# Vietnamese: How's business?



## Encolpius

Hello, I speak no Vietnamese, but there is a little Vietnamese restaurant in my neighbourhood and I want to ask the owner how her business is going in an informal way. I'd like to say "How's business"? Thanks.


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## Radioh

"Chuyện làm ăn của cô tốt chứ?"(lit. Is your business doing well?). If you two are really close friends, you can simply say "Làm ăn tốt hông?"(lit. Business good?). The latter is very informal.


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## Encolpius

Hello, since I speak no Vietnamese I tried to analyse the sentences with the dictionary.
Làm ăn tốt hông?
Làm ăn - business
tốt - well
hông - is that not không 

I do not understand chuyện and tốt chứ. What do the words mean?
What if the owner is a man? What personal pronoun would you use instead of cô?


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## Radioh

I think you got it right and it's hard to explain but I'll try: 
-Chứ and Không/Hông(Hông is colloquial, very informal and common, esp. in Southern Vietnam) are used to form questions, usually placed at the end of the question. 
Chuyện is a special word, sometimes used in front of nouns. It's similar to The in English, I think. For example, "Chuyện làm ăn của cô"~"The business of yours".
Tốt means Good, Well.
And if the owner is male, use Anh instead of Cô.


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## vmode_dr

Encolpius said:


> Hello, I speak no Vietnamese, but there is a little Vietnamese restaurant in my neighbourhood and I want to ask the owner how her business is going in an informal way. I'd like to say "How's business"? Thanks.


You can say : 1/Chuyện làm ăn thế nào, her name ?
2/ Quán dạo này bán được không, her name ?
3/ Chuyện làm ăn của cô tốt chứ ( like Radioh)


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## Encolpius

Hello and thank you. In the meantime I checked my grammar book and now I know what chuyện is. 
You wrote: "Chuyện làm ăn của cô tốt chứ?
Can I say: "Chuyện làm ăn của cô tốt không?


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## Radioh

Yes, that works perfectly too, Encolpius.


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## anhnguyen

Informal, very colloquial, but I have heard a lot in my daily life: "Dạo này làm ăn sao rồi?". But remember, use this only if you know this person very well (close friends), since this sentence omits the pronoun and sounds rude. 
Hope this could help you.


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## Encolpius

Thank you.


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## jacobngo

1. Việc kinh doanh dạo này thế nào?
2. Công việc ổn chứ?
3. Việc làm ăn có tốt không?


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