i might be late but in reading the beginning posts toi and may are rude ways to say it. I know because I got introuble for calling my cousin may and saying I'm toi XD

tôi is not a rude way to say 'I' or 'me'... it's actually too polite so it's kinda awkward to use among close friends or family cuz it's too formal. But mầy is a rude way to say 'you' and is normally only used among close friends... or when parents are angry with their children they call them 'mầy'. But a younger person cannot use 'mầy' with adults or anyone older. Although it could be used with people younger than you but it's still considered a rude way to talk to them.

Guys tend to use 'mầy' and 'tao' (me) with each other... girls tend to use their names to refer to 'you' and 'me'. For instance, my name is Donna and my friend's name is Nicole so I could say:

Nicole muốn đi ăn với Donna không? which can be translated as 'Do you (Nicole) want to go eat with me (Donna)?'

Yeah I know... confusing huh? I think the personal pronouns are the most confusing for people wanting to learn Vietnamese cuz names could also be used as I, me, and you... in addition to all the other ways to say them.

oh yeah, i got it wrong its well its th-ow lol i dont know how to spell it. I'm a pretty sad viet -_-

Wow, 8 years in Viet school and I didn't learn any of that stuff up there, lol. JK.

Good info, I'll be back if I've forgotten something, thx.

Sure... come back whenever you have questions and we'll try our best to help you out

Hai Phong accent best distinguishes the initials.


I suppose:
ô [o] -> I don't think English has this phoneme.
o [ɔ]

? ~: both seems falling-rising, both started low falling, but in the rising part ? ends up lower, ~ ends uphigher

interesting, can you tell more about this.
Yes, I think there are slight differences between Northern accents, but not so sure to tell how they are different.
Are you from Hai Phong by the way?

Vietnamese is a pronunciation language. In English, each person and for sure each little area has it's own sound, inflections, syntax etc. Like in English you could say dog as dag, dhog, dawg, dug, maybe twenty different ways. In Tieng Viet, that would easily be twenty very different very definite words. So, besides the six tones, there are at least twenty to fifty words for almost every word that sound very much like that word, taking into account all those a's o's and u's and use of h and etc. So you are almost always on page one, pronounciation, even after you've learned tons of words. The pronounciation changes from word to word in mathmatically arranged miniscule increments. Imagine a pile of spider webs on top of each other and you're spiraling down in to this mess ....it takes enormous will and submission to learn this language.

A Vietnamese essay of mine (written a long time ago):

Cảm Xúc
Có ba trạng thái cảm xúc hằng chi phối và chế ngự mọi ham muốn mà tôi có trong suốt quãng đời qua. Với tinh thần náo nức của tuổi trẻ, như mọi thanh niên khác, tôi hằng bỏ công săn tìm sự mới lạ của cuộc sống trong thú đam mê tình yêu, lòng khao khát kiến thức, và óc mưu cầu danh vọng. Cả ba luồng cảm xúc này, với sức mạnh kỳ diệu của chúng, đã nhiều lần đưa hồn tôi tiếp cận với những cảm giác tuyệt thú vô biên lẫn trạng thái chán chường đến mức tuyệt vọng.
Tôi khao khát tình yêu vì yêu đương, dù ở dạng thức hương khói trong vài phút giây tưởng tượng, đã đưa vào hồn tôi những cảm giác đê mê chất ngất, chất ngất đến nỗi tôi cứ ngỡ hồn mình có thể tan nhanh theo mây nước thành một thứ chất tinh anh mà nhờ đó tôi có thể tìm thấy những nét đẹp diệu kỳ mà đấng siêu nhiên đã rộng lượng ban cho kiếp người. Dù chỉ mới tìm được một chút hơi hướng ấy, tôi cũng đủ phát nghiện.
Sau tình yêu, tôi mê mẫn với cuộc phiêu lưu đi tìm kiến thức. Tôi ước ao được cỡi thuyền trên dòng tri thức để lai vãng quan chiêm vũ trụ, để xem cái gì kết tinh thành tinh tú. Có lúc, tôi thèm được thấu triệt những nguyên lý của thế giới vi mô, để biết làm thế nào hình dung ra kích thước bé nhỏ của một hạt lượng tử. Sự mênh mông đến vô cùng của những thứ ấy đôi lúc có làm tôi hoảng sợ, và cho đến giờ tôi cũng chỉ tìm được một lượng ít ỏi kiến thức, ít hơn cả những thứ mà tôi tìm được ở tình yêu.
Nhưng có lẽ thất vọng nhất là con đường đi tìm danh lợi, tôi chưa tìm được gì cả, nhưng vẫn hy vọng ở một ngày mai. Nguồn khoái cảm có được từ niềm hy vọng ấy cũng đủ đưa hồn tôi lên đến thiên đàng.
.... [cut]

Read my post here.
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40738


No. It's my friend.

