The Most Basic Vietnamese - All You Need to Know to Get By (Most Basic Languages)

Strange as it might sound, conversational Vietnamese takes place almost entirely in the second and third persons.

For example, instead of saying "I think you are very beautiful" to a girl you like, you might say, "This older male thinks you the younger female very beautiful" or abridge it to "You the younger female are very beautiful. To Western ears, talking in the third person sounds stilted and pretentious, but to Vietnamese ears, it is the social norm.

In conversational Vietnamese, the proper way to refer to yourself and others depends on a hierarchy of age and sex. Many of the terms have a literal meaning of family relationships, though they are used for all people on all occasions. Choose one from the list to represent yourself, and one to represent the person you are talking to, depending on sex and relative age.

If you listen closely, when people address you or talk about you in Vietnamese, they will be using these terms. They will be very impressed if you can master this! Nonetheless, even between natural Vietnamese people, it can get awkward when you try to figure out how to address someone who appears to be the same sex and, as far as you can tell, about the same age as you. Once you figure out their age and sex, they may have you use one of the above terms, or simply be amiable and ask you to call them "Ban", or "friend".

For example, "How are you" is literally translated as "Healthy or not? Phonetic approximations are in italics, and English words that sound very similar are in quotes. When giving your age, it is common to say just the digits, e.

Vietnamese does not have special names for each month. Instead, the months are simply numbered. When describing the color of an object etc. Just click any blue "Edit" link and start writing! Retrieved from " https: Has custom banner Usable articles Phrasebooks.

2. Move Your Body With the Tones

Views Read Edit View history. This page was last edited on 15 August , at Text is available under [http: Privacy policy About Wikitravel Terms of use Mobile view. Vietnamese phrasebook Contents 1 Pronunciation guide 1. Pronunciation guide [ edit ] Vietnamese spelling is more or less phonetic, and generally similar to Portuguese which it is based on.

Vowels [ edit ] a like 'a' in "h a t" with a hint of 'o' as in "m o nster": Used only at the beginning of a syllable. Used only at the end of a syllable, except loan words.

In this video you will learn the most important words in Vietnamese:

What to do in Vietnam. Master these words and you will surely be able to get a grin from any local. Thinking about heading to Vietnam soon? Alongside with Thai food, Vietnam is one of the highlights of any culinary street food experience in Southeast Asia. From steamy hot bowls of Pho to delightful rolls of fresh spring rolls.

The food in Vietnam is high up on my list and is definitely worth exploring. What to Eat in Vietnam.

Practice Makes Perfect- Either you practice with local friends or you practice with people online, there is no better way than to learn a language than by interacting with native speakers. Most of them would be more than happy that you are taking the time to actually learn their language. There are loads of online courses which offer you basic lessons, walking you through the proper pronunciation and grammatical lessons while still being very affordable.