# Vietnamese: please hold (the phone) / don't hang up



## eliot 96801

How do I tell a Vietnamese speaker to please stay on the phone line while I get an interpreter?  Something simple, since I don't speak Vietnamese.  For example, "please hold", "don't hang up", etc.
Thanks in advance.


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## Anhbo

You can tell them " Xin hãy giữ máy" hoặc " Làm ơn xin giữ máy", " Xin đừng gác máy"...etc..


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## J.F. de TROYES

Hi, Anhbo , and welcome to our forum.
The point is that it's impossible to pronounce Vietnamese when you know nothing about Vietnamese and read these sentences. I know very,very little , but I'll try to clear out how to say your last sentence by using English spelling :

*Xin đừng gác máy* 

_*xin* ( please )_ is pronounced _sin_ .

In _đừng_ ( don't ) _đ_ is the same as _d_  and _ng_ as in _getti*ng*_... Let's say _ừ_ is close to the second _on_ in  _Lond*on .*_ The grave accent says a low pitch , i.e. the word is pronounced lower than _xin_.


*gác* ( put down back ) is like _ga(k)_ The k is not really pronounced , but 'stopped' . The acute accent says a high pitch , the word being pronounced higher than_ xin ._

_*máy*_ ( the device ) is close to _m + ay_ ( in _hay_ ) with a high pitch as in _gác_ .

Hope it helps.


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## divisortheory

Since you don't speak any Vietnamese at all, I would suggest coming up with the simplest possible way (from a pronunciation standpoint) of getting the point across even if it's not necessarily what a native speaker would say in the same situation.  then get the interpreter on the phone and let them explain what's going on.

In that regard, I would say:

xin chờ chút.

Literally, this means "please wait a second".  Phonetically, it sounds close to:

sin   chuh(1)   choop(2)

(1) starts out with a high town and rapidly gets lower, (2) starts out with a normal tone and rapidly gets higher.  

I can't think of a way to say it in fewer than three words, only 2 of which have accents which getting correct is going to be the main barrier to someone understanding you.


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## eliot 96801

Thanks very much to you all!
Merci beaucoup à vous trois!


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