Please see the original by artist Nguyễn Thành Phong on his Facebook page here. This page comes from a really cool comic series called K0 còi which aims to raise traffic awareness for người Hà Nội by họa sĩ Thành Phong. 🙂
xe |
mẹ |
mua |
đua |
mẹ |
đánh |
vehicle (car, scooter, etc.) |
I (mom) |
buy |
race |
mom |
hit (punish) |
So the mom told her (grown-up?) son: The scooter that I (mom) bought (xe mẹ mua), if you use dare to join a race on the street (đua), I’ll hit you (mẹ đánh).
In term of grammar, it’s a pretty good example of relative pronoun “that” (or more accurately, the lack of it). There are other points to discuss but let’s just focus on the relative pronoun “that” for today. Keep in mind that Vietnamese grammar does not correspond directly to English grammar (that’s my way of saying “if the language doesn’t make sense, it’s none of my problem”).
Cái áo |
em |
mới |
mua |
đắt |
quá |
Shirt |
I |
just |
bought |
expensive |
too |
Relative pronoun without “that”: (Cái áo) (em mới mua) (đắt quá) – the shirt I just bought is too expensive.
Cô bé |
anh |
gặp |
hôm trước |
không |
chịu |
cho |
anh |
số điện thoại |
The girl |
I (male) |
met |
the other day |
not |
agree to |
give |
me (male) |
phone number |
(Cô bé) (anh gặp hôm trước) (không chịu cho anh số điện thoại) – The girl that I met the other day wouldn’t give me her phone number.
Hiệu sách |
không |
có |
quyển sách |
(mà) |
em |
muốn |
mua |
Bookstore |
not |
have |
the book |
(that) |
I |
want to |
buy |
Relative pronoun with “that”: “that” in Vietnamese would be equivalent to “mà.” “Mà” is a Swiss army knife of Vietnamese words. It is used to mean many things. Its usage as “that”, the English relative pronoun, is one.
Hiệu sách không có (quyển sách) (mà em muốn mua). – The bookstore does not have the book that I want to buy.
Cái anh diễn viên |
(mà) |
em |
rất |
thích |
đi lấy vợ |
mất rồi |
The actor |
(that) |
I |
very much |
like |
got married |
already |
(Cái anh diễn viên) (mà em rất thích) (đi lấy vợ mất rồi). – The actor that/whom I like very much got taken already (he got married).
And here’s the parting shot. You can figure it out yourself!
“sắm” means the same thing as “mua“, and “cắm” means to pawn, “chém” means to chop, like pork chop.
PS: In terms of cultural background, this is common practice in Vietnam for the grown up child to depend on his/her parents financially and/or live with the parents well after graduating from college. For the mom to buy her grown up son a scooter is not that uncommon in Vietnam (a car is still extravagant though).