15 Essential Vietnamese Phrases for Travelers in Vietnam

After travelling in Vietnam for a number of months, I continuously find myself needing a core set of phrases. Here, we present audio and tonal-annotations to help you learn 15 key expressions for travellers in Vietnam: from “Help!” to “Wifi password please” to “That’s too expensive!”

TIP FOR VIETNAM

Make a mobile bookmark of this page so you can play the audio recordings for Vietnamese people who can’t understand what you are saying.

These expressions also serve as great mini-lessons to learn a little Vietnamese grammar and tones: below the play button, be sure to follow the tonal-annotations to learn the words’ proper tones. We use the following key:

• – flat tone
• u up-tone (á)
• d down-tone (à)

• ub up-broken tone (ã)
• sd short-down tone (ạ)
• w “weird” tone (ả)

Read more about the Vietnamese tones here.

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        Bao nhiêu tiền?
   lit: How much  money?
 tones: -   -     d

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Notice the similar “subject – verb – verb – object” form, as in English, for simple declarative statements. But the definite article (“this”) comes after the noun (“thing”) and not before, unlike in English.

   
       Tôi muốn mua cái   này
  lit: I   want buy thing this
tones: -   u    -   u     d

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Notice that English words absorbed into Vietnamese always lose their their final consonant (like in French). The word “Password” is an extreme example of this kind of elaison, whereby the entire word is truncated to just “Pass”.

       Pass     WIFI là gì?
 lit.: Password WIFI is what?
tones: -        -    d  d 

Note: if you find it strange that “gì” is pronounced like “zee” in Vietnamese, be sure to read our Audio Guide to Vietnamese Consonants.

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Notice that the word “bus” isn’t pronounced as in English; rather, the terminal-s is almost silent, resulting in a “bwe(s)” sound.

The words “phải không” convert the expression into a question; they roughly corresponds to an English “Does …?” or “Do …?”

      Xe bus này  đi đến Hà Nội phải không?
lit.: Bus    this go to  Hanoi  does [question]?
tone: -  -   d    -  u   d  sd  w    -

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Remember that the Vietnamese “th” is not pronounced like the English th (as in thick). Instead, “th” is a hard-t with an aspirated “h”. In the accompanying audio, try to listen for that “h”.

       Tôi không ăn  thịt
  lit: I   no    eat meat
tones: -   -     -   sd

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Notice that “chứ” is like “không” in that it converts a declarative statement into a question, but it is considered more polite than không. Notice also that this kind of question is considered a “what” question, and not a “do” question.

        Bạn hiểu       ý    tôi chứ?
  lit:  You understand what me [question]?
tones:  sd  w          u    -   u

An alternative and informal way to ask “do you understand” is “hiểu không?” You could ask this among friends and family, but, assuming you are a tourist, this would be slightly rude to ask strangers.

^Listen:

Notice that in this case, “không” means “no” or “don’t” when placed after the pronoun, and not as a question indicator, when placed at the end of the sentence.

       Tôi không hiểu
 lit.: I   no    understand
tones: -   -     w

This phrase is so important for travellers in Vietnam, we have a full post dedicated to How to say “I don’t understand” in Vietnamese.

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       Bạn nói lại   được      không?
 lit.: You say again can/could [question]
tones: sd  u   sd    sd        -

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Notice the d with the diacritic line through it (đ) is a hard English d. All other Vietnamese d’s are actually pronounced like a “z” sound (in the North).

       Đây  là đâu   trên bản đồ? 
 lit.: This is where on   map?
tones: -    d  -     -    w   d

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“Đắt quá” (too expensive!) is a short & sweat expression that will you definitely need to know in Vietnam if you go shopping as a foreigner. See our article on how to haggle in Vietnam for more on this topic.

       đắt       quá
 lit.: expensive too/very
tones: u         u

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There are two versions of this expression: “Giúp tôi với!” is for non-life-threatening situations, whereas “Cứu tôi với!” conveys more seriousness. Both will get people’s attention. Notice that the terminal “với” is a non-translatable word that imparts a degree of politeness, yet doesn’t reduce the urgency of the request.

       Giúp tôi với!
 lit.: Save me [please]!
tones: u    -   u

This phrase is so important to travellers in Vietnam, see our full post on How to ask for help in Vietnamese.

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Vietnamese is interesting in that there are two expressions for “I’ve been robbed!”, which differ based on on whether you know the guilty party:

• tôi bị cướp – someone robbed me, but I don’t know who did it
• tôi đã bị trấn lột – I was robbed and I know who did it

       Tôi bị      cướp
 lit.: I   am/been robbed
tones: -   sd      u

Fun fact: the word for theif is “người ăn cướp” – which makes sense if you’ve read our post on the word for người.

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In the West, you may have been instructed to never leave your passport in someone else’s possession. In Vietnam, however, if you want to stay at a hotel, they will try to hold onto your passport in their safe-keeping during your stay (it may even be the official policy in Vietnam). With a little confidence and tact, you can use this expression to try to get your passport back and keep it.

       Vui-lòng trả  lại  hộ-chiếu cho tôi
 lit.: Please   give back passport for me 
tones: -   d    w    sd   sd u     -   -

The larger 3-star to 5-star hotels and resorts generally don’t do this, whereas many smaller establishes are more afraid of breaking compliance with the law. However, once they have a copy and have written down the information, they are not legally required to hold onto your passport. If they still insist, you can try offering to pay upfront for your stay.

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       Tôi bị  ốm
 lit.: I   am  sick
tones: -   sd  u

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Note that the similarity between “tối nay” and “tonight” is just a coincidence.

       Bạn sẽ   làm gì   tối nay?
 lit.: you will go  what to- night
Tones: sd  ub   d   d    u   -

^Listen:

Learning how to say “Bạn có nói tiếng Anh không?” is actually not very useful, because if you do ask “Do you speak English” in English, and your Vietnamese interlocutor remains confused, then you already have your answer.

Nonetheless, there is some value in attempting to speak the proper VIetnamese expression, as a sign of respect.

       Bạn có  nói   tiếng    Anh     không
 lit.: You can speak language-English [question]?
tones: sd  u   u     u        -       -

Other Helpful Vietnamese Expressions

Interested in learning more? Please see our Word Of The Day blog that provides more expressions and key cultural insights about Vietnam, through the lens of helpful words and phrases.

• Hello! – Xin Chào
• Good-bye – Tạm biệt
• How are you today? – Ăn cơm chưa?
• Please excuse me – Xin lỗi
• Thank you – Cảm ơn
• I don’t understand – Tôi không hiểu
• Yes/no in Vietnamese – Có/Không

Are there other expressions that are helpful in Vietnam? Leave us a comment below.