Thanks and sorry

cảm ơn takes the address word too

cảm ơn behaves like chào: it is a verb, and it wants to name the person you are thanking. Cảm ơn anh. Cảm ơn chị. Cảm ơn cô. A bare Cảm ơn. is what you write on a note or say to a stranger you cannot place – not wrong, but flat. Add ạ when the person is older: Cảm ơn cô ạ. To thank warmly, put nhiều ('much') at the end: Cảm ơn anh nhiều.

xin lỗi is both sorry and excuse me

xin lỗi opens an apology – Xin lỗi anh. – and it is also the phrase you use to stop a stranger in the street or catch a waiter's eye. The same two syllables do both jobs. The address word follows it just as it follows chào: Xin lỗi chị., Xin lỗi cô ạ.

Xin lỗi anh ạ.I'm sorry (politely, to a man a little older than you).

The two replies

Thanks and apologies get different answers, and swapping them is the mistake learners make most often. To cảm ơn you answer Không có gì – 'there is nothing to thank me for'. To xin lỗi you answer Không sao – 'nothing has happened'. Both start with không, which is why they blur together; keep them apart by remembering that gì answers thanks and sao answers an apology.

vâng is 'yes' in the north: it agrees with what the other person has just said. dạ is not really a word for yes – it is a mark of respect placed in front of an answer: Dạ, vâng. Dạ, không có gì. A shop assistant, a child, and anyone answering an elder start that way. In the south dạ on its own does the work of 'yes'.