My father just told me this funny Vietnamese poem... it's so neat how the whole poem is written with the letter "r" only.

Rầu rĩ râu ri, râu ria ra rậm rạp,
Rờ răng răng rụng, rờ rún rún rung rinh.
Râu rầu rĩ, râu rớt râu rơi
Răng run run răng rời răng rã
Rún rã rời, rún réo ro ro!

Apparently there are many poems like this that are written with other letters. Does anyone know of them? I wonder if other languages can do this too.

Btw... can someone translate this poem plz ... I understand most of it except for the 3rd and 6th lines... like, how can a beard be sad? And what does rún réo ro ro mean? I only understand rún meaning belly button but what does réo ro ro mean?

tomb and horse sounds alike even though with different marks dont u agree? Viet language is so difficult...a year ago i could barely write any viet...now i kinda can but the marks are so difficult >.<

If you get my mom to say them you'll hear the difference... but yeah.. it's generally more difficult to distinguish among the ?, ~ and . accent marks if you speak with a Southern accent.

Yes! Mandarin have ShiShiShiShiShi.
All Characters below are Shi with different tones in Mandarin:
title: 石室嗜獅史

石室詩史施氏, 嗜獅, 誓食十獅。
氏時時適市視獅。
十時, 適十獅適市。
是時, 適施氏適市。
氏視是十獅, 恃矢勢, 使是十獅逝世。
氏拾是十獅屍, 適石室。
石室濕, 氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭, 氏始試食是十獅。
食時, 始識是十獅屍實十石獅，試釋是事！

In other (non-Mandarin exc. Wu) Chinese version, not all sound the same but the initial consonants are the same.
In Wu it will become a Zh-Sh sing.


réo = shout out loud, cry out, sounding alarm, crying with alarm
ro ro= no idea.

how u say "are u going to" in viet?

That's cool. I was hoping only us Vietnamese could do that



LOL... thanks for trying to translate it for me

It's kinda hard to translate it just like that cuz it's incomplete... but I'll try with some examples:

1. Are you going to school? Em đi học hả? (To a younger person)

2. Are you going to the concert? Anh có đi văn nghệ không? (To guy slightly older - polite).
You could also say the same sentence for 'Did you go to the concert?'

3. Are you going to Vietnam? Anh đi Việt Nam hả?


*Note: the words hả and không doesn't really mean anything in these sentences other than turning the sentence into a question.

The third line means like
Râu rầu rĩ = the beard (rau) is sad, thus
râu rớt râu rơi => the beard (rau) drops tears.
Rún rã rời= the tummy is basically collapsing (i don't have better words lol)
rún réo ro ro= it shrieks ro ro

Hey thanks for trying to help me understand this poem

I think I kinda get it now... but doesn't râu rớt râu rơi means that the beard is falling bit by bit?

I asked my mom what rún réo ro ro means and she said it's basically trying to express that the tummy is crying out in hunger by making rumbling sounds... the "ro ro" is the rumbling sound.

It basically means that teeth beard and stomach is breaking.

râu rớt râu rơi = râu rớt + râu rơi.

I don't think I got the exact definition from dictionary, AFAIK they (rơi and rớt) mean the same, its like double phrase.


Hm... I just mix Indonesian and Chinese grammar and put in Viet translation. So anyone please correct it.

Anh đi ... không?
(I think this anh may be replaced by any appropiate pronouns.)

THANKZ =)

what does kong biet means?

BTW I'm not Vietnamese speaker, so perhaps I did some mistake.

Kong Biet? I've never seen 'Ko' in Vietnamese before. Vietnamese use both K and C to represent the same sound, but K before I and E only, the remaining use C.

không biết = don't know

the word "khong" literally means the number 0, by adding biet in it means dont know, hey Grasy your Vietnamese is pretty good, where you llearned it?

the word "khong" literally means the number 0, by adding biet in it means dont know, hey Grasy your Vietnamese is pretty good, where you llearned it?

