Learn how to use some common Vietnamese greetings
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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 be grateful to people by saying cảm ơn. In this lesson we’ll learn some of the most common greetings used in Vietnamese. |
| Bạn đã sẵn sàng chưa? Are you ready? Chúng ta cùng bắt đầu nhé, so let’s start! |
| The general greeting in Vietnamese is: |
| Xin chào |
| [slowly] Xin chào. |
| Xin chào means “hi/ hello” and is used when we meet each other. As I already mentioned in the first lesson, you can say “Xin chào” in both formal and informal situations as well as at any time of the day. Vietnamese people do not distinguish which part of the day they are meeting when greeting each other. So such words as “good morning”, “good afternoon” or “good evening” are basically not in use. |
| When leaving, we say: |
| Tạm biệt |
| Tạm biệt (slowly) |
| Tạm biệt literally means goodbye and is considered both formal and informal. |
| Finally, “see you soon” in Vietnamese is “hẹn gặp lại” and again, it is used both formally and informally. The more intimate way to say “see you soon” is “hẹn gặp lại nhé”. “Nhé” literally has no meaning, it is added at the end just to make the sentence more natural and melodious. |
| Hẹn gặp lại |
| Hẹn gặp lại nhé. |
| Now you can greet people in many different ways in Vietnamese! |
| Let’s review them all again. |
| When meeting each other, at anytime of a day: |
| Xin chào! |
| When leaving, we say: |
| Tạm biệt! |
| When we want to see the person again: |
| Hẹn gặp lại! |
| Hẹn gặp lại nhé! |
| It’s easy, isn’t it? |
| Now it’s time for Giang’s Insights. |
| A more natural way to greet someone is to omit the word “Xin” and just say “chào” together with an object pronoun addressing the one you meet. Vietnamese language consists of a complicated system of pronouns which vary according to gender, age and how close the relationship. |
| For example: |
| Chào bạn |
| Chào anh |
| Chào chị |
| Chào em |
| Chào chú/bác |
| Chào cô |
| Well, this sounds complex, right? But once you learn more, you’ll find them interesting. Anyway, the easiest and safest way to greet someone is saying “Xin chào” and just that. Pretty convenient, isn’t it? |
| During the next lesson we’ll learn the meaning of the phrase Bạn có nói được tiếng Anh không? Do you already know it? We'll be waiting to talk about it with you in our next Fast Vietnamese lesson. |
| Tạm biệt! Hẹn gặp lại. |
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