Shopping Vocabulary in Vietnamese
The term “market” – “Chợ” is an absolute affinity to us as Asians. However, unlike any other developed countries in the area, Vietnam has still retained its uniqueness in the variation of local markets. Consequently, traveling down South or up North all give you the utmost impression of how we Vietnamese go shopping in our daily life. Resultantly, tour operators tend to grant a truly local experience as offering some packages “off the beaten path” for their clients. So now it is the right time to get set for some basic words and phrases just in case you step inside a local market or a clothing store and no one there can speak English.
Contents
Let’s start with some common phrases
“Cái này bao nhiêu ạ?” – “How much is this?”
/cai – nei – bao – dzew – a/?
(In Vietnamese, we often put ” ạ” at the end of every sentence to express our politeness to the listeners – mostly when they are older than us)
“Cái này là gì?” – “What is this?”
/cai – nei – la – dzi/?
“Cái này size bao nhiêu?” – “Which size is it?”
/cai – nei – size – bao – dzew/?
“Cái lớn hơn ; Cái nhỏ hơn?” – “Bigger one ; Smaller one”
/cai – lon – hon ; cai – dzo – hon/?
“Đắt quá!” – “It’s too expensive!”
/dat (d like in “d” in dozen) – kwa/
“Hãy giảm giá!” – “Discount please!”
/hey – zam – za/!
(When you find something too expensive and you want to bargain)
“Bạn có cái nào rẻ hơn không?” – “Do you have anything cheaper?”
/ban – ko – kai – nao – re – hon – kong/
“Tôi muốn mua …” – “I want to buy …”
/toy – moon – mu-ah/
“Có ….. không?” – “Do you have …”?
/co: … ko-um/?
“Cảm ơn rất nhiều!” – “Thank you so much!”
/kam – on – dzat – dzew/!
“Tôi lấy cái này” – “I will get this”
/toy – lei – cai – ney/
“Tôi mặc thử được không?” – “Can I try this on?”
/toy – mak – thu – duck – kong/
“Tôi thanh toán bằng tiền mặt/thẻ…” – “I’ll pay cash/credit card/etc.”
/toy – than – tan – ban – teen – mat/the/
Well, markets comprise a whole bunch of things. You can find fresh red meat displayed on the wooden bars or alive fish whisking in the middle of the trays. So what if you do not know how to say what you want? We are here to help!
Some common words while shopping
Kick off with popular items you will definitely catch sight of:
- Cá /ka:/ : fish
- Bò /bo:/ : beef.
- Heo /he – ew/: pork.
- Gà /ga:/ : chicken
- Thịt /tit/: meat
- Rau /dzau/: vegetables
- Hoa /ho – ah/: flowers
- Quả /qua:/ : fruit
- Cà phê : coffee
- Trà /dja/ : tea
- Thức ăn /thuc (th like “th” in thight – an/ : food
- Quần áo /kwan – ao:/ : clothes
- Ăn /a:n/ : (to) eat
- Uống /oon/ : (to) drink
- Mua /mu-ah/ : (to) buy
- Bán /ban/ : (to) sell
- Giảm giá /dzam – dza:/ : (to) discount
- Giá /dza:/ : price
- Tiền /teen/ : money
- Tính tiền /ting – teen/: it literally means “count the money”. Say this when you want them to bring out the bill.
- Vui lòng ; làm ơn /vui – long ; lam – on/ : please
Some common dishes in Vietnam
- Cơm /com/ : steamed rice
- Phở /pho:/ : Vietnamese rice noodles
- Hủ tiếu /hoo – tew/: soup rice noodles. It’s usually served with pork.
- Mì /mee/ : egg noodles.
- Bún /boon/ : vermicelli noodles
- Bánh mỳ /beng – mee/: Vietnamese stuffed baguette
- Gỏi cuốn /goy – koon/ : spring rolls
- Bánh xèo /banh – xeo/: Vietnamese big pancakes
And then, go for “ĐŨA /du-ah/” if you want to say “chopsticks”; MUỖNG or THÌA /moon/th-ia for a spoon; NĨA /near/ for a fork and DAO /dzao/ for a knife.
There will be much more to come but I do believe that the list I gave you above could help you somewhat while going shopping in Vietnam. So get set, learn all these words, step into a market and practice! You will improve real quick! I recommend you open Google translation to hear how these words and phrases are pronounced correctly since what I explained for the pronunciation above might be easy for you to speak but not 100% correct in proper Vietnamese pronunciation.
This is SO helpful. I’m not sure when I will ever visit that area but I find this type of info more useful than anything when visiting new countries.
I remember when I was in Hanoi, I had a hard time to communicate with the locals that selling food. Haha..It was a funny experience but I think I should have learned some vocabulary like these next time. It’s gonna be helpful.
So helpful. Anyone who want to learn Vietnamese can learn from this post. Hope you have more posts on this topic.
I’m not sure whether I could figure out what they’re saying when talking these phrases out loud, but it’s just so cute btw. So glad that a lot of visitors are making efforts to learn Vietnamese now.
I find this post very helpful as not all vending traders in Vietnam know English. Plus, it is the very basic step to do when you come to Vietnam. Hope the series of learning Vietnamese will be continued!