Spoken Vietnamese for tourists. Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook for tourists (travelers) with pronunciation

At the very least, you will feel much more confident with him. Especially if you learn a few useful phrases in Vietnamese. Most often, Vietnamese is needed in restaurants to understand the menu. It is best to print out a Vietnamese phrasebook so as not to become dependent on the charge level of your gadgets.

I have prepared a small Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook for you.

All tourists who want to visit this country are interested in what language they speak in Vietnam. And recently, the number of people who travel to this southeastern state has only been increasing. Vietnam attracts with its exotic nature, inexpensive holidays and the hospitality of the local people, with whom you want to exchange at least a few words in their native language.

Official language

Vietnam is a multinational country. It has both official and unrecognized languages. But still, when finding out what language is spoken in Vietnam, it is worth recognizing that the majority prefer Vietnamese. It is state-owned, and part of the population speaks fluent French, English and Chinese.

The official language of Vietnam is used for education and international communication. In addition to Vietnam itself, it is also common in Laos, Cambodia, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, France, USA, Germany, Canada and other countries. In total, it is spoken by about 75 million people, of which 72 million live in Vietnam.

This language is spoken by 86 percent of the population in Vietnam. It is interesting that until the very end of the 19th century it was mainly used only for everyday communication and writing works of art.

History of Vietnam

When telling what language is spoken in Vietnam, it should be noted that the history of the state has left its mark on this. In the 2nd century BC, the territory of the modern country to which this article is dedicated was conquered by China. In fact, the Vietnamese remained under the protectorate of the Chinese until the 10th century. It is for this reason that Chinese served as the main language for official and written communication.

In addition, the Vietnamese rulers paid close attention to competitive examinations when appointing a new official to a particular position. This was required to select the most qualified employees; exams were conducted exclusively in Chinese for several centuries.

How did the Vietnamese language appear?

Vietnam as an independent literary tradition began to emerge only at the end of the 17th century. At that time, a French Jesuit monk named Alexandre de Rod developed the Vietnamese alphabet based on the Latin one. In it, tones were indicated by special diacritics.

In the second half of the 19th century, the French colonial administration, in order to weaken the traditional influence of the Chinese language on Vietnam, promoted its development.

Modern literary Vietnamese is based on the northern dialect of the Hanoi dialect. In this case, the written form of the literary language is based on the sound composition of the central dialect. An interesting feature is that in writing each syllable is separated by a space.

Now you know what the language is in Vietnam. Nowadays, it is spoken by the vast majority of residents of this state. At the same time, according to experts, there are about 130 languages ​​in the country, which are more or less common in this country. Vietnamese is used as a means of communication at the highest levels as well as among ordinary people. It is the official language in business and education.

Features of the Vietnamese language

Knowing what language is spoken in Vietnam, it is worth understanding its features. It belongs to the Austroasiatic family, the Vietnamese group. Most likely, in its origin it is close to the Muong language, but was originally classified as a group of Thai dialects.

It has a large number of dialects, of which there are three main ones, each of which is divided into its own dialects and dialects. The northern dialect is common in the center of the country; the southern dialect is popular in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding areas. They all differ in vocabulary and phonetics.

Grammar

In total, the Vietnamese language has about two and a half thousand syllables. Interestingly, their number may vary depending on belonging to a particular dialect. It is an isolating language that is at the same time tonal and syllabic.

In almost all languages ​​of this group, complex words are simplified to monosyllabic ones, often this also applies to historical words, although recently a reverse trend has begun. The Vietnamese language lacks inflections and analytical forms. That is, all grammatical relations are built solely on the basis of function words, and prefixes, suffixes and affixes do not play any role in this. Notional parts of speech include verbs, adjectives and predicates. Another distinctive feature is the use of cognates instead of personal pronouns.

Word formation

Most words in standard Vietnamese are formed using affixes, mostly of Chinese origin, as well as adding roots and doubling words or syllables.

One of the key features of word formation is that all components involved in the formation of words are monosyllabic. Surprisingly, one syllable can have several meanings at once, which can change depending on the intonation when they are pronounced.

A sentence has a fixed word order: the subject comes first, then the predicate and object. Most Vietnamese words are borrowed from Chinese, from different historical periods, and there is also a lot of Austroasiatic vocabulary.

The names of people in Vietnam are made up of three words - the mother's or father's surname, nickname and given name. The Vietnamese are not called by their surname, as in Russia; most often they are identified by their name. Another feature of Vietnamese names in earlier times was that the middle name clearly indicated the child's gender at birth. Moreover, if a girl’s name consisted of one word, then for a boy it could be several dozen words. Nowadays, this tradition has disappeared.

Popularity of the Vietnamese language

Due to the fact that this language is spoken in many Asian and European countries nowadays, it is not surprising that its popularity is growing every year. Many people learn it in order to open a business in this rapidly developing country.

Certain goods from Vietnam are now not inferior either in quality or in cost, and the culture and traditions are so interesting and amazing that many strive to join them.

In Vietnam itself, English, French and Chinese are actively used in the tourism sector; quite a lot of Russian-speaking personnel can be found, especially among those who received education in the USSR in Soviet times. Those who master this language note that it is very similar to Chinese. In both languages, syllables carry a special meaning, and intonation plays almost a decisive role.

This is a rather rare language in Russia; there are only a few schools that will help you master it. If you still decide to study it, then be prepared for the fact that classes can begin only after the group has been recruited; you may have to wait quite a long time, so it is better to initially focus on meetings with an individual teacher.

Common phrases in Vietnamese

So it is not easy to learn this language. At the same time, you often want to build communication in Vietnam in your native dialect in order to win over the local residents. It's easy to pick up a few popular phrases that will demonstrate in conversation how immersed you are in the local culture:

• Hello - Xing Tiao.
• Dear friends - like ban than mein.
• Goodbye - hyung gap lai nya.
• Where will we meet - tyung ta gap nyau o dau?
• Bye - dy nhe.
• Yes - tso, wang, yes.
• No - hong.
• Thank you - cam he.
• Please - hong tso chi.
• Sorry - hin loy.
• What is your name - an tein la di?
• My name is... - toy tein la...

We hope you learned a lot of interesting things about the language and culture of Vietnam. We wish you interesting travels to this country!

Vietnamese language

Every tourist in Vietnam faces a language barrier. Vietnamese is quite a difficult language because it is a tonal language, in which intonation when pronouncing a syllable is of utmost importance. The same word spoken in different tones often means opposite concepts. It's the same story with writing. Despite the fact that in Vietnam they use the Latin alphabet with additional characters, it is no easier to understand than Chinese characters.

Only a small part of the country speaks English, mainly in big cities, and those who work with foreigners. By the way, many more people know Russian. The long history of relations between the two countries in the last century is telling. Many Vietnamese of the older generation studied in the USSR, and those who were younger worked in Russia. But it is not always possible to be in touch with a Russian-speaking guide, or one who knows English. Therefore, a phrasebook can be very useful.

Russian - Vietnamese phrasebook

It is not realistic to learn such a complex language as Vietnamese in two weeks. You need to diligently train your speech apparatus, since the Russian language does not have many sounds that the Vietnamese pronounce. And the Russian transcription is only trying to convey the Vietnamese sound. But knowing two or three phrases for greetings, an invoice for shopping, navigation questions is important.

This Vietnamese phrasebook has more of a cognitive function. If you learn a couple of phrases incorrectly, it’s okay, the Vietnamese will understand you. A cell phone with Internet and Google translator will be of even greater help. But you need to understand that machine translation is not yet perfect, and if you run one phrase back and forth, you can get amazing results. So, in important matters, use the services of a qualified translator.