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đồng in written language
Internationally, Vietnamese currency is known as VND (Việt Nam Đồng or Vietnamese Dong). However, we don’t use “VND” in our language when we speak or write.
We just simply use “đồng“, often abbreviated as “đ” in menu or price chart.
This is pretty much the only word you need to know for Vietnamese currency. We do not have cents, dimes or quarters.
For example: this is how you will see price written on a Vietnamese menu in Vietnam.
Thực đơn Bún bò 50.000đ Cơm tấm sườn 20.000đ Cà phê đen 5.000đ Cà phê sữa 5.000đ
You may be surprised to see even a cup of coffee costs several thousand đồng. However, it is actually pretty cheap. At the time of this post, 5.000đ is about $0.22 USD. If you want to know the current conversion rate, use the currency converter below.
đồng in spoken language
Because the only currency in Vietnam is “đồng”, it is understood by speakers that when referring to Vietnamese money, they’re talking about “đồng”; therefore, the word “đồng” is often omitted in spoken language.
For example:
You may ask how much a cup of coffee is and the owner may answer “hai ngàn” which is understood by both that it’s two thousand đồng for a cup of coffee.
ngàn đồng
Even though the Vietnamese currency is “đồng”, you will hardly buy anything in “đồng”, you will find yourself spend “ngàn đồng” or “nghìn đồng” on even the cheapest item, which is “thousand đồng”. If you forget what “ngàn” or “nghìn” means, review this lesson.
Example:
A: Cái túi này giá bao nhiêu? (How much is this bag?) B: Hai trăm. (Two hundred)
You can’t really buy anything with 200 đồng in Vietnam, let alone buy a bag at that price. Therefore, it is understood by both A and B that the bag costs two hundred thousand đồng or 200.000 đồng. “Ngàn đồng” is sometimes omitted depending on the context.
Let’s look at this example:
A: Cái áo thun này bao nhiêu vậy chị? (How much is this T-shirt?) B: Tính rẻ cho em. Bảy chục. (I'll price it cheap for you. Seventy.)
“chục” means the same thing as “mươi“. Nowadays, you can’t really buy anything with 200 đồng, let alone 70 đồng. Therefore, it is understood in this situation that the seller means 70 ngàn đồng or 70.000 đồng.