one is the names of the cities, okay?

Let's start.

Let's take a look at the adjectives.

First one we have nhỏ,

nhỏ

small

and pay attention to the dấu hỏi / nhỏ

lớn

It means big.

Lớn, pay attention to dấu sắc, okay?

Lớn and to.

Đông dân

đông dân

đông dân.

This one has no tone so it's easier.

Đông dân,

it means polluted.

Cổ kính

cổ kính

it means ancient.

Cổ kính, pay attention to dấu hỏi and dấu sắc here.

Cổ kính

cổ kính

light

cold

dấu nát so we have to be very sharp and strong.

Like and the last one

mưa

ưa

okay?

Mưa

rainy.

One more time, let's review.

nhỏ

Lớn

Đông dân

cổ kính

lạnh

mưa.

Now, one more time but faster.

Nhỏ / lớn / to / đông dân / cổ kính / lạnh / mưa.

Very good.

Now, let's take a look at the city names in this lesson.

So these are some popular or some big cities in Vietnam

and the first one which is the capital of Vietnam.

Hà Nội.

Hà means rivers and Nội means inside.

So actually around Hà Nội there are a lot of rivers and the city,

the capital is like inside among all the rivers.

Among all the rivers,

So that's why it's called Hà Nội.

Hà Nội

Hà Nội capital, okay?

The second one is the second biggest city of Vietnam which is Hồ Chí Minh city.

We say Thanh Phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Thanh Phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Thanh Phố Hồ Chí Minh has an old name which is Sài Gòn.

Yes, Sài Gòn.

Sài Gòn is an old name and it's been there for many many years.

People love saying Sài Gòn because it sounds familiar.

Thanh Phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Thanh Phố Hồ Chí Minh is the official name, okay?

Next one we have Đà Nẵng.

Đà Nẵng is a very beautiful, lovely beach city.

Đà Nẵng and in Đà Nẵng there is Mỹ Hê beach

which is one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world.

Đà Nẵng.

Next one we have Hải Phong.

Hải Phong.

Hải Phong which is also a beach city but it's in north.

It's around 110 kilometers from Hà Nội.

Hải Phong.

The next one we have Cần Thơ.

Cần Thơ.

Cần Thơ is very popular with the floating markets

where you can be on the boat and enjoy the floating markets

with a lot of local fruits or food and everything is very affordable.

Cần Thơ.

And the last one we have

Biên Hòa

Biên Hòa is an industrial zone in the south of Vietnam.

It's very near Hồ Chí Minh city.

Biên Hòa.

So based on the vocabulary and the cities

can you make another example?

I'm gonna go first.

Hà Nội cổ kính hơn Biên Hòa.

Another one.

Hà Nội lạnh hơn thành phố Chí Minh.

Hà Nội lạnh hơn thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Because there's winter in Hà Nội and there's summer all year in Hồ Chí Minh city.

So Hà Nội lạnh hơn thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Another one. The last one.

Đà Nẵng đông dân hơn Hải Phong.

Đà Nẵng is more populated than Hải Phong.

Đà Nẵng đông dân hơn Hải Phong.

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