Definition

1. Tính từ (Adjective):

   • Hard, strenuous, difficult: Describes work, a task, or a situation that requires a lot of physical or mental effort and is tiring.
   • In difficulties, struggling: Describes a life, circumstance, or person facing hardship, poverty, or a lack of ease.

2. Phó từ (Adverb):

   • Laboriously, with great effort, hard: Describes the manner of doing something, indicating it is done with much difficulty and exertion.

Usage Examples

• Tính từ (Adjective):

  • Công việc này rất vất vả. (This job is very hard/strenuous.)
  • Họ có một cuộc sống vất vả. (They have a difficult/struggling life.)
  • Anh ấy vất vả về đường con cái. (He has difficulties/hardships regarding his children.)

• Phó từ (Adverb):

  • Người nông dân làm việc vất vả cả ngày. (The farmer works laboriously all day.)
  • Cô ấy vất vả tìm kiếm tài liệu. (She searched for the documents with great effort.)

Advanced Usage

• The word can be used to express that achieving something required significant struggle.

  • Nó vất vả lắm mới leo lên tới đỉnh núi. (He struggled hard to climb to the mountain top.)

• It can describe misfortune or lack of luck in a specific aspect of life.

  • Vất vả về đường tình duyên. (To be unlucky/unfortunate in love.)

Variants and Related Words

• Nhọc nhằn (adj): arduous, toilsome. A close synonym emphasizing physical fatigue.
• Cực khổ (adj): miserable, suffering. Often implies a deeper level of hardship and suffering.
• Khó nhọc (adj): difficult, laborious.

Synonyms

• Strenuous: requiring great exertion.
• Arduous: involving difficult labor.
• Laborious: requiring much work and effort.
• Difficult: hard to do or achieve.
• Hard-pressed: in difficulties.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Vật lộn, vất vả: to struggle and strive. This phrase intensifies the meaning of hard work and difficulty.

  • Vật lộn, vất vả để nuôi con. (To struggle and strive to raise children.)

• Đầu tắt mặt tối: (idiom) literally "head off, face dark," meaning to be extremely busy and work from dawn till dusk, closely related to the state of being vất vả.

  • Công việc kinh doanh khiến anh ấy đầu tắt mặt tối. (The business keeps him extremely busy and overworked.)

adj

1. hard, strenuous, in difficulties

adv

1. laborously, hard