Vietnamese for freelancers: quotes, deadlines and invoices with Vietnamese clients

A message arrives on Zalo while you are halfway through your coffee: Chào em, bên anh đang cần viết nội dung cho website. Em báo giá giúp anh nhé, trong tuần này anh chốt. You know chào, nội dung and website. What you may not know is why the client calls you em, what báo giá giúp anh nhé asks for, and what chốt commits either of you to.

Working in Vietnamese is not required to take jobs from Vietnamese clients, and plenty of them will write in English with a foreign freelancer. The Vietnamese still turns up in the places you cannot avoid: the Zalo thread where the project is actually decided, the contract with its Bên A and Bên B, the accountant who asks for a hóa đơn. A few hundred well-chosen words and a handful of sentence patterns cover most of it.

This article is for designers, developers, writers and translators learning Vietnamese in order to work with Vietnamese clients, whether you live in Vietnam or work from abroad. It walks through a job from the first message to getting paid, with forty words, five points of grammar, three sample conversations and a practice plan. It says nothing about platform fees or tax, because those depend on where you are and how you are set up.

• Zalo, pronouns and the first message
• Forty words in the order a job unfolds
• Five points of Vietnamese that come up in every job
• Three conversations: a quote, extra work, getting paid
• How to practise
• Questions people ask
• What to do next

Zalo, pronouns and the first message

Many Vietnamese projects, especially small and mid-sized ones, are agreed over Zalo or Facebook Messenger rather than email. Messages are short, often sent in bursts, and they open with a greeting that already carries a decision: how the two of you address each other.

Vietnamese has no single neutral word for "you" that fits every situation. Instead, you choose a kinship term based on the other person's age and gender relative to yours. A client a little older than you is anh (man) or chị (woman), and you call yourself em. A client clearly younger may be em to you, while you are anh or chị. When ages are about the same and the tone is friendly, mình and bạn work. Tôi is correct and polite, but in a chat it can sound distant.

When you cannot tell, anh or chị for the client and em for yourself is the safe default, and the client will usually correct you toward something they prefer. In a contract, the two sides are Bên A and Bên B. Bên A is typically the party giving the work, which is the client, and Bên B is the party doing it, which is you. Check the definitions at the top of the document, because the roles are stated there.

Forty words in the order a job unfolds

The forty words in the game sit in five tables below. Read the Vietnamese aloud each time: tones decide meaning, and the examples use the sentence you would say to a client, with one pronoun choice per sentence.

Finding the job and understanding the brief

Price, negotiation and contracts

Scope, deadlines and availability

Drafts, revisions and handover

Invoices, payment and reviews

Two words need extra care. Nghiệm thu is a formal step: the client checks the work against what was agreed and signs off, and in many companies payment follows that sign-off. Ask early how long acceptance takes. Hóa đơn may mean a simple bill or a formal tax invoice depending on the company, and which one the client needs is a question for them and for an accountant, not something to guess.

When you chase a late payment, avoid quá hạn in the first message. Em chưa thấy khoản thanh toán về ạ (I have not yet seen the payment arrive) is gentler and still clear. Quá hạn belongs in a second message that names a date.

Five points of Vietnamese that come up in every job

1. Pick the pronoun first, then keep it

Almost every sentence needs a pronoun, and the pair you choose in the first message sets the tone. The pattern is [what you call yourself] + verb + [what you call the client]. Once you have picked em and anh, stay with them.

• Em gửi anh file ạ. (I am sending you the file.)
• Anh xem giúp em nhé. (Please take a look for me.)
• Chị cần thêm thông tin gì không ạ? (Do you need any more information?)

A frequent mistake among English speakers is translating "you" as bạn in every message or switching between tôi and em in the same thread. A switch like that can read as a change of attitude. Another is using anh for a woman or chị for a man, which is easy to avoid by checking the name and profile photo.

2. Ạ, nhé and giúp: three small words that make requests polite

Vietnamese softens a request with short words rather than a different verb form. Ạ at the end of a sentence shows respect to an older or senior listener. Nhé invites agreement and sounds friendly. Giúp means "help me" and turns a command into a favor.

• Anh gửi brief cho em nhé. (Send me the brief, please.)
• Anh xem giúp em bản nháp ạ. (Could you please look at the draft for me.)
• Mình họp vào thứ Ba được không ạ? (Could we meet on Tuesday?)

Learners often drop all three and write Gửi em brief, which is grammatical and sounds like an order. The opposite mistake is putting ạ on every sentence, which can sound stiff or even ironic with a client who is friendly and informal. Use it where you would say "please" or "sir" in English.

