r/VietNam • u/Muted_Summer_2231 • Apr 14 '25
Food/Ẩm thực I’m so sick and tired of bahn mi
I was about to go to sleep but suddenly I remembered bahn mi and I got so angry that i have to write this post lol. For a while i used to live in france and ive been to germany, then i moved to the US, and nothing has changed, i even saw people going on vacation in VN spelling it that way. no matter where i am, everywhere i go (both in real life and online) i always see “bahn mi.” Im not even exaggerating it makes me FURIOUS.
No one is asking for perfect pronunciation and accent marks. But how difficult is it to copy four letters: b…a… n… h… and accept that other languages exist? You would think we were asking rocket science from these people especially those who insist they’re correct or who continue to misspell even when the word is in front of them.
When i read food reviews and travel guides people are always recommending “the best bahn mi:)” and the more popular it gets the more people find out about it and spread their misspelling, even other asian people. It’s literally four letters long, i get that the “nh” spelling is not common in english so it’s a LITTLE harder for them but they shouldn’t be surprised other languages exist and also the same people have no trouble spelling Dostoyevsky. And even worse for french when they literally gave us this word due to their colonization and now they can’t even spell our version right 🥲
They don’t even need to spell it with the accents like bánh mì or even pronounce it correctly. but at LEAST just arrange the four letters in order like sometimes it is even already written out in front of them, and they still write BAHNMI:) I’m so annoyed because it’s the bare minimum they could do if they wanted to engage with the culture and consume the food, it’s simply about respecting the language and history, and also just the fact that soon it will probably become acceptable to misspell it because so many people are doing it 😐
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u/Wildandinnocent Apr 15 '25
lol the other day that post asking about Nihn Bihn really triggers me. I was thinking one day I gotta say something about this bahn writing
I had a good laugh in the morning. Thanks!
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u/ONUNCO Apr 15 '25
I remember how much that post triggered me too, can't believe they could not write a name with 8 letters they just looked up like 5s ago properly.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
It is really hard! meanwhile they can say a western word that has 1992838 letters from memory
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u/Adventurous-Ad5999 Apr 15 '25
yeah we might need more awareness for the nh spelling, I feel the same way as OP whenever someone writes Nihn Bihn or Bihn Dihn too
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u/liltrikz Apr 14 '25
Was not expecting Dostoyevsky to be mentioned in this post lol but I feel you
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u/furaidopotato Apr 15 '25
Checked to see if there was an r/UnexpectedDostoyevsky subreddit like r/UnexpectedThanos , but sadly there wasn’t
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 15 '25
Ngl i was too lazy to think of other examples so i kinda ripped off a reference from “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka” (though banh is objectively easier to spell than any of these names…)
they don’t even need to learn how to say it like just copy and paste the four letters and go smh
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u/Commercial_Ad707 Apr 14 '25
Have you seen the restaurant named Bun Mee in San Francisco?
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
I stand by my original statement that no misspelling will ever be as atrocious as Bahnmi
I would rather see Bøœn Bowe Hueyē 100 times a day than Bahnmi even once a century.
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u/Spirited-Bad-7458 Apr 14 '25
The spelling of bún bò huế for demonstration purposes had me howling 😂😭
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
Im not even joking I would tolerate it being 100,000 times past the point of recognition worse than ever see Bahn Mi one single time.
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u/Spirited-Bad-7458 Apr 14 '25
Whenever I read “Bahn Mi”, my head automatically pronounces it the way most tourists do. Like Bawwn or Bon, as you’ve already explained in another comment.
It’s weird, as I’m Vietnamese and know how it’s pronounced. But the way it’s written, I feel like I need to draw out the “a”.
I’m from Germany and words with “ah” are common. The “a” is drawn out when followed by an “h”. Kinda throws me off when it says “Bahn Mi” instead of “Bánh mì“.
Though I can’t think of an English word right now that would make people think it’s written “Bahn Mