Water is dripping through your ceiling. It's 7am. Your landlady sends you one message and it contains a word your textbook never taught you: thợ. Welcome to the half of Saigon life that runs on trades, day rates and a guy on a motorbike with a toolbox strapped to the back.
Quick answer: thợ means "skilled worker", and you just glue the job onto the back of it — thợ điện (electrician), thợ hồ (builder), thợ máy (mechanic) — then say kêu thợ tới coi giùm to get one to your house.
Thợ is a word-machine, not a word
Think of thợ as a little factory. Put a tool, a material or an action behind it and you've made a job title. Thợ + điện (electricity) = electrician. Thợ + hàn (to weld) = welder. You don't need to memorise a list so much as recognise the pattern and then guess — and in Saigon, guessing out loud is how you learn.
One grammar note and then I'll drop it: you can say Chú đó là thợ điện or Chú đó làm thợ điện, both are normal. That's it, moving on.
Cluster 1: the construction crowd
Put them in real sentences and they stop feeling like flashcards:
Local tip
Two joke words worth knowing. Thợ đụng is the do-everything guy — đụng gì làm nấy, "whatever he bumps into, he does". And thợ vịn ("holding worker") is what people tease you with when you help by, uh, just holding the ladder. Say Tui làm thợ vịn thôi and everyone laughs.
Cluster 2: the fix-my-stuff crowd
And the ones you meet without any emergency at all: thợ may (tailor), thợ làm móng (nail tech), and the barber — in Saigon you'll hear thợ hớt tóc at least as often as thợ cắt tóc.
How to actually get one to your house
The magic verb is kêu — to call, to summon. Down south nobody says the formal version; it's kêu thợ, full stop. Then you add tới coi giùm, "come look for me", which is the softest, most normal way to ask.
Good to know
Most trades in the neighbourhood work by word of mouth. The real first sentence is usually to your landlord, your chủ nhà, or the lady at the shop downstairs: Cô có biết thợ nào hông cô? — "Do you know any workers?" She always does.
Getting a price out of him
Two words carry the whole conversation. Tiền công is the labour, vật tư is the materials. Every quote is some mix of those two, and asking which is which saves you a lot of confusion later.
Paying by the day vs paying for the job
This is the fork in the road. Ngày công is a "work day" — you pay per day the guy shows up. Khoán is a flat price for the whole job, whether it takes two days or five. Saigon people ask about it directly, no awkwardness.
And then, because this is Vietnam, you push back a little. Not aggressively — you say mắc (expensive) with a smile and let him move.
The salaried side: công nhân, làm công, tăng ca
Not everyone who works with their hands is a thợ. If they clock into a factory, they're a công nhân — a factory worker — and that's a hugely common word in daily conversation, because half of Saigon has a cousin in an industrial zone.
Common mistake
Don't mix up tiền công (the labour charge) with công nhân (a factory worker) or làm công (to be an employee). Same syllable công, three different worlds. Also: phụ hồ is a helper, not a plumber — the hồ here is mortar, not water.
North vs South
This topic really does split by region, mostly because the trades are old, local words. Everything else in this post is Saigon speech.
| Meaning | Southern (Saigon) | Northern (Hanoi) |
|---|---|---|
| builder / mason | thợ hồ | thợ xây, thợ nề |
| barber | thợ hớt tóc | thợ cắt tóc |
| to call someone over | kêu thợ | gọi thợ |
| take a look for me | coi giùm | xem hộ |
| expensive | mắc | đắt |
| thousand (money) | ngàn | nghìn |
| that guy (the worker) | ổng | ông ấy |
Try it yourself
- Your light switch is dead. Ask your landlady to call an electrician over to take a look.
- Ask the guy whether he charges by the day or by the job.
- Tell him it's too expensive and ask him to come down a bit.
- Say your older brother works in a factory and does overtime every day.
- Ask how much is labour and how much is materials.
Answers: 1. Cô ơi, cô kêu thợ điện tới coi giùm con cái công tắc đi cô. · 2. Chú tính công nhật hay tính khoán vậy chú? · 3. Mắc quá chú ơi, bớt chút đi. · 4. Anh tui làm công nhân, ngày nào cũng tăng ca. · 5. Tiền công bao nhiêu, vật tư bao nhiêu vậy chú?
Frequently asked questions
Is thợ rude or looking-down-on-someone?
Not at all. It's a neutral, respectable word — skilled worker. People say tui làm thợ with pride. What you never do is call someone thợ to their face instead of a proper address word; you still say chú, anh, cô when talking to them.
What do I call the worker when he's standing in my kitchen?
Age-based, like everything in Vietnamese. Around your age or a bit older: anh. Your parents' generation: chú. Add dạ at the front of answers and you'll come across as raised right.
Can I really haggle with a thợ?
A little, and politely. Labour prices are softer than you'd think, especially on a flat-rate khoán job. But grinding him down hard is a bad trade — you want this guy to pick up the phone next time. Bớt chút đi chú is the whole strategy.
What's the difference between thợ hồ and phụ hồ?
The thợ hồ has the skill and lays the brick; the phụ hồ mixes the cement and carries things. Different work, different day rate — which is exactly why you ask Thợ chính bao nhiêu, thợ phụ bao nhiêu?
How do I practise this kind of real-life vocabulary?
Honestly, by talking. This is the stuff that never shows up in a textbook chapter but hits you the first week you have your own apartment. If you want to learn Southern Vietnamese online with someone who can role-play the whole "my ceiling is leaking" conversation with you until it's automatic, that's exactly what a live lesson is for.
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- Listen to the SVFF podcast — real Southern Vietnamese, free.
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