Definition

1. Noun:
   • Tea plant: A small tree or shrub with serrated leaves, white flowers, and three-lobed fruit, cultivated for its leaves, buds, and shoots used to make a beverage.
   • Tea (the beverage): The drink prepared by infusing processed leaves of the tea plant in hot water.
   • Sweet soup/dessert: A sweet, often soupy Vietnamese dessert made by cooking ingredients like beans, tubers, glutinous rice, or fruits with sugar, water, or coconut milk.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Tea plant/beverage):
  • Cánh đồng chè ở Thái Nguyên rất nổi tiếng. (The tea fields in Thai Nguyen are very famous.)
  • Mẹ tôi thường uống một tách chè nóng vào buổi sáng. (My mother often drinks a cup of hot tea in the morning.)
• Noun (Sweet dessert):
  • Trời nóng, ăn chè đậu đen rất mát. (When it's hot, eating black bean sweet soup is very refreshing.)
  • Chè trôi nước là món ăn truyền thống. (Floating rice dumpling dessert is a traditional dish.)

Advanced Usage

• "Ăn chè": To eat sweet soup/dessert. This phrase is specifically used for consuming the dessert form, not the tea beverage.
  • Chúng tôi thường ăn chè sau bữa tối. (We usually eat sweet dessert after dinner.)
• "Pha chè" / "Pha trà": To brew/make tea. While "pha chè" is common, "pha trà" is also used and can sound slightly more formal or literary.
  • Ông tôi rất cầu kỳ trong việc pha chè. (My grandfather is very meticulous in brewing tea.)

Variants and Related Words

• Trà (noun): A synonym for tea (the beverage). "Trà" is often used in more formal, literary, or Northern Vietnamese contexts, while "chè" is common in everyday speech, especially in the North for the beverage. "Trà" is almost never used for the sweet dessert.
  • Trà đạo (Tea ceremony)
• Chèo (noun): A form of traditional Vietnamese opera. Note: This is a completely different word, not a variant of "chè".
• Chén chè (noun phrase): A bowl of sweet dessert.
  • Một chén chè nóng (A hot bowl of sweet soup)

Synonyms

• For the beverage: Trà (tea).
• For the dessert: There is no direct single-word synonym. It can be described as món ngọt (sweet dish), đồ tráng miệng (dessert), or súp ngọt (sweet soup).

Related Phrases

• Chè bưởi: Pomelo sweet soup (made with pomelo pith).
• Chè hạt sen: Lotus seed sweet soup.
• Chè thập cẩm: Mixed sweet soup with various ingredients.
• Nước chè: Tea (the drink), often referring to a simpler, everyday style of tea.

Related Idioms

• "Đậu như chè": (To be stuck/crowded like sweet soup). This idiom describes a very crowded or congested situation, playing on the thick, dense consistency of some types of "chè".
  • Đường phố giờ tan tầm đậu như chè. (The streets during rush hour are packed/congested.)

noun

1. Tea
   • hái chè
     to pluck tea leaves
   • pha chè
     to make tea
2. Sweetened porridge (made of glutinous rice, bean..)