mấy hơi
Definition
Phrase (Interrogative):
- How many breaths / How much strength?: Used to question the limited amount of effort, stamina, or time someone has or can sustain, implying it is insufficient. It often carries a rhetorical, dismissive, or challenging tone.
Phrase (Rhetorical):
- For how long? / How much longer?: Used to suggest that someone's ability to continue or endure is very limited and will soon be exhausted.
Usage Examples
- Phrase:
- Mày chống cự được mấy hơi? (How long can you resist? / How much fight do you have left in you?)
- Được mấy hơi mà đòi bơi xa. (You have so little stamina, yet you want to swim far.)
Advanced Usage
- The phrase is almost exclusively used in colloquial, confrontational, or doubting contexts. It is not used for neutral questions about quantity. It belittles the subject's capacity or endurance.
Variants and Related Words
- Mấy: An interrogative word meaning "how many" or "how much" for countable nouns.
- Hơi: Literally "breath" or "puff," but often used metaphorically to mean a bit of strength, effort, or moment.
Synonyms
- How much longer can you last?: A direct functional synonym in English.
- What little strength?: Captures the dismissive tone regarding limited capacity.
Related Idioms
- Được mấy hơi: A common fragment meaning "to have only a little bit of strength/endurance."
- Nó yếu lắm, đánh nhau được mấy hơi là mệt. (He's very weak; he gets tired after just a little bit of fighting.)