3. Tones that change money, time and convenience

Vietnamese has six tones, and a wrong tone can produce a different word. Three groups matter in freelance work, because you will say all of them in the first week.

Giá with a rising tone is the price, and già with a falling tone means old. Tiền (money) and tiện (convenient) both appear in the same sentence in Anh tiện thanh toán tiền chưa ạ?. The best way to learn them is to say a pair out loud and hear the difference, and the game below has them so you can repeat the sound.

4. Đã, đang, sẽ, chưa: marking time without changing the verb

Vietnamese verbs do not change form. When you need to show time, you add a marker: đã (done), đang (in progress), sẽ (will), chưa (not yet). When the context already shows the time, the marker can be dropped.

• Em đã gửi file sáng nay. (I sent the file this morning.)
• Em đang làm bản nháp. (I am working on the draft.)
• Anh chưa thanh toán hóa đơn ạ. (The invoice has not been paid yet.)

English speakers tend to add đã to every past event. In Hôm qua em gửi file, the word hôm qua (yesterday) already says it is past, and đã is optional. The word chưa is the one to learn first, because it is how you ask and report whether something has happened.

5. Question frames: có... không, đã... chưa, được không

Yes or no questions use frames. Có + verb + không asks whether something is true. Đã + verb + chưa asks whether something has happened. Được không at the end of a request asks whether it is possible.

• Anh có cần hóa đơn không ạ? (Do you need an invoice?)
• Anh đã xem báo giá chưa ạ? (Have you seen the quote yet?)
• Thứ Sáu em gửi bản nháp được không anh? (Is Friday all right for me to send the draft?)

A common mistake is keeping English word order and just adding a question mark: Anh xem báo giá? Vietnamese listeners may understand it but it sounds clipped. Add the frame, and add ạ when the person is senior.

Three conversations: a quote, extra work, getting paid

Quote and deposit with a marketing manager in Hanoi (chị Hương)

Extra work from a shop owner in Ho Chi Minh City (anh Tuấn)

Acceptance, invoice and a late payment (chị Lan, accounting)

In all three, the freelancer states a concrete date and a concrete condition, softens requests with ạ and nhé, and keeps the same pronoun pair from start to finish. In the second reminder the message is clearer, and the tone is unchanged.

How to practise

Start with the set. Play Falling Stars with the freelancer set to attach each word to its meaning, then switch to Pop It for the pairs that tend to blur, such as chỉnh sửa and phản hồi, or bàn giao and duyệt. Say each word aloud while you play, because the tone is part of the word.

Then train your ear. On the podcasts page, choose a Vietnamese episode about work or business and write down a few sentences. Notice how sentence-final particles like ạ and nhé sound in fast speech. The courses cover the groundwork, the vocabulary test shows where you stand, and the Vietnamese practice test gives you a concrete target if you need one.

Outside WELE, the lessons from VietnamesePod101 and the Colloquial Vietnamese textbook are widely used, and online dictionaries such as Vdict or Glosbe help check a single word. The most efficient exercise is also the cheapest: save real messages from your clients, note how they open and close, and build your own phrase bank. Related professions have their own articles: Vietnamese for IT professionals and Vietnamese for content creators. All of them sit on the professions hub, and this vocabulary set has its own page.

Questions people ask

How much Vietnamese do I need to work with Vietnamese clients?

It depends on the client and the job. Many clients are comfortable writing in English with a foreign freelancer, so Vietnamese is an advantage rather than a requirement. If you plan to handle chat and contracts in Vietnamese, being able to read a brief and write short polite messages is a realistic first goal. Phone calls and fast Zalo voice messages come later.

Is it rude to call a client by the wrong pronoun?

A wrong choice usually causes a small smile or a gentle correction, not offense, especially from a foreigner. Still, it helps to check the client's name, profile photo and how they address you. If you are unsure, anh or chị with em for yourself is the safest pair.

What are Bên A and Bên B in a contract?

They are the two parties. Bên A is typically the one who orders the work, which is the client, and Bên B is the one who does it. The roles are defined at the start of the contract, so read that section first.

Do I need to issue a formal invoice to a Vietnamese client?

Many companies ask for a document to record the payment, and what counts depends on your situation and theirs. I am not covering this in detail, because getting it wrong can delay payment. Ask the client what they need, and ask an accountant what you are allowed to issue.

Is it normal to agree on a job over Zalo without a contract?

For small jobs, many projects start in chat. The more money is involved, the more you want something written. At minimum, send one message that states the scope, price, number of revisions, deadline and payment method, and ask the client to reply Ok or Chốt. That reply is useful if there is a disagreement later.

What to do next

Take a real or imagined client message, write your reply with em, anh, ạ and nhé, and then go back to the freelancer set so the words land where you need them.