mấy mươi
Definition
- Indefinite pronoun:
- How many tens / How many decades: Used to ask about an approximate quantity in multiples of ten, often implying a large but indefinite number.
- Not many / Not much / Of little value: Used to indicate that something is insignificant, not worth much, or of small quantity.
Usage Examples
- Indefinite pronoun:
- Công trình này tốn biết mấy mươi năm. (This project took many tens of years.)
- Chiếc thoa là của mấy mươi. (That hairpin is a thing of little value.)
Advanced Usage
- The phrase is often used in classical or literary Vietnamese, particularly in poetry (like the works of Nguyễn Du), to convey a rhetorical sense of quantity or worth.
- It can be used in a rhetorical question to emphasize the large, often uncountable, number of something (e.g., hardships, years).
Variants and Related Words
- Mấy (indefinite pronoun): a few, several, how many.
- Mươi (numeral suffix): -ty (as in twenty, thirty), used to form tens.
Synonyms
- Bao nhiêu: how much, how many.
- Không đáng bao nhiêu: not worth much.
- Vài ba: a few, several (but typically smaller scale than "mấy mươi").
Related Idioms
- Biết mấy mươi: An intensified form meaning "who knows how many tens," used to emphasize a large, indefinite amount.
- Anh ấy đã trải qua biết mấy mươi khó khăn. (He has gone through who knows how many tens of hardships.)