Learn how to say "no" in Vietnamese
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Intro |
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| Michael: How do I say "no" in Vietnamese? |
| Nguyet: And how do I make negative sentences? |
| Michael: At VietnamesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Sasha Lee talks to her friend Lan Ly about a party happening tonight. She asks her friend, |
| "Are you going to the party tonight?" |
| Nguyet as Sasha Lee: Bạn có định đến bữa tiệc tối nay không? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Bạn có định đến bữa tiệc tối nay không? |
| Lan Ly: Không, tôi không đi dự tiệc tối nay. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Bạn có định đến bữa tiệc tối nay không? |
| Michael: "Are you going to the party tonight?" |
| Lan Ly: Không, tôi không đi dự tiệc tối nay. |
| Michael: "No, I'm not going to the party tonight." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say "no" and make negative sentences in Vietnamese. First, let's review how to make a simple negative sentence. In Vietnamese, you make a negative sentence by using the word, |
| Nguyet: không |
| Michael: This word both means "no" and "not." To negate a sentence, you simply place this word before the verb. For instance, to say "I know Vietnamese" in the Vietnamese language, you say, |
| Nguyet: Tôi biết tiếng Việt. |
| Michael: To turn this into a negative sentence, or "I do not know Vietnamese," you say, |
| Nguyet: Tôi không biết tiếng Việt. |
| Michael: with the negation placed before the verb, |
| Nguyet: biết |
| Michael: or "to know." When negating a noun, the word is also placed before the noun in the sentence. For instance, if you want to say "That is not my book," you say, |
| Nguyet: Đó không phải là cuốn sách của tôi. |
| Michae: Again, the negation appears before the noun being negated in the sentence, which is this case is |
| Nguyet: sách |
| Michael: or "book." |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: This time, let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Lan Ly says "No, I'm not going to the party tonight?" |
| Nguyet as Lan Ly: Không, tôi không đi dự tiệc tối nay. |
| Michael: Here, we see two instances of the negation, |
| Nguyet: không |
| Michael: The first instance is the translation of the word "no," while the second instance is the translation of the word "not." Again, to negate a simple sentence, we place the negation before the verb, which in this case is the word |
| Nguyet: đi |
| Michael: or "go." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to make a negative sentence in Vietnamese. To do so, we use the word, |
| Nguyet: không |
| Michael: which could mean "no" or "not." When used as the adverb "not," it is often placed before the verb in the sentence, such as in |
| Nguyet: Tôi không đi. |
| Michael: or "I am not leaving." When used as the exclamation "no," it either stands on its own or is placed at the beginning of a sentence, such as in |
| Nguyet: Không, xin đừng làm vậy! |
| Michael: or "No, please don't do that!" There are other ways to say "no" in Vietnamese besides the word we've covered so far. For instance, if you want to say "not yet," you will use the word |
| Nguyet: chưa |
| Michael: For instance, if someone asks you, |
| Nguyet: Ăn cơm chưa? |
| Michael: "Have you eaten yet?" and you want to answer in the negative, you can simply say, |
| Nguyet: Chưa |
| Michael: or "Not yet." Meanwhile, if you don't want to directly say "no" to someone, you can use the expression, |
| Nguyet: Để lúc khác |
| Michael: which means "Maybe another time." Finally, you can use the expression, |
| Nguyet: Không thể nào |
| Michael: if you want to say that something is not possible. It means "No way," or "That's not possible." |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: The Vietnamese negation that we've covered in this lesson, or |
| Nguyet: không, |
| Michael: doesn't only function as a negation but also as a question particle in most types of questions. For instance, you will use it when asking, |
| Nguyet: Bạn có biết tiếng Việt không? |
| Michael: or "Do you know Vietnamese?" It is also usually found in tag questions like in the question, |
| Nguyet: Bạn đang học tiếng Việt, phải không? |
| Michael: or, "You're learning Vietnamese, right?" |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Nguyet: Tạm biệt! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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