oẳn tù tì

Vietnamese

FWOTD – 10 December 2019

Alternative forms

• xù xi

Etymology

From English one, two, three.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔwan˧˩ tu˨˩ ti˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔwaŋ˧˨ tʊw˦˩ tɪj˦˩]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [(ʔ)waŋ˨˩˦ tʊw˨˩ tɪj˨˩]

• Audio (Hà Nội):

  (file)

Noun

oẳn tù tì

1. (games) rock paper scissors

   Synonyms: kéo búa bao, xù xì

   Oẳn tù tì, ra cái gì, ra cái này

   Rock paper scissors, what I got, I got this.

   • 2011, Lê Đức Quang, “Oẳn tù tì”, in Dịu dàng ơi!, Công ty Văn hóa Hương Trang:

     Lúc cưới nhau rồi, anh chị vẫn giữ thói quen trò chơi cũ. Trưa cũng như chiều, ăn cơm xong anh chị lại chơi oẳn tù tì, ai thua rửa chén, ai thắng ngồi gác chân cười ha hả trêu tức người thua.

     They still kept the habit of playing the game [of rock paper scissors] after they got married. After both lunch and dinner they would play a game of rock paper scissors, and whoever lost would wash the dishes, teased by the winner who would laugh and sit with their feet up.

Usage notes

• The three items are variously known as đá (“rock”)/búa (“hammer”), kéo (“scissors”) and giấy (“paper”)/bao (“bag”).
• In Vietnam, this game is only played between two players. For more than two, a game of tay trắng tay đen is played instead.

Verb

oẳn tù tì

1. (games) to play rock paper scissors