# Những + number in Vietnamese (B1)

> The word before a number can show what you think of it. Có before a number means "only", a small amount: Từ đây ra chợ có hai cây số thôi.

Source: https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/nhung-number-as-many/ · Updated 2026-10-17

**only (small) / as many as (large)**

Pattern: `có + [number] (+ thôi) (only) · tới + [number] + lận (as many as, Saigon) · những + [number] + [noun] (as many as, Hà Nội and writing)`

Level: B1 (our estimate) · Register: everyday

Typed without accents: nhung, co, toi … lan

Saigon: có + [number] + thôi / à · tới + [number] + lận | Hà Nội: có + [number] + thôi · những + [number]

The word before a number can show what you think of it. *Có* before a number means "only", a small amount: *Từ đây ra chợ có hai cây số thôi.* It's only two kilometres from here to the market. *Thôi* at the end makes "only" clearer. In a surprised question, *à* takes its place: *Có hai tiếng à?* Only two hours?

For a large amount, Saigon speech puts *tới* before the number and *lận* at the end: *Cái áo này tới năm trăm ngàn lận.* This shirt costs a whole five hundred thousand. In Hà Nội, and in writing, *những* before the number does that job: *giá những năm trăm nghìn*. This isn't the *những* that makes a noun plural: it goes before a number, and only to say "that many!"

So the same amount can sound small or large: *có ba tiếng* (just three hours), *tới ba tiếng lận* (a whole three hours).

Take care with *có* after a person or a place, where it means "have" or "there is": *Lớp có năm người* can be a plain fact. Add *thôi* to make it "only". *Mới* before a number is another "only", for something that will grow, like age: *Bé mới ba tuổi.*

## Examples

- Từ đây ra chợ có hai cây số thôi. — It's only two kilometres from here to the market.
- Hôm qua em ngủ có bốn tiếng thôi. — I only slept four hours last night.
- Saigon: Cái áo này tới năm trăm ngàn lận. | Hà Nội: Cái áo này giá những năm trăm nghìn. — This shirt costs a whole five hundred thousand.
- Saigon: Em chờ anh tới hai tiếng lận đó. | Hà Nội: Em đợi anh những hai tiếng đấy. — I waited for you a whole two hours!

## Compare

- [Only (so few, so young): mới + number](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/moi-only-number/): only (amount, age)
- [Some of them (plural): những](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/nhung-plural/): plural, a subset
- [No những / các after a number, no plural word when the context shows it: ba con chó](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/bare-noun-plural/): no plural marking
- [Insisting, Northern style: … cơ, cơ mà](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/co-insist-north/): that one, not this; but you said …

Previous in Things, counting and numbers: [Nothing but: toàn (là)](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/toan-la-nothing-but/)
Next in Things, counting and numbers: [Twice as, three times as: gấp đôi, gấp ba](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/gap-doi-times/)

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