Classifiers are considered to be one of the most complicated parts of speech in learning Vietnamese language. In a sentence, classifier functions as a noun when it is followed by another noun.

In English we say one pen, two pens, three pens, etc. However, bút in Vietnamese must be accompanied by the classifier cây. Therefore, a pencil in English is một cây bút in Vietnamese. Never do people say một bút, hai bút, but một cây bút, hai cây bút … Similarly, listed below are 3 useful classifiers which are commonly used.

Cái ‘item’ has become one of the most common classifiers for daily life things such as:  cái bàn ‘table’, cái chén ‘small bowl’, cái giuờng ‘bed’, cái cửa sổ ‘window’, cái gương ‘mirror’.

Con ‘child’ is a classifier which indicated a single creature such as con chó ‘dog’, con bướm ‘butterfly’, con dao ‘knife’, con sông ‘river’

Bó ‘bunch’, several common terms are bó hoa ‘bunch of flowers’, bó rau muống ‘bunch of morning glory’ and bó lúa ‘bundle of rice’.
 

Learning a new language can be fun and time-consuming and Vietnamese is no exception. As a Vietnamese teacher, I can understand the difficulty students have to overcome and I am happy to give you some tips to master this very interesting language.

1.    Create a schedule to practice Vietnamese for at least 30 minutes per day. As a saying goes, ‘Practice makes perfect’, practice diligently daily will help you become a fluent Vietnamese speaker.

2.    Get involved with the Vietnamese community surrounding your living area such as Vietnamese restaurant, grocery store and cultural festival. This will be extremely useful in learning Vietnamese culture and finding people to speak Vietnamese to.

3.    Listening to Vietnamese songs and watching movies are good ways to familiarize yourself with pronunciation. Thinking how surprise your friends will be if you can sing a Vietnamese song on some special occasion!

4.    Travel to Vietnam. This might be the hardest way but spending time in Vietnam is considered to be the quickest way to learn the language. When you are put in a situation where you have to speak the language to communicate, you can fasten your learning speed tremendously.

 – Jenny Lee (Vietnamese Language Consultant)