The conceptual meaning of đánh is “to beat”, “to hit”, “to fight”. However, in contrast to its English counterparts, đánh appears in many common words and phrases in Vietnamese.
In general, đánh can combine with:
- A noun to form a verb-object structure.
- Another verb to form a verb-verb compound.
- A verb or adjective to form a verb-complement structure.
Expressing “to play”
In Vietnamese, the closest translation of “to play” is chơi, but đánh can serve as an (more casual) alternative for a number of activities carried out by hand, especially those that involve “hitting” actions, including:
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Some sports:
- bóng chuyền (volleyball)
- cầu lông (badminton)
- gôn (golf)
- bi-a/bida (pool, billiards)
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Some musical instruments:
- trống (drum)
-
đàn (string/keyboard instrument)
- ghi-ta (guitar)
- pi-a-nô (piano)
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Some board games:
- cờ (chess-like game)
- bạc (gambling)
- bài (card)
Note that not every sport played by hand is a good fit for đánh, for example, bowling, which should go together with ném (to throw). In contrast, bóng rổ — basketball — can go well with đánh despite being more “throwing” rather than “hitting”. Similarly, not every (string) instrument is a good fit for đánh, especially bowed ones like violin (more “bowing” than “hitting”).
Forming verb-complement structures
Đánh can combine with a verb or adjective to form a verb-complement structure, where the second part acts as a complement, specifying what happens to the object.
Examples:
- rơi (to fall): to drop
- bóng (shiny): to polish
- thức (awake): to wake (someone) up
Acting as “dummy” verbs
Đánh can combine with another verb and act as a “dummy” component in a verb-verb compound, i.e., the meaning of the compound is virtually the same as that of the second verb. However, the nuance and usage between with and without đánh can be (somestimes very) different.
Examples:
- cắp (to steal): to steal
- lừa (to fool): to fool
- đổi (to swap): to trade (something) off
A non-exhaustive list
Apart from the usages above, đánh can also carry a sense of “to rub”, “to mark”, etc. Below is a non-exhaustive list of words, phrases and collocations in the form of “đánh + <second-part>”. Note that some of them can be of hybrid or fit more than one category.
| Category | Second part & meaning | Meaning of compound | |
|---|---|---|---|
| to play | bóng chuyền | volleyball | to play volleyball |
| bóng chày | baseball | to play baseball | |
| cầu (lông) | badminton | to play badminton | |
| trống | drum | to play drums | |
| đàn | string/keyboard instrument | to play string/keyboard instruments | |
| pi-a-nô | piano | to play the piano | |
| cờ | chess-like game | to play chess-like games | |
| bạc | gambling | to gamble, to play gambling | |
| bài | card | to play card games | |
| điện tử | electronic | to play electronic/computer games | |
| to rub | giày | shoe | to shine shoes |
| răng | tooth | to brush teeth | |
| vảy (cá) | (fish) scale | to scale fish | |
| to mark | dấu | mark | to mark |
| nhãn | label | to label | |
| số | number | to number | |
| giá | price | to judge, to evaluate | |
| verb-complement structure | bóng | shiny | to polish |
| rơi | to fall | to drop (something) | |
| mất | to lose | to lose | |
| thức | awake | to wake (someone) up | |
| đồng | same | to put in the same basket | |
| trượt | to fail | to fail (someone), to give (someone) a failing grade | |
| đổ | to collapse | to overthrow | |
| gục | to bend down | to knock down | |
| đố | to challenge | to puzzle, to confuse | |
| bật | to bounce | to displace | |
| bay | to fly | ||
| dummy component | cắp | to steal | to steal |
| lừa | to fool | to fool | |
| đổi | to swap | to trade (something) off | |
| tráo | to swap | to exchange fraudulently | |
| liều | to risk | to pluck up the courage | |
| chén | to eat | to enjoy eating, to eat comfortably | |
| bắt | to catch | to catch (sea animals) | |
| miscellaneous | cá | fish | to fish |
| máy | machine | to type | |
| thuế | tax | to levy taxes | |
| hơi | smell | to sniff | |
| cược | bet | to bet | |
| xe | vehicle (automobile) | to drive an automobile | |
| lái | to drive, steering wheel | to steer | |
| tiếng | noise | to inform | |
| động | move | ||
| ghen | jealous | (of a wife) to fight a mistress | |
| phấn | face powder | to apply face powder | |
| đầu | head | to head (a football) | |
| lửa | fire | (of engine or lighter) to make fire | |
| úp | to turn upside down, to cover (lid) | to attack by surprise | |
| lẻ | odd | (of two or more people) to split off, to go out together without inviting others | |
| rắm | fart | to fart | |
| gió | wind | to do gua sha (刮痧) | |
| cảm | cold, ill | ||
Some fun facts
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The pair of antonyms: bại — “to lose” — and thắng — “to win” — produce the exact same meaning when combined with đánh: both đánh bại and đánh thắng mean “to defeat”. The word to convey “to be defeated” is đánh thua.
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Đánh bóng, especially when used out of context, can have multiple interpretations: “to play a ballgame” or “to polish”. In the Southern dialect, people use đánh banh to express the former, since the word for “ball” is banh.