You're standing in a little repair shop in a Saigon alley, holding a motorbike key, and you want to ask two very normal human questions: how long is this going to take? and how much is this going to hurt? Vietnamese has one verb for each. Get them mixed up and people still understand you — but they'll smile the way you smile at a puppy walking into a glass door.
Quick answer: mất is the clock — how much time something takes; tốn is the wallet and the sweat — how much money, effort or resources something eats up.
Mất = the clock is running
Put mất right before a chunk of time, and you've said "it takes that long." No extra grammar. No "to be." Nothing.
Notice the third one: you can slip the person in right after mất — mất tui, mất ảnh, mất tụi mình. Or flip it around and start with yourself: Tui mất nguyên tuần để làm cái hồ sơ đó. Both are completely normal.
Tốn = something is being used up
Tốn is what you say when an activity consumes something — money, electricity, petrol, water, space, paper, your energy. There's usually a faint "ugh, that's a lot" flavour baked in.
Common mistake
Don't use tốn for the price tag on a single object. A shirt doesn't "consume" money — it just is a price. Say Cái áo này hai trăm ngàn. or Cái áo này mắc quá. But an activity can absolutely consume money: Mua đồ Tết tốn hai triệu lận. Object → price. Activity → tốn.
Asking the two questions
This is the payoff. Two question shapes, and you can survive half of daily Saigon life with them.
Local tip
In Saigon people chop bao nhiêu down to just nhiêu all day long, and for a total bill they'll usually reach for hết instead of tốn: Hết nhiêu vậy chị? "How much altogether?" It's the most Saigon way to ask for a number.
Tốn công, tốn sức: when it costs you you
Tốn isn't only about money. It pairs beautifully with the things you spend that never show up on a receipt.
The sneaky pair: tốn công vs mất công
Here's where even confident learners wobble. They look almost identical. They are not.
Tốn công = it requires effort. Neutral-ish, just a fact about the task.
Mất công = you spent the effort, usually for nothing, or you're going out of your way. There's a sigh in it.
That khỏi mất công is pure gold. "Save yourself the trouble." You'll hear it from every friend, every landlord, every auntie who has decided she's doing it for you instead.
Free, and cheaper: hông tốn and đỡ tốn
Oh — mất also means "lose"
Same word, and it's not a coincidence: time leaves you. So do keys.
Good to know
Both verbs can touch money, with different feelings. Gửi xe mất mười ngàn. = parking costs ten thousand (money leaves your hand, one transaction). Nuôi chó tốn tiền lắm. = keeping a dog eats money (ongoing drain). And Tui bị mất bóp. is the sad one — you lost your wallet.
Does this change between North and South?
Honestly? Mất and tốn work the same everywhere in Vietnam — this is one of those rare bits of grammar that doesn't split by region. But the words that hang around them absolutely do, and that's what makes a sentence sound Saigon.
| Meaning | Southern (Saigon) | Northern (Hanoi) |
|---|---|---|
| expensive | mắc | đắt |
| how much? | nhiêu / bao nhiêu | bao nhiêu |
| not / no | hông, hổng | không |
| to use (electricity, petrol) | xài | dùng |
| a whole lot | quá trời, dữ lắm | rất, cực kỳ |
So a Saigon sentence is Cái đó mắc quá trời, mua là tốn hết tiền luôn. Same grammar, different flavour. That flavour is most of the reason people learn Southern Vietnamese online with a Saigon teacher instead of from a generic textbook.
Local tip
You can say tốn hai tiếng — but it means "that wasted two hours of my life." Use mất when you're just reporting the duration, and save tốn for when you want the complaint audible.
Try it yourself
- Ask a repair guy how long it'll take: "How long does fixing this take?"
- Tell a friend the ride to the airport takes 40 minutes.
- Warn someone that running the AC all night uses a lot of electricity.
- Say "don't bother cooking, I'll order delivery."
- Tell someone the museum is free to enter.
Answers: 1. Sửa cái này mất bao lâu vậy anh? · 2. Đi ra sân bay mất bốn chục phút. · 3. Mở máy lạnh cả đêm tốn điện lắm nha. · 4. Khỏi mất công nấu, để tui đặt đồ ăn cho. · 5. Vô bảo tàng hông tốn tiền đâu.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just use tốn for everything?
You'll be understood, but you'll sound slightly grumpy about time. Mất is the neutral one for duration; tốn always carries a whiff of "that's too much."
What about tốn kém?
It's the adjective version — "costly, expensive to run." Cái đám giỗ năm nay tốn kém quá. Slightly more formal, very common in adult conversation about money.
Why do people say hết instead of tốn when asking prices?
Because hết asks for a total: Hết nhiêu vậy chị? "What's it come to?" Use tốn when you're asking about an activity's cost in general, hết when you're settling a bill right now.
Is mất rude when I say something took a long time?
Not at all. Cái này mất thời gian quá is just a statement. Soften it with nha or hen if you're talking to someone who did the work for you.
How long does it take to get comfortable with this?
Genuinely about a week of noticing. Every time someone quotes you a wait or a price in Saigon, one of these two verbs is in the sentence. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it.
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