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- Topic: Vietnamese >
- "Tôi giấu con gà."
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560
I think it can be used as uncountable, as in "I want chicken for dinner." But maybe that sense of chicken is not con gà.
[Edited]
"Con" and "cái" are just classifiers for most nouns. They don't mean "one/a/an". Use "một" instead when you want to say "one/a/an". For examples:
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A/ONE cat = MỘT con mèo;
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AN/ONE owl = MỘT con cú.
In Vietnamese, a noun, whether countable or uncountable, never changes its form at all. If you want to count something, you put a number or a quantity in front of the noun. For examples:
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chicken = con gà -> chickenS = NHỮNG/CÁC con gà;
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A/ONE chicken = MỘT con gà;
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TWO chickenS = HAI con gà;
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salt = muối;
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A grain of salt = MỘT hạt/hột muối;
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THREE tonnes of salt = BA tấn muối.
[Edit]
When 'g' is followed by 'i' to make 'gi', you pronounce 'gi' as /z/ [Northern dialects]. Otherwise, 'g' is pronounced as /g/. 'g' is never pronounced as /s/, ever. For examples:
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/z/: GIấy (paper), GIẻ (rag), GIò (leg), GIun (worm), etc.;
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/g/: Gà (chicken), Găng (glove), Gấu (bear), GHen (jealous), GHế (chair), Góc (angle), Gốc (base), Gợi (to recall), Gục (to faint), Gừng (ginger), etc.
'gi' is pronounced as /j/ in the South though.