# Vietnamese: Salutations



## camillethecat

Hello!

I want to learn to say the following words/phrases in Vietnamese:

Hello
Goodbye
Thank You
Yes
No
How are you?
Are you busy?


Thank you all very much!


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## I_like_my_TV

I think I can help you but a preface is necessary:
Unlike many languages, Vietnamese doesn't use the generic addressing term equivalent to "you", which makes it difficult to translate the phrases requested naturally without introducing the Vietnamese ellaborate addressing system. With that in mind, I'll try without incorporating the term "you" in the translations:

Hello: Xin chao (Xin chào)
Goodbye: Chao tam biet (Chào tạm biệt)
Thank You: Cam on (Cám ơn)
Yes: Vang (Vâng)
No: Khong (Không)
How are you? : Khoe khong? (Khoẻ không?)
Are you busy? : Ban viec phai khong? (Bận việc phải không?)

Note: Those in brackets are in normal Vietnamese writing, incorporating the tones, etc. In order to say any of the above with some degree of accuracy, you'd need someone who can speak Vietnamese to help with the pronunciation, because the letters may represent very different sounds from those in your language. Good luck!


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## I_like_my_TV

How to say those salutations: 
If your language is English, first try saying the Vietnamese phrases as if they are in English, it'll be close enough. Besides, when you're actually saying these phrases to a Vietnamese person, I'm sure that person would try to help correcting your pronunciation, if it's not close enough.

Some points to note for pronouncing the given salutations:
X = s, as in "*s*ea"
AO = ou, as in h*ou*se
IE = ie, as V*ie*tnam
PH = f, as in *f*ine

BTW, I didn't introduce the word for _"you"_ in the phrases because depending on who you're talking to, _"Thank you"_, for example, would have to be individualized in the following fashion:

Thank mum
Thank big sister
Thank elder brother
Thank uncle
Thank grandma
Thank friend 
etc...depending on how you'd classify the person you're addressing in one of these terms, instead of just one "Thank you".


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## Encolpius

I_like_my_TV said:


> Hello: Xin chao (Xin chào)
> Goodbye: Chao tam biet (Chào tạm biệt)
> Note: Those in brackets are in *normal Vietnamese writing*,...



Hello, 1/what do you call the writing without tones and 2/do you use it in common writing, messages mainly and my most important question is 3/ how understandable is the writing without tones, are there not many ambiguous words???? Thanks.


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## nochim

Encolpius said:


> Hello, 1/what do you call the writing without tones and 2/do you use it in common writing, messages mainly and my most important question is 3/ how understandable is the writing without tones, are there not many ambiguous words???? Thanks.


1./ 'Viết chữ không dấu'. 
2/ In writing nor speaking in daily, we didn't use that. For example, if you want to greet your boss or someone older than you, the polite way to say is 'Dạ, em chào sếp (Hello, boss)', 'Em chào chị [Hello, ms. (with name or without name is okay)] ...
And if that is your friend or both close to each other, you don't really need to say hello everytime you met. And we didn't say goodbye (Tạm biệt) either. Usually we said 'Bye' ( if that one at my age or younger),
    - if you hang out with friend and want to leave soon or want to say bye to them 
'Ở lại chơi nha, mình xin phép về trước ' [Stay here and play more/ eat more, allow me to leave sooner. (formal way)] 
'Ở lại chơi nha, tao về trước' [Stay here and play more/ eat more, i'll leave first (informal way)] 
And a lot of phrase you learn in the book but we never use that in daily. It will be long if i continue, so i'll stop here.

3/ Vietnamese, could understand due to the context, the situation we were talking about but please write with the tones, because it's really annoyed when read without its.


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