I learnt that không is used for 'no', and even 'not'
không có = not have/not exist (I think)

Actually at the first time I saw không, I thought of "empty".
Chinese 空 k-h-ong="empty"
Indonesian kosong="empty"

Since zero is not a concrete number, everyone have to use other related word. Indonesian sometimes uses "kosong" (empty) as their "zero", sometimes use "nol" (derived from European root, related to "null")

Some others may have the same logic (zero=empty) that they use "empty" as "zero", so the original meaning could be "empty" rather than "zero".

What is/are the proper word(s) in Vietnamese for 'empty'?

I think you're right... không can also be used to mean 'empty' or 'zero'. I never realized that until you brought it up... that's pretty interesting

Btw... your Vietnamese is pretty good but you said you're not a native Vietnamese speaker. May I ask what your native language is?

My native languages: Mandarin Chinese and Indonesian.
I just learned a little Vietnamese.

I know putting negative words in end is to make a question. It's sort of "(or) not".

But I found that hả is not a negative word?

You're right... hả is not a negative word... it's just a question word. If you say it on it's own people will think that you didn't hear what they said and they'll repeat themselves. So on it's own it means.. What?

This hả is quite strange.

"Ha?" put before a sentence means doubt. 2 (just kidding)

Another negative word is "not yet" chưa, put in the end of question to form "have you ..."

Same logic is found in some of Chinese and Indonesian.

To me the word "ha" does represent negatively while conjuring a question

Wow... you're good! I never even thought about the double use of the word 'chưa'

As for hả... I guess you could use it as What? in a doubtful way.

I really like to learn Vietnamese. That'd be cool. I think I'll go purchase a Vietnamese Dictionary and Phrase book. I'll check Ebay.

kho^ng = no or zero as in so^' kho^ng or empty MUST be as Tro^'ng kho^ng

Yes you're right... there must be the word trống in front of không to mean 'empty'

I guess không on it's own just means 'no' and when you say it with a string of numbers .. like a phone number.. then it means 'zero' .. then if you have it at the end of a sentence then it becomes a question. So complicated

I have a vietnamese books but no tapes, so my vietnamese is bad, but I still like the vietnamese language.

Yeah, Vietnamese often pair synomyms to make meanings clearer.
I asked "What is/are the proper word(s) in Vietnamese for 'empty'?" because it seemed unlikely for "không" to be used alone as "empty"

By the way is "trống" alone is usually used?
"Số" means number so "Số không" means no.0. (0 is still related to 'empty')

"No" in the end as question is quite common (in the region), but the relationship of 'empty' and 'no' is quite strange if any.

hmmm... good question. I guess if you said the word 'trống' alone it could be understood to mean 'empty'. But I don't think that's proper grammar.

Btw.. the word 'drum' in Vnese sounds a lot like 'trống' .. is it the same spelling? Anyone know?

Really? Wow.. what do you like ab the Vnese language? What's your native language?

yup, same spelling

^ thank vIeTpRidEs_wOrLdWiDe

Geez.. it must be so confusing for people trying to learn Vnese

yeah , its really is confusing, even some native speakers are wrong sometimes. My friend said lie = sa.o but its not , its xa.o . And many more ....

Hay lam, nhung ma nen co ai bat dau tap bai nay may lan truoc roi. Ngoai day tieng Viet cho nguoi viet kieu chua luu loat, nhat nguoi chi noi ve bat cu chuyen gi khong co gia tri. Keep it up guys.

I'm having probs trying to fig out what you're writing w/o the accent marks... my vnese is still weak

http://www.griessersoftware.com/

Your language is interesting..I hope to know it someday...

Very interesting Thread we have here...

Here is my two cent... any guy who say this will get all the hots chicks.

"Anh yeu em Lau dai" Pronounce ""ahn zeu em lou zai" <--- guys to girl

"Em yeu anh Lau dai" <----- girls to guys

say it.. works for me all the time

Thanks

If I could be of any help, I'll be glad to

Awww.. how sweet. You could also try anh chỉ yêu mình em thôi.. cheesy but girls love it... it means "I only love you"

Thank you ddha.. its good to meet some nice vietnamese here..