Vietnamese numbers are wonderfully regular: learn ten words, plus a few small changes, and you can count to a million. This chapter also covers asking someone's age and buying things at a Southern market.
7.1 Zero to ten
| Number | Vietnamese | Number | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 6 | ||
| 1 | 7 | ||
| 2 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 9 | ||
| 4 | 10 | ||
| 5 |
You know most of these already. Watch the tones: , , and all rise (sắc), and dips (hỏi).
7.2 Eleven to nineteen
Say mười (ten), then the number: 13 is "ten three".
| Number | Vietnamese | Number | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 16 | ||
| 12 | 17 | ||
| 13 | 18 | ||
| 14 | 19 | ||
| 15 |
One change: after mười, năm (five) becomes lăm. That's why 15 is .
7.3 Twenty to ninety-nine
Say the number of tens, then mươi, then the ones: 37 is "three ten seven". Notice the tone: mười (10) falls, but mươi (the "-ty" in 20–90) is flat.
| 20 | |
| 30 | |
| 37 | |
| 50 | |
| 99 |
Three ones change after mươi:
| Instead of | Say | Example |
|---|---|---|
| một (1) | mốt | 21 |
| bốn (4) | tư (or bốn) | 34 |
| năm (5) | lăm | 45 |
In everyday Southern speech, numbers get shortened:
- Tens with chục: is 20, and is 50.
- 20s and 30s: hai mươi shrinks to hăm and ba mươi to băm. So is 21, and is 35.
You'll hear these at every market. Saying the full forms is always fine.
7.4 Hundreds, thousands, millions
| Number | Vietnamese |
|---|---|
| 100 | |
| 105 | |
| 250 | |
| 1,000 | |
| 10,000 | |
| 100,000 | |
| 1,000,000 |
- lẻ fills a gap of zero tens: 105 is "one hundred, lẻ, five".
- ngàn is the Southern word for a thousand. In the North you'll hear nghìn, and linh instead of lẻ.
- There's no word for "ten thousand": it's just "ten thousand", .
Vietnamese prices are big numbers: a coffee is about 25,000 đồng. Get comfortable with ngàn. You'll say it every day.
7.5 How old are you?
How old are you? (to a man a bit older)
I'm thirty.
bao nhiêu means "how many" for any amount. For small numbers, especially a child's age, use mấy:
How old are you? (to a child)
I'm five.
Asking someone's age is normal in Vietnam. It's how people work out whether to call each other anh, chị or em.
7.6 How much is it?
| Vietnamese | English |
|---|---|
| How much is it? (literally "how much money?") | |
| How much is this? | |
| 50,000. | |
| Too expensive! (mắc is Southern for expensive) | |
| So cheap! | |
| Knock a bit off. | |
| Is that okay? |
To get someone's attention, say their word plus ơi: It's how you call a waiter, a vendor, or a friend across the street.
At Southern markets prices are often given without the ngàn, and with a shortcut for the last number. If a vendor says , they mean 45,000 (bốn chục lăm ngàn). Context makes it clear.
7.7 Dialogue: at the market
Mark is buying mangoes from a woman about his mother's age.
- Mark: How much are these mangoes a kilo?
- Cô: 50,000 a kilo.
- Mark: Too expensive! How about 40?
- Cô: Okay, 45 then.
- Mark: I'll take two kilos.
- Cô: That's 90,000.
- Mark: Here you go. Thank you!
New words: xoài (mango), này (this), ký (kilo), được (okay, possible), thôi (fine, okay then), lấy (to take), gửi (to give, to send).
7.8 Practice
Listen, then use "Quiz me". These are the pairs that trip people up.
Say 68
Say 71
: after mươi, one becomes mốt.
Say 305
: lẻ fills the empty tens.
Say 25,000 (the price of a coffee)
, or at a Southern café, .
Vocabulary
| Vietnamese | English |
|---|---|
| how many, how much | |
| how many (small numbers) | |
| age, years old | |
| money | |
| hundred | |
| thousand (Southern) | |
| million | |
| ten (in counting) | |
| expensive (Southern) | |
| cheap | |
| this (thing) | |
| hey (after a name or word, to call someone) | |
| kilo | |
| to take | |
| okay; can | |
| mango |
Flashcards
Study Vietnamese (Southern) › 07 Numbers in the Anki deck.