Interesting facts about Vietnamese language
Vietnam has 90 Million people (11.2013). Altogether, about 93 million people in the world speak Vietnamese. The majority of them, 90 million, live in Vietnam, while the other 3 million belong to Vietnamese diaspora overseas such as Australia, America, Cz repuplic, Cambodia, UK….
The Vietnamese language has six tones. There are không dấu (middle level), dấu sắc ( rising tone), falling tone (dấu huyền), dấu ngã ( low broken tone), dấu nặng ( high broken tone), high rising tone ( dấu hỏi).
A change in a tone changes the meaning of the word. For example: ca ( mug), cà (eggplants), cả (all), cá (fish)……
Sentence structures in Vietnamese language have the same “subject-verb-object word order as in English. Since there is no inflection and words are invariable in Vietnamese, the language depends on strictly word order to convey meaning.
Here is some common sentences for traveling:
– Anh tên là gì? ( What is your name?)
– Anh là người Anh ( I am English)
– Nhà vệ sinh ở đâu? (Where is toilet?)
– Mua vé xe buýt ở đâu? ( Where can i buy bus ticket?)
– Dừng lại (Stop)
– Tôi muốn mua vé tàu hoả ( i want to buy train ticket)
– Rẽ phải ( turn right)
– Rẽ trái ( turn left)
– Đắt quá ( too expensive)
