"nụ" means flower-bud

"hôn" means kiss

what do they mean together as a word group? i can't find an entry for it in the dictionary ...

thanks.

pink flower

or dry flower???

to kiss a flower!

hon or hong?

I was about to type first kiss...lol

thanks for the explanation!

"Nụ" is a classifier, in this case it turns a verb "hôn" (kiss) into a noun (the/a kiss). If you don't know what a classifier is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classifier_%28linguistics%29

is it a common classifier/nominalizer? because i can't find a reference to it in my vietnamese grammar book...

Well, that is just kiss and you don't separate the words, it's one of those where you don't sit there bored and decided ok wtf , why these 2 words don't make sense when they are put together .... no

nụ hôn

You have to visualize it. Look at yourself in a mirror, and pretend to give someone a tender kiss. How does that look like?

nụ : an analogy for the tender rosy lips formed in the shape of a flower bud when kissing softly and tenderly.

hôn : so, this one , not this one

.

i dont know maybe our mouths look liek a flower ><

there's a lot of viet words that are like this.

Damn Prey, you are resourceful dude

It's a very rare classifier. All the nouns which can use "nụ" as a classifier that I can think of right now: nụ hôn (kiss), nụ cười (smile).


It's just Wiki dude.

Herbsttag, most of us here are oversea Vietnamese and we do not have a good grasp of the Vietnamese language from a grammatic technical point of view. Sorry we couldn't help you much. There are quite a great deal of words like that in our language. To a foreigner who just start out to learn our language, I feel your pain. This is one of the most difficult aspect of the language. But look on the bright side, other aspects of the grammar is very simple

Just to list a few so called "classifier/normalizer/modifier/article-ish/whatever-you-call-it".
The most common are "cái" and "con". "cái" is usually paired with nouns that are non-living, static, stationery whereas "con" is usually paired with nouns that are dynamic, moveable, active, living, etc..

**classifier of things that are static/dynamic
cái => bàn (table), xe (vehicle), giếng (well), hồ (lake), miệng (mouth), lưỡi (tongue)
con => sông (river), bướm (butterfly), mắt (eye, for plural use "đôi" or "cập" mắt)
Now you may ask, why would an eye and a mouth be any different (both move) ?
(but the most interesting ones are: female's private paired with "cái" whereas male's private paired with "con" make sure you get that one right. Very important!)

**indication of number of things, sort of like article in the English language
chiếc => nhẩn (ring), ghe (canoe) - indication of single entity (what about many canoes? then it should be những chiếc ghe)
đôi => đủa (chopsticks), tình nhân (couple/lovers), mắt (eyes) - used with things in pair
căp?cập (not sure the spelling) => also signifies pairness...cập mắt (eyes)

quyễn => sách (book) why not "cái" sách ? I have no idea!
cuốn => sách (book)

bức - thư (letter), tranh (painting), họa (drawing), tường (wall) why not "cái" ?
nụ - hôn (kiss), cười (smile), hồng/hoa (rose/blossom flower)

...others...

thank you all. your replies have been very helpful

basicly it's mean "A Kiss" and "ho^n" alone mean "to kiss"

are you viet? didnt know

anyways, tell me you are NOT wearing a visor........

Yeah i'm viet......Why not wearing a visor?

people still wear that?

cặp

cái & con are only grammatical articles.

whereas
bàn, xe, giếng, hồ, miệng, lưỡi, all can be or become classifiers.

Examples
cái bàn làm việc, bàn kê đầu giường, bàn đêm, bàn ủi, bàn đạp...
cái xe đẩy, xe kéo, xe máy, xe hơi, xe đạp...
cái giếng nước, giếng dầu hoả...
cái hồ cá vàng, hồ sen, Hồ Gươm
cái miệng giếng, miệng hầm...
cái lưỡi dao, lưỡi gươm, lưỡi kiếm, lưỡi liềm, lưỡi lam...

cái quyễn /cuốn sách <- cf. a rolled parchment; quyện & cuộn have the same meaning.

cái nụ : generally for hoa (all hoa): cái nụ hoa hồng, nụ hoa cúc, etc.

chiếc : each /apiece ; single -> singled out -> singular -> in particular, and thus, in "những chiếc ghe", what is intrinsic, yet missing, is "này /đó" -> những chiếc ghe này /đó == these /those canoes.

nụ
nụ vối, is a variety of tea: trà nụ vối.

also used in -> nở nụ, kết nụ, cười nụ.

EDIT.
Forgot examples for hồ, just added them. Remember: một con dao, but một cái dao cạo (râu)!

I have to disagree with you there. "bàn, xe, giếng, hồ, miệng, lưỡi, etc." in the examples you cited are not classifiers. They're still nouns (danh từ). The words followed them simply function as adjectives (tĩnh từ) to help differentiate the meaning of the noun(s). For example: "hồ nước" và "hồ sen", the noun here is still "hồ". The words "nước" và "sen" are just to tell what kind of "hồ" it is. Similarly, "xe" is the noun in "xe đẩy, xe kéo, xe máy, xe hơi, xe đạp, etc."

By the way, it's "quyển"

c...

Hi hi, I'm pleased that at least someone here had noticed that big joke! Why do they all seem so serious suddenly?!


1.
I think classifiers are only categorizers, nothing else. And they have no such grammatical function like nouns or verbs, adjectives etc. But you are right, I also think I must be wrong somewhere, for I typed the above rather carelessly and playfully, and now I don't want to correct myself just in case I'm wrong...

2 You're right again. You're a real genius, for I copied and pasted "quyễn" from your own text, also as carelessly...