My blog for helping Vietnamese learners

[vietnamese4u]

I present a blog I've just created recently. My purposes are for helping everyone who is learning Vietnamese and I also want to practice my English..

Here is the link: vietnamese4u.wordpress.com

I'll try to post new stuff regularly. I hope you can improve your Vietnamese and enjoy the blog. Don't hesitate to contact me to help and share knowledge

[Tanyenbai]

Go ahead. Good job. If I were you I would not say about the difficulties. Concentrate on the tones and I am sure that you will be successful.

[birgit]

I see many words for "a piece of " something to eat in Vietnamese.
Which word do you use?
A piece of bred? of fish?, of cake, of round food like banh tet?
etc. In Vietnam you have so many words connected to eat.
Can you help me?
Birgit

[vietnamese4u]

umm, "a piece of" means "1 miếng" or "1 mẩu". The word "1 miếng" is used more common than.
For examples:
a piece of "Bánh Tét" = một miếng Bánh Tét
a piece of bread = một miếng bánh mì / một mẩu bánh mì

because "bánh" = cake, so I guess that you can also call "bánh Tét" = "Tét cake". But calling "Bánh Tét" is better for you.

some another phrases:
- a loaf of: một ổ ...
- a slice of: một lát ...

[birgit]

Com on rat nhieu!
Can I also use " 1 mieng", when i wish a piece of meat or fish ( cut in the slices, that you use in Vietnam, eating with chopsticks?
And for a piece of f.ex. chocolate or "keo"?
Is it right, that you use another word, for a piece of Ice "1 cuc da"?
And to be even more spesific : do you use different words for cutting into slices for cooking-like sometimes you have to cut in round, in cubes, or slice very thin??
We are having a discussion here in Denmark in my Vietnamese class. Our teacher from North Vietnam, tells us,that there are a lot of different words, but she has not been in Vietnam for 25 yers, so she says, things might have changed.
Thank you from Denmark.
Birgit

[english-learner]

Com on rat nhieu!
Can I also use " 1 mieng", when i wish a piece of meat or fish ( cut in the slices, that you use in Vietnam, eating with chopsticks?
And for a piece of f.ex. chocolate or "keo"?
Is it right, that you use another word, for a piece of Ice "1 cuc da"?
And to be even more spesific : do you use different words for cutting into slices for cooking-like sometimes you have to cut in round, in cubes, or slice very thin?? In this case you use "mot lat"
We are having a discussion here in Denmark in my Vietnamese class. Our teacher from North Vietnam, tells us,that there are a lot of different words, but she has not been in Vietnam for 25 yers, so she says, things might have changed.
Thank you from Denmark.
Birgit

In the case of "banh tet" you say " a piece of banh tet" mean " một lát bánh tét" or you simply say "một lát" For ex: Give me another piece (of sth) = cho tôi thêm một lát.= cho tôi một lát nữa
a piece of bread = một lát bánh mì
You should notice that "một miếng bánh mì" is different from "một lát bánh mì"
because that "một miếng bánh mì" has an unstable shape (it can be formed by a bite from your mouth !!)but "một lát bánh mì" is a piece which is cut (by knife) from a loaf of bread
If you go to the market and if you want to buy a piece of meat you say "cut me a piece of meat" this means 'Cắt cho tôi một lát thịt". Of course, it is no problem if you say "cắt cho tôi một miếng thịt" because the butcher understand your words but lát thịt is more precise/formal than miếng thịt.

[vietnamese4u]

Can I also use " 1 mieng", when i wish a piece of meat or fish ( cut in the slices, that you use in Vietnam, eating with chopsticks?

yes, you can

And to be even more spesific : do you use different words for cutting into slices for cooking-like sometimes you have to cut in round, in cubes, or slice very thin??

no, you can use "1 lát" for all. No problem. Ah, about "a slice very thin", it means "1 lát mỏng" (a slice thin)

English-learner, you are quite right when you say "một lát bánh mì" but I think it's better to be "a slice of bread".
I suggest "1 lát" = "a slice"
Sometime, you can hear "1 khoanh" used for a slice cut in round. But don't get confused, in Vietnam, everyone can understand very well what you say about even you use "1 miếng", "1 lát" or "1 khoanh".

About the word "1 viên" or "1 cục". It's used to express a small piece in any shape
Ex: 1 cục/viên kẹo (a piece of candy), 1 cục đá (a piece of stone)
Sometime you can hear someone say "1 hạt". It means "a tiny piece" such as in "1 hạt sạn" (a piece of grit)

[birgit]

Thank you so much!

You are explaining everything very clear.
And your blog is so good.
In your blog, I have looked at the demonstrative pronomen "day" and "do" for "this" and "that".
I have a question:
What is the difference between using "kia" and "do" to translate "that" pointig out something away from you?

And I know, that you have some expressions like "ngay kia" and "sau do", can you say nagy do instead? and "sau kia"?

[english-learner]

Thank you so much!

You are explaining everything very clear.
And your blog is so good.
In your blog, I have looked at the demonstrative pronomen "day" and "do" for "this" and "that".
I have a question:
What is the difference between using "kia" and "do" to translate "that" pointig out something away from you?

And I know, that you have some expressions like "ngay kia" and "sau do", can you say nagy do instead? and "sau kia"?

I can explain to you for him.
"đây" = here , I'm here= tôi đây nè, or tôi đây
"this " = này, what's this? = cái này là cái gì? = đây là cái gì? But nobody says "cái đây là cái gì? " because it sounds dull
'Đây' or 'này' used to point something near you, and 'kia' or 'đó' for sth away form you.
Cái đó là cái gì = what's that? . Đó là một quả táo = That's an apple.
But notice this case:
You pick up a book and ask someone:
What's this? . He can be answer: That' s a book/ that's novel etc....
In this case the book is in your hand, so you use "cai nay..." but it's not in his hand so he replies "đó là...".
some examples:
Ông ấy ở đằng kia = he's over there.
Hãy đi tới đằng kia và gặp bà ấy = go there and see her.
Tôi sẽ đến đó= I'll go there.

Talking of the time:
Một ngày kia, một ngày nọ = Once day ( the day is not at the moment, it can be in the past or future)
Sau đó = after__cái ngày sau đó = the day after (this is the title of a film)
ngày mai =tomorrow= ngày hôm sau.
Ngày kia (In future) = the day after tomorrow = ngày mốt (used more popular than ngày kia)

I hope it would help you sth.

[Maline]

Vietnamese4u, thanks for your blog. I already subscribed to the feeds :