khách hàng

Vietnamese

Etymology

From khách (“guest; customer; client”) +‎ hàng (“goods”). khách by itself usually implies that the person physically goes to a shop or store, but khách hàng has a broader connotation, as in a client who uses any service that doesn't necessarily require them to physically go anywhere, such as Internet service, telephone service, or work on commission. Incidentally, the hàng (“goods”) in this word and the hành (“to go”) in hành khách (“passenger”) both derive from Chinese 行, making the Nom spelling of this and the Sino-Vietnamese spelling of hành khách accidental anagrams.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [xajk̟̚˧˦ haːŋ˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kʰat̚˦˧˥ haːŋ˦˩] ~ [xat̚˦˧˥ haːŋ˦˩]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [kʰat̚˦˥ haːŋ˨˩] ~ [xat̚˦˥ haːŋ˨˩]

Noun

khách hàng

1. a customer or client

   dịch vụ chăm sóc khách hàng

   customer service

   (literally, “customer-care service”)