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I like you or I love you ?

bernard6

I wonder if some people who are familiar with the subtleties of the vietnamese language could help me in my understanding. My sweet (vietnamese) friend used to finish her letters to me with the sentence "toi yeu ban", which warmed my little heart. Recently, she has switched to the simpler "yeu ban". I wonder if this shorter form is also a sign of a shorter affection, and how to rate these on a "like/love" scale. Any (serious) comment will be appreciated, thanks.

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WillyBaldy

Well, I'm not very fluent in Vietnamese but the important stuff is till there, "yeu" means love. The first word is supposed to be the title of the person who is talking to you. She was using "toi" which is somewhat impersonal, very formal. It's often a bit out of laziness that some Vietnamese don't use the self title, so "yeu ban" is just a shortcut, she's still using "yeu". She calls you "ban", which is *your* title and means friend. So I would not read much into the missing "toi".

Now, the day she writes "em yeu anh" you'll have good cause to celebrate, it will be a very good upgrade. You could start by using "Anh yeu em" yourself, to grease the wheels聽 :cool:

PS: Oh, and since "th铆ch" somewhat means "like" instead of "love", if she ever writes "toi thich ban" then you're in trouble and I'd drown my sadness in something strong like scotch.

Jim-Minh

What WillyBaldy said is right on. When your friend starts saying "em y锚u anh" you can celebrate. Be sure to reply with "anh y锚u em". Anh is an affectionate pronoun generally meaning big brother, and em is generally an affectionate pronoun meaning little sister. When unrelated boys and girls use anh and em it conveys warm fuzzies.

WillyBaldy

You could up the ante and write "anh se cuoi em" to her聽 :lol:

Bazza139

..so we move into (missed?) understanding matchmaking methods..?聽 聽 聽:unsure

聽 聽 聽Both versions apply; the English 'I'll be with you', or if written in Viet..?

聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 anh s岷 c瓢峄沬 em聽 聽 聽"I'll marry you".聽 聽 聽Game on!!聽 聽

聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 ..popcorn sales are improving...聽 聽 聽:huh:

QuidProQuo

What's the Viet translation for 'me love you long time'?

QuidProQuo

WillyBaldy wrote:

You could up the ante and write "anh se cuoi em" to her聽 :lol:


you should add 'I'm gonna put a baby in you'.

Ciambella

QuidProQuo wrote:

What's the Viet translation for 'me love you long time'?


You would have to ask Papillon Soo, who, incidentally, isn't Vietnamese but English-Chinese.

However, if the inquiring mind wants to know, the translations are:

"Em 膽茫 y锚u anh t峄 r岷 l芒u" :聽 I've loved you for so long
"Em s岷 y锚u anh m茫i m茫i" :聽 I'll love you forever

Switch the subject and object to reflect the gender of the parties.

Jim-Minh

It doesn't translate directly but this is very close:

Em l脿m t矛nh r岷 l芒u

Ciambella

After mentioning Papillon Soo, I mistranslated (only slightly) on purpose to steer from a delicate matter and prevent the thread to be shut down, Jim Minh.聽 聽 :gloria

Jim-Minh

I figured if Google translate would handle it then it couldn't be too far out of line.

TranHien123

Yes, "yeu ban" is a short form of "toi yeu ban", but I don't think it's a shorter of affection. For me, the feelings she have towards you is the same in both cases.

And since I don't know about your relationship, I cannot know how to measure it on love/like scale since it depends a lot on that. However, I guess if you two are just friends, it seems that she means she likes you as a friend =))

Bazza139

Much Better

"it is not a lack of Love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages"

聽 聽 (狈颈别迟锄蝉肠丑别)听

..and what is Love, if not a friendship on fire..?聽 聽 聽 聽;)

Heretolearn

Funny I am a Vietnamese and I can't tell. Maybe your friend is southern Vietnamese? So is more affectionate than northen people. We don't write Toi yeu ban or Yeu ban to our friends and to a lover we don't use "toi" and "ban", that is not quite Vietnamese language. Even to our friend we almost never use Toi and Ban with eachother. There are so many Vietnamese words for that, depend on which province you come from. In Hanoi we call eachother by name or T峄 and 岷 if we are both girls, sometimes tao and m脿y if we are really closed. And we really don't use the word y锚u often, not that we are not passonate but it is part of the culture we grow up in. My parents never said they loved me although they do. So more often if we are interested in a guy we use the word "like". Not saying all Vietnamese are like that but all of the girls I know are.

