Tôi lấy cái này — Deciding to buy

What you will learn

After asking price, color and size, you need to make a decision. A very common Vietnamese shopping phrase is Tôi lấy cái này — “I’ll take this one”.

The important point is to learn lấy from the shopping situation, not to memorize it only as English “take”.

1. Tôi lấy cái này

• Tôi lấy cái này. — I’ll take this one.
• Em lấy cái này. — I’ll take this one, said as em.
• Anh lấy cái kia. — I’ll take that one, said as anh.

In a shop, lấy can signal your choice to buy/select an item.

2. Cho em lấy cái này

A very natural service-interaction form is:

• Cho em lấy cái này.
• Cho anh lấy hai cái.

This combines the request pattern from B51 with the buying decision.

3. Mua — buy

• Tôi mua cái này. — I’m buying / I’ll buy this one.
• Anh muốn mua cái nào? — Which one do you want to buy?
• Em mua hai cái. — I’m buying two.

Mua names the act of buying directly. Lấy in a shop often emphasizes selecting/taking the item as your purchase.

4. Lấy and mua overlap, but are not identical

Compare:

• Tôi mua cái áo này. — I buy/am buying this shirt.
• Tôi lấy cái áo này. — I’ll take/select this shirt.

Both can lead to the same purchase. The viewpoint is different.

5. Lấy has many meanings outside shopping

You may also hear:

• lấy nước — get water
• lấy điện thoại — get/take the phone
• lấy vợ / lấy chồng — marry, in common traditional expressions

This is why translating every lấy as “take” produces strange English and weak Vietnamese understanding.

6. Không lấy — not taking/buying it

• Cái này em không lấy.
• Thôi, em không lấy nữa. — Never mind / I won’t take it after all.

Nữa can signal a changed continuation or “anymore/after all” in contexts like this. A fuller treatment comes later.

7. Lấy cái nào?

• Em lấy cái nào? — Which one are you taking?
• Anh lấy màu nào? — Which color will you take?
• Chị lấy cỡ nào? — Which size will you take?

B57’s nào now becomes part of an actual buying decision.

8. A short shop conversation

Người bán: Em lấy cái nào?

Khách: Cho em lấy cái màu đen.

Người bán: Một cái thôi hả em?

Khách: Dạ, một cái thôi.

Người bán: Rồi, chị lấy cho em.

9. The same lấy can appear on both sides

In the conversation:

• the buyer says em lấy cái màu đen — select/buy;
• the seller says chị lấy cho em — get it for you.

The verb is the same, but participants and context change the interpretation.

10. Thôi — only / stop / never mind, depending on context

In một cái thôi, thôi means “only/just”.

In thôi, em không lấy nữa, it can help signal stopping/abandoning the plan.

B83 will study thôi more systematically.

11. Useful vocabulary

• lấy — take/get/select, context-dependent
• mua — buy
• không lấy — not take/buy
• lấy cái nào — take which one
• lấy màu nào — take which color
• lấy cỡ nào — take which size
• một cái thôi — just one

12. Vietnam in real life

Short shopping Vietnamese often focuses on the decision itself: lấy cái này, không lấy, lấy hai cái. The transaction and setting make “buying” obvious even when the verb mua is absent.

13. Common beginner mistakes

• Thinking lấy always means physical “take”.
• Thinking mua is mandatory in every buying sentence.
• Forgetting that tôi/anh/em changes with relationship.
• Translating every occurrence of thôi with one English word.

Try it

1. Say “I’ll take this one.”
2. Say it again using Cho em lấy....
3. Ask which one someone will take.
4. Say that you will buy two.
5. Explain one difference between mua and shopping-context lấy.

Quick recap

In shopping, lấy often means selecting/taking an item as your purchase. Mua directly means buy. Learn both viewpoints instead of forcing one English translation onto lấy.