thèm nhạt
Definition
- Adjective:
- To crave intensely; to desire something very much: Expresses a strong, often physical, longing or yearning for something, typically food or drink. It emphasizes the intensity of the craving.
- To be dying for something: A colloquial expression indicating an extreme, almost unbearable, level of desire.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Tôi thèm nhạt một tô phở nóng. (I am dying for a bowl of hot pho.)
- Nhìn bánh ngọt mà thèm nhạt. (Looking at the cake makes me crave it intensely.)
- Đi nắng về, nó thèm nhạt một ly nước mát. (Coming home from the hot sun, he craved a cool glass of water intensely.)
Advanced Usage
- The phrase is often used in its reduplicated form "thèm nhạt" for emphasis. The individual components "thèm" (to crave) and "nhạt" (bland, tasteless) combine to create an idiom where "nhạt" intensifies the feeling of "thèm," suggesting a craving so strong it makes everything else seem bland or uninteresting.
- It can describe non-physical desires in a hyperbolic way, though this is less common.
- Thằng bé thèm nhạt được đi chơi công viên. (The boy is dying to go to the park.)
Variants and Related Words
- Thèm (v): to crave, to desire.
- Tôi thèm ăn kem. (I crave ice cream.)
- Thèm thuồng (adj): to long for, to yearn for (often with a sense of wistfulness).
- Cô ấy thèm thuồng nhìn sang nhà hàng xóm. (She looked longingly at the neighbor's house.)
Synonyms
- To crave: to have a very strong desire for.
- To yearn for: to have an intense feeling of longing.
- To be dying for: (idiomatic) to want something extremely.
Related Idioms
- Chết thèm chết nhạt: an even stronger, more exaggerated form meaning "to be absolutely dying for something."
- Ngửi mùi bánh mì nướng mà chết thèm chết nhạt. (Smelling the toast made me absolutely die for it.)