lấy nhau
Definition
- Verb phrase:
- To get married, to marry each other: Refers specifically to the act of a man and a woman entering into a marital union with each other. It emphasizes the reciprocal action between the two parties.
Usage Examples
- Verb phrase:
- Họ đã quyết định lấy nhau vào mùa xuân tới. (They have decided to get married next spring.)
- Anh ấy và chị ấy lấy nhau đã được năm năm. (He and she have been married for five years.)
- Sau ba năm yêu nhau, cuối cùng họ cũng lấy nhau. (After three years of dating, they finally got married.)
Advanced Usage
- "Lấy nhau" is a fixed, reciprocal verb phrase. It is intransitive and cannot take a direct object. You cannot say "Anh ấy lấy nhau cô ấy." The phrase inherently means "to take each other" in the context of marriage.
- It is used for the mutual action of marriage between two specific people. For general statements about marriage (e.g., "He wants to marry"), other verbs like "kết hôn" or "cưới" are used.
Variants and Related Words
- Cưới (nhau) (v): To wed, to get married. Often used interchangeably with "lấy nhau," though "cưới" can also refer more specifically to the wedding ceremony.
- Họ sẽ tổ chức cưới vào tháng sau. (They will have their wedding next month.)
- Kết hôn (với) (v): To marry, to get married (to). A more formal term.
- Họ đã kết hôn tại tòa thị chính. (They got married at the city hall.)
- Thành hôn (v): To become married. A formal, literary term.
- Làm đám cưới (v): To have a wedding ceremony.
Synonyms
- Kết duyên: To tie the knot (a more poetic synonym).
- Nên vợ nên chồng: To become husband and wife (a common idiomatic expression).
Related Idioms
- "Lấy nhau về một nhà": Literally "to take each other to one house," meaning to get married and live together as a family.
- "Lấy nhau chẳng hỏi một lời": An idiom from folk poetry, criticizing marriages arranged without the couple's consent, meaning "to marry without asking a single word."