làm

See also: Appendix:Variations of "lam"

Vietnamese

Etymology

A doublet of là (“to be”); see there for more. This is an innovation in Vietnamese, not found in Mường and other Vietic languages. For the semantic relation, compare Chinese 為／为 (vi, “to do; to be”).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [laːm˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [laːm˦˩]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [laːm˨˩]

Verb

làm • (爫, 𪵯, 𬈋)

1. to do
2. to make
3. to work
4. to bear the responsibilities of

   Làm người ai làm thế!

   Have some human decency!

   Lớn lên con muốn làm bác sĩ.

   I want to become a doctor.

   Ông làm cha mà chẳng làm gương cho con.

   You're not a good example for your kids as a father.

Synonyms

• mần

See also

Derived terms

• làm lụng
• làm ơn
• làm sao
• quýt làm cam chịu