Learn to ask, "How much?"
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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 count in Vietnamese. I hope you spent some time practicing the numbers, because they will come in handy in this lesson. We’re going to learn how to go shopping in Vietnam! |
| Before we go, you need to know how to say “How much is it?” |
| Bao nhiêu tiền? |
| [slowly] Bao nhiêu tiền? |
| Are you ready to go shopping in Vietnam? Let’s go! |
| You see something you like and want to ask the shopkeeper how much it costs. The first thing to say is…xin hỏi. Do you remember what that means? "Excuse me!" |
| Xin hỏi, bao nhiêu tiền? |
| [slowly] Xin hỏi, bao nhiêu tiền? |
| If we want to be more specific when asking "how much is this?" and refer to a certain type of object -- to say something like "how much is this hat?" -- we need to add a noun classifier, then the object itself, and finally the word này which means “this”. Put bao nhiêu tiền after this phrase. |
| So, "hat" in Vietnamese is mũ. |
| cái is the general classifier for objects. cái mũ này means “this hat” |
| Xin hỏi, cái mũ này bao nhiêu tiền? |
| "Excuse me, how much is this hat?" |
| If you want to refer to an animal, use the classifier con. Here's an example with “chicken”, which is called gà. |
| Xin hỏi, con gà này bao nhiêu tiền? |
| "Excuse me, how much is this chicken?" |
| [slowly] Xin hỏi, con gà này bao nhiêu tiền? |
| At this point the shopkeeper will simply answer with the price. To say a price in Vietnamese, first say the number, then add the word nghìn which means “thousand”. Because 1 US Dollar is equal to about 20,000 Vietnamese dong, we always talk in big numbers when saying prices in Vietnamese. |
| For example, the shopkeeper can say: |
| Bốn mươi nghìn. “40,000 dong”. |
| Notice that the currency unit dong is not needed here. |
| Now that you have learned how to say the numbers from 1 to 100 in Vietnamese, I guess you can catch this price easily, right? |
| Now it’s time for Giang’s Insights. |
| Vietnamese people tend to add particles at the end of sentences to make it more melodic and natural. Here you can say Bao nhiêu tiền vậy? vậy is a particle, usually added at the end of a question. As I said, its function is to help you sound more natural and intimate. For example, at a cafe, you can ask. Một cappuccino, bao nhiêu tiền vậy? “One cappuccino, how much is it?” |
| At this point, can you count currency in Vietnamese? We are going to learn how to do this and much more in the next lesson! |
| I'll be waiting for you in our next 3 phút học tiếng Việt lesson. |
| Tạm biệt! |
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