Vietnamese Phrases at A1: Street Food, Getting Around and Paying in Thousands

Vietnamese looks hard on paper, with six tones and a forest of accent marks. On a trip you need much less than the grammar books suggest: a greeting, a thank you, khohng kai at a noodle stall and the word for thousand. This A1 guide covers the phrases that do most of the work, north and south.

This guide is for your first week in Vietnam. Every phrase is short, and each has a pronunciation in plain English letters. The spelling is a guide, not an exact transcription: Vietnamese has six tones, and the marks over the letters show them while our spelling does not. When a phrase does not land, show the written Vietnamese instead of repeating it louder.

The complete set, with health, emergencies and the key numbers for prices, is in our list of 46 basic Vietnamese phrases.

Greetings and thanks

Xin chào, said sin chow, is hello. Cảm ơn, said gahm uhn, is thank you, and it is the phrase you will use most. Xin lỗi, sin loy, is sorry or excuse me.

To call a waiter, people say em ơi, said em uh-ee. It is polite for staff who are younger than you, which in most cafes means almost everyone serving.

North and south

A few everyday words differ between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Yes is vâng in the north and dạ in the south. Too expensive is đắt quá in the north and mắc quá in the south. Thousand is nghìn in the north and ngàn in the south. Either version is understood everywhere, so do not worry about mixing them; locals will simply hear where you learned it.

At a street food stall

Không cay, said khohng kai, means not spicy. Ngon quá, ngon kwah, means delicious, and saying it to the cook is always a good idea. If you do not eat meat, tôi ăn chay, toy an chai, means I am vegetarian.

For drinks, không đá, khohng dah, is no ice. Before the first sip with friends, you will hear một, hai, ba, dô, which is one, two, three, drink. When you want to pay, say tính tiền, ting tee-en.

Directions for a driver

Most trips in a Vietnamese city are on the back of a motorbike or in a car booked through an app, and the driver will often call to check where you are. Four phrases cover most of it: đi thẳng, dee tahng, go straight; rẽ trái, reh chai, turn left; rẽ phải, reh fai, turn right; and dừng ở đây, yung uh day, stop here.

Prices are said in thousands

This is the one thing that confuses most visitors. Vietnamese prices are big numbers, and people say them in thousands. A menu that reads 50k means 50,000 dong, and you will hear năm mươi nghìn, fifty thousand. Learn a few numbers plus the word for thousand, and you can follow most prices you hear.

Bao nhiêu tiền, bow nyew tee-en, asks how much it costs. At a market, bớt được không, buht duh-uhk khohng, asks if the seller can lower the price.

To make these stick before you fly, pick the ten you will need on your first day, say each one out loud, and test yourself again over the next few days. The full Vietnamese list has the rest.