The way Vietnamese say “Happy New Year” is “Congrats (on) New Year”.
And here’s happy new year in Vietnamese: Chúc mừng năm mới.
And the mapping to English:
| Vietnamese | Chúc mừng | năm | mới |
| English | Congrats | year | new |
The phrase “new year” is translated to “năm mới” in Vietnamese because in Vietnamese, adjs are put after the nouns. You can review it here.
And a few notes about practical usage:
- This phrase in Vietnamese is mostly used in banners and slogans. They’re not actually used in that exact form in daily conversations (while in English people actually do say “happy new year”).
- In daily conversations, people often use this longer form:
Chúc + <pronouns for you> + năm mới + <adjs for what you want to wish>- Ex 1: Chúc cô năm mới dồi dào sức khỏe.
- Ex 2: A longer but widely used one: Chúc anh và gia đình năm mới sức khỏe và mọi sự như ý.
| Chúc | anh và gia đình | năm mới | sức khỏe và mọi sự như ý. |
| you and your family | healthy and everything happens according to your wish. |
The phrase “mọi sự như ý”, or “vạn sự như ý” is often used as a wish for the new year occasion as well: everything happens as you wish.
| “vạn” or “mọi” | sự | như ý |
| “vạn”: 10000; a word adapted from Chinese
“mọi”: every |
thing; it’s the same as “thứ”/”việc” with the difference is that this “sự” has root in Chinese | as you wish; used as an adj |
So, chúc mừng năm mới 2023!
Bonus:
If you’re in the mood, check out this page to learn how to say “happy new year” in other languages in Southeast Asia as well. (Btw, there’s 11 countries in Southeast Asia).
If you have questions related to this post, please comment below.
