Vietnamese Phrases | 5 Most Useful for Travellers?

Vietnamese Tiếng Việt
1

I’m heading to Saigon for the 3rd time in March next year and I’ve neglected to learn all that much Vietnamese so far.

I want to try and buck that trend this time around and I want to start by learning 5 useful Vietnamese phrases that all travellers will find useful.

Any Vietnamese learners here, or Vietnamese natives who can help me? @Ha_Nguyen @Tram and the Saigon team… I’m looking at your.

Let’s go beyond the usual xin chào and see if we can get some basic phrases in there.

Thanks in advance to everyone who contributes :smiley:

2

Hi Max, can’t wait to see you in March. So which kind of phrases do you want to learn more about? I mean to order food, drinks or to ask for directions, etc.:heart_eyes:

3

Some useful Vietnamese phrases for travelers are:

  • Bao nhiêu tiền? - How much?
  • Cái này - This one: When ordering food, just open the menu, point to the dish you want, and say “cái này”. If you’re buying something in a shop, do the same—point to the item you want and say “cái này”. They will understand you. :wink:
  • (Em ơi) tính tiền - Ask for the bill: When you’re ready to pay, just say “tính tiền”.

Knowing these phrases is enough for you to survive in Vietnam. Besides that, I would suggest learning numbers so you can understand the prices when buying stuff.

1 Like
4

Food related phrases are always the most fun, especially as Vietnamese food is soo good!!

5

Thanks Ha. This one is always super handy in any language :smiley:

6

I think the first thing to know is how to order a coffee? :heart_eyes:

:cup_with_straw: một ly (1) ______ (2) _______ (3) _____
a cup of
(1) cà phê coffee
(2) sữa - condense milk, đen - black
(3) đá - *ice / nóng - hot, without ice

:coffee:một ly bạc xỉu nóng / đá

  • bạc xỉu - a speial kind of coffee with more milk than milk coffee. It is originally to mix fresh milk with coffee. However, the cost of fresh milk is sometimes too high so what people do is to mix condense milk with hot water and add a little coffee into it. Maybe it’s like latte. However, nowadays, people just add more condense milk and call it bạc xỉu. :smiley:

:walking_man: mang về / mang đi - takeaway

7

Ah yes I remember cà phê sữa from my last visits. That’s some of the best coffee I’ve ever had anywhere in the world!

Thanks @Tram this is really useful.

Next time I definitely look out for bạc xỉu

8

Hi Max, I think you might already know it, but my friend who came to Vietnam always said “Cảm ơn ạ” which is for “Thank you” but in a more formal way (“ạ”) and all the locals were so surprised and they treated him soooo nice because they think he was super polite kekeee. So if you can add “ạ” in the end of the sentences, I’m sure the locals gonna be super impressed :100: :100: :100:

1 Like
9

Thanks @Hailee :slight_smile:

Let’s give it a go and see if I get any surprised reactions and smiley faces!

1 Like
10

This is definitely the most important Vietnamese phrase for me, the coffee over there is incredible :drooling_face:

11

@Hailee @Tram do you know the name of the salted coffee with condensed milk?

I had it last time I came to Saigon and it was super nice :yum:

12

It’s called cà phê muối

13

Yes! I remember now, thanks Ha. Let’s have some together in Saigon soon :smiley:

14

I want to try next time :laughing:

1 Like