thì
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- Prime of youth: The period when a person, especially a young man or woman, is at the peak of physical development and beauty.
- Full season / Right time: The specific, optimal period for something to occur, such as the ripening season for fruit or the ideal time for an activity.
Conjunction:
- Then (conditional): Used to connect a condition or hypothesis with its logical result or consequence.
- Then (sequential): Used to indicate that one event follows another in time.
- But / Whereas (contrastive): Used to contrast two different ideas, qualities, or situations within a single statement.
- Emphatic particle: Used to emphasize or highlight a piece of information, often without a direct English translation, adding a tone of obviousness or focus.
Usage Examples
Noun:
- Chàng trai đang ở tuổi thì. (The young man is in the prime of his youth.)
- Đúng thì nhãn chín. (It's exactly the right season for longans to ripen.)
Conjunction:
- Đói thì ăn. (If you're hungry, then eat.)
- Tôi về đến nhà thì anh ấy cũng tới. (I arrived home, and then he also showed up.)
- Người thì đẹp, nết thì xấu. (She is beautiful, but her character is bad.)
- Tay thì bẩn, quần áo thì lem luốc. (His hands are dirty, and his clothes are all stained.)
Advanced Usage
- "thì" as a topic marker: In spoken Vietnamese, "thì" is often used to mark the topic of a sentence, especially when contrasting it with something else or responding to a previous statement. It can be translated as "as for..." or "regarding...".
- Công việc thì nhiều, thời gian thì ít. (As for work, there's a lot; as for time, there's little.)
- "thì" in rhetorical questions: Used to express a rhetorical retort, often translating to "well" or conveying a sense of "obviously" or "what did you expect?".
- Thì tôi đã bảo rồi mà! (Well, I told you so!)
Variants and Related Words
- Thì giờ (n): Time (as in hours and minutes).
- Tôi không có thì giờ. (I don't have time.)
- Thì thầm (v): To whisper.
- Họ thì thầm với nhau. (They are whispering to each other.)
- Dậy thì (n): Puberty.
- Tuổi dậy thì (The age of puberty)
Synonyms
- Noun: Peak, season, prime.
- Conjunction (Conditional): If...then, when.
- Conjunction (Contrastive): But, while, whereas.
- Particle: Indeed, obviously (as an emphatic filler).
Related Idioms
- Lỡ thì: To miss the right season or opportunity; to be past one's prime (often used for women in a traditional context regarding marriage).
- Sợ con gái mình lỡ thì. (Afraid their daughter would miss her chance to marry.)
- Phải thì: To be timely; to occur at the right moment.
- Mưa nắng phải thì. (The rain and sunshine come at the proper time.)
conj
- then; but certainly, for sure