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thừa

Level ≈A2 (approx.) adjectiveadverbverb Sino-Vietnamese Top 1,000 most common
Hanoi [tʰɨə˨˩]Huế [tʰɨə˦˩]Saigon [tʰɨə˨˩] browser voice
Syllables · tones
thừafallinghuyền

Each syllable carries one of six tones; the mark on the vowel tells you which. How the six tones sound →

thừa means unneeded; needless; unnecessary.

Chinese characters: 剩

Meanings of thừa in English

Adjective

  1. unneeded, needless, unnecessary (exceeding what is needed); redundant, superfluous; leftover ≈ dưdư thừa
    • Đời thừaRedundant life (a short story by Nam Cao)
    • động tác thừaredundant action
    • còn thừa thời gianstill [have] time to spare

Adverb

  1. informal without doubt; surely; certainly
    • thừa biết; biết thừato be well aware
    • thừa hiểuto fully understand
    • Nó thừa khôn ngoan để hiểu chuyện ấy.He is surely smart enough to understand the matter.

Verb

  1. in fixed expressions to take advantage of (an opportunity or situation)
    • thừa cơto seize an opportunity
    • thừa gió bẻ măngto seize an opportunity
    • thừa nước đục thả câuto seize an opportunity

Verb

  1. to obey (one's social superior[s])
    • thừa lệnh‘to obey order’ ← ‘to accept order’
    • khâm thừato respectfully obey
    • phụng thừato obey (someone's order)
  2. in compounds to receive (something from one's social superior[s]), to accept (something from one's social superior[s])
    • thừa lệnhto accept order
    • thừa ânto be grateful (for favor received)
  3. in compounds to inherit
    • con thừa tựheir

Noun

  1. thừa
  2. abbreviation, obsolete short for thừa phái

Words with thừa

thừa thãithừa cơthừa nước đục thả câuthừa thắnggiao thừakế thừathừa hưởngthừa kếthừa nhậnthừa tác viênthừa biếtthừa số

Idioms and sayings with thừa

Example sentences with thừa

  • Tôi cảm thấy thừa sống, thiếu chết. I feel more dead than alive.
  • Tom nghĩ Tom bị thừa cân. I think Tom is obese.
  • Tôi cho chó ăn chỗ thức ăn thừa. I fed the leftovers to my dog.
  • Đó là phần thức ăn thừa bữa trưa. Those are the leftovers from lunch.
  • Tom ăn phần pizza thừa cho bữa sáng. Tom ate the leftover pizza for breakfast.
  • Còn rất ít giấy thừa. There's very little paper left.
  • Ai đã ăn hết chỗ thức ăn thừa vậy? Who ate the rest of the leftovers?
  • Tom đã cho chó ăn đồ thừa của mình. Tom fed his leftovers to his dog.

Bilingual example sentences from Tatoeba (tatoeba.org, CC BY 2.0 FR).

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 剩. Its regular reading thặng only occurs in the word thặng dư (“surplus”), while its irregular reading thừa, which fails to retain Middle Chinese final -ŋ, is acquired from 承 (see etymology 4).

Frequently asked questions

What does thừa mean in English?

thừa (adjective) means "unneeded; needless; unnecessary".

How do you pronounce thừa?

IPA: Hanoi [tʰɨə˨˩]; Saigon [tʰɨə˨˩]. Tones: thừa — falling tone (huyền).

Is thừa a Sino-Vietnamese word?

Yes. thừa is a Sino-Vietnamese word from the Chinese characters 剩.

Meanings, pronunciation and etymology from English Wiktionary (wiktionary.org, via kaikki.org; CC BY-SA 4.0), reviewed and edited; example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). IPA shown for three accents: Hanoi (Northern), Huế (Central) and Saigon (Southern). The Listen button uses your browser's Vietnamese voice, for reference only. Levels are approximate, estimated from word frequency. Spotted a mistake? Let NgonNgu know.