GuestPoster0147

And what's with "th瓢啤ng qu谩 h脿"?

Heretolearn

Andy Passenger wrote:

And what's with "th瓢啤ng qu谩 h脿"?


Not usually use to express lover to a lover. It is used in case like I see you walking under the sun for hours without a hat, when someone tell me they were sick and alone, when I see a stray and hungry puppy.

GuestPoster0147

Heretolearn wrote:
Andy Passenger wrote:

And what's with "th瓢啤ng qu谩 h脿"?


Not usually use to express lover to a lover. It is used in case like I see you walking under the sun for hours without a hat, when someone tell me they were sick and alone, when I see a stray and hungry puppy.


My wife and my use it often.
But she's not sure if she's translating the meaning correct into english.

Heretolearn

To me th瓢啤ng qu谩 h脿 is the same as oh poor baby

WillyBaldy

Andy Passenger wrote:
Heretolearn wrote:
Andy Passenger wrote:

And what's with "th瓢啤ng qu谩 h脿"?


Not usually use to express lover to a lover. It is used in case like I see you walking under the sun for hours without a hat, when someone tell me they were sick and alone, when I see a stray and hungry puppy.


My wife and my use it often.
But she's not sure if she's translating the meaning correct into english.


Always thought it meant "Oh so cute!".

Heretolearn

Well language is not maths so I don't know, maybe some use it to say so cute. Although more common, so cute would be y锚u qu谩 膽i, y锚u ch瓢a n猫, c瓢ng qu谩 膽i, c瓢ng ch瓢a n猫, etc.

WillyBaldy

Heretolearn wrote:

Well language is not maths so I don't know, maybe some use it to say so cute. Although more common, so cute would be y锚u qu谩 膽i, y锚u ch瓢a n猫, c瓢ng qu谩 膽i, c瓢ng ch瓢a n猫, etc.


Actually what I heard a lot for "so cute!" is "d峄 th瓢啤ng", maybe it's not the same word as just "th瓢啤ng" by itself. Google Translate gives the very boring "B岷 th岷璽 d峄 th瓢啤ng" translation for "You are so cute"聽 :lol:

WillyBaldy

Hey folks I'd like to give you an update on this as my ex-wife came over the week-end and when I told her about this thread here and the meaning of "th瓢啤ng qu谩 h脿" and it's actually much more subtle than either *my* definition or Heretolearn's. First of all, I was describing what I knew of "d峄 th瓢啤ng" which is not the same as "th瓢啤ng". The former means "so cute", but "th瓢啤ng" by itself is more complex.

My ex wife told me that normally, "th瓢啤ng" would mean "Oh poor you" but this word has another much deeper meaning for some Vietnamese. She was honest here and said the deeper meaning is something *she* knows but not all Vietnamese might be aware of this meaning, she was having a hard time explaining but it has to do with education, if you're a city person and so on. (She was not implying that a Vietnamese who doesn't know the deeper meaning of "th瓢啤ng" is illiterate, it's just that it seems to be like a literature, more 'evolved' meaning).

So anyway, in the sense that Andy's wife is telling him, it would mean something like "soulmate", although it's a rough translation because soulmate is a noun but "th瓢啤ng" is a verb . She said that it can have a higher intensity than "y锚u" (love) because it can mean "deeply connected forever" or something like this. She said when used in this context, it represents love beyond lust, desire and that we put that person on top of everything else.

Well that's it, I'm just writing here the elements of the big speech my ex gave me. As always with the Vietnamese language, another Vietnamese might give you a different version!

GuestPoster0147

WillyBaldy wrote:

She said that it can have a higher intensity than "y锚u" (love) because it can mean "deeply connected forever" or something like this.


That's about what my wife tried to explain to me.聽 But she was not able to paraphrase it in English properly.

But through your description it is now more understandable for me.聽 :)