Learn how to make plans
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 9 - What Should We Do Tonight in Vietnam? Becky here. |
| Huyen: Xin Chào. I'm Huyen. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask for suggestions in Vietnamese. The conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Huyen: It's between An and Linh. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Vietnamese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| An: Linh à? Tao An đây. Tối nay đi xem phim không? |
| Linh: Ừ được đấy. Mấy giờ thì được nhỉ? |
| An: 6 (sáu) giờ tao xong việc. Hẹn gặp lúc 7 (bảy) giờ nhé. |
| Linh: Cũng được. Gặp ở đâu thì được nhỉ? |
| An: Tầng hầm Vincom nhé. Gửi xe, đi ăn tối rồi lên xem phim trên tầng 5 (năm). |
| Linh: Ok, vậy hẹn mày 7 (bảy) giờ ở Vincom. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| An: Linh à? Tao An đây. Tối nay đi xem phim không? |
| Linh: Ừ được đấy. Mấy giờ thì được nhỉ? |
| An: 6 (sáu) giờ tao xong việc. Hẹn gặp lúc 7 (bảy) giờ nhé. |
| Linh: Cũng được. Gặp ở đâu thì được nhỉ? |
| An: Tầng hầm Vincom nhé. Gửi xe, đi ăn tối rồi lên xem phim trên tầng 5 (năm). |
| Linh: Ok, vậy hẹn mày 7 (bảy) giờ ở Vincom. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| An: Hey Linh. It's me, An. Wanna go to the movies tonight? |
| Linh: Sounds great. What time is good? |
| An: I'll finish work at 6 p.m. Let's meet at 7 p.m. |
| Linh: That's fine. Where is good to meet? |
| An: Vincom basement, ok? We’ll leave our motorbikes there, go for dinner, then go to the fifth floor for the movie. |
| Linh: Ok. So see you at 7 p.m. at Vincom. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: It’s interesting to figure out how close two Vietnamese people are by seeing which pronouns they use for each other. |
| Huyen: Is it? Actually, that’s a good tip. You can figure out if two people are friends or not when you hear which pronouns they use. |
| Becky: So if I meet someone and we aren’t friends, which pronouns do I need to use? |
| Huyen: Generally you can use cậu or bạn to mean “you” and tớ to mean “I” or “me.” |
| Becky: But what if we are very close friends and speak casual Vietnamese? |
| Huyen: Then, you can use mày to mean “you” and tao to mean “I” or “me.” |
| Becky: I see. Is there a set for formal situations too? |
| Huyen: Of course. If you’re being formal, you need to address yourself as tôi. |
| Becky: Good to know. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Huyen: đi xem phim [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to go to the movie theater |
| Huyen: đi xem phim[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: đi xem phim [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: mấy giờ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: what time |
| Huyen: mấy giờ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: mấy giờ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: xong việc [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to finish work |
| Huyen: xong việc[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: xong việc [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: hẹn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to make an appointment |
| Huyen: hẹn[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: hẹn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: gặp [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to meet |
| Huyen: gặp[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: gặp [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: tầng hầm [natural native speed] |
| Becky: basement |
| Huyen: tầng hầm[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: tầng hầm [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: vậy [natural native speed] |
| Becky: so |
| Huyen: vậy[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: vậy [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: gửi xe [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to leave a vehicle in the parking lot |
| Huyen: gửi xe[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: gửi xe [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Huyen: đi ăn tối [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to go for dinner |
| Huyen: đi ăn tối[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: đi ăn tối [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Huyen: mấy giờ |
| Becky: meaning "what time." So the usage is the same in English, right? |
| Huyen: That’s right. You can add mấy giờ at the beginning of your question. For example.. Mấy giờ rồi. |
| Becky: “What time is it now?” |
| Huyen: Mấy giờ means “what time” and rồi means “already.” |
| Becky: And we can use this phrase to ask a relatively complicated question, for example, “What time will she come?” |
| Huyen: That’s right. In Vietnamese, that is.. Mấy giờ thì cô ấy sẽ đến? Mấy giờ means “what time,” thì is a connector that means “then” and helps make the sentence more natural, cô ấy is the pronoun for “she,” and sẽ đến means “will come.” |
| Becky: So it literally means “what time she will come.” |
| Huyen: That’s right. If you use Mấy giờ, it indicates that it’s already a question, so you don’t need to add any extra elements. |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Huyen: hẹn, |
| Becky: meaning "to make an appointment." I think this verb can be used a lot in business situations. Besides using this verb alone, can we use this verb with another verb to mean “to make an appointment to do something”? |
| Huyen: Of course you can, and it’s very easy. Simply say hẹn, and add the other verb. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Becky: In this lesson, you will learn how to make a suggestion in Vietnamese. |
| Huyen: In that case, you can use the phrase Thì được. |
| Becky: It literally means “is fine” as in “What is fine?” So then how can we use it in a real sentence? |
| Huyen: Let’s take an example and use it to learn about the usage. Let’s try.. Mặc gì thì được nhỉ? |
| Becky: This expression literally means “What is fine to wear?” So it’s for asking suggestions about what to wear. |
| Huyen: That’s right. First, this sentence starts with the verb phrase Mặc which means “to wear.” Then we have gì, the question word for “what.” Mặc gì together means “what to wear.” |
| Becky: So simply, we can add the verb phrase to the question word. What question words do we have in Vietnamese? |
| Huyen: In Vietnamese, we have ai meaning “who,” gì meaning “what,” khi nào meaning “when,” and finally ở đâu meaning “where.” |
| Becky: These come after the verb phrase. We also have the phrase meaning “is fine.” |
| Huyen: That’s right. After Mặc gì, meaning “what to wear,” we have thì được meaning “is fine.” Then finally, we have the word nhỉ, the particle to ask for confirmation from the other speaker. |
| Becky: Okay. Can you say the sentence once again? |
| Huyen: Mặc gì thì được nhỉ? |
| Becky: Literally, “What is fine to wear?” |
| Huyen: Verb phrase, question word, then thì được. |
| Becky: Using this same pattern, how can we say.. “What food is fine to cook?” |
| Huyen: For that, you can say.. Nấu món gì thì được ạ? First, we have Nấu, the verb phrase meaning “to cook” then món, which is the noun meaning “dish” or “food.” |
| Becky: Then we have the question word and the phrase meaning “is fine,” right? |
| Huyen: Yes. So altogether, we have Nấu món gì thì được ạ. |
| Becky: “What food is fine to cook?” But in written Vietnamese or in a very formal situation, we should use another verb. |
| Huyen: That’s right. In a very formal situation or in written Vietnamese, you need to use the verb nên instead of thì được. Nên is the verb meaning “should.” |
| Becky: When you use this word, you need to also change the sentence order. Then how can we say “What should I wear?” in a formal situation? |
| Huyen: It’s Tôi nên mặc gì nhỉ? First, say the subject. Here, the subject is “I”, so you can start with the formal pronoun Tôi. Then the verb nên meaning “should,” and the other verb mặc, meaning “to wear.” |
| Becky: Then you can finish the sentence with the question word.. |
| Huyen: gì, which means “what,” and then nhỉ. All together, it’s Tôi nên mặc gì nhỉ? |
| Becky: “What should I wear?” or literally “I should wear what?” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Huyen: Cảm ơn các bạn. |
Comments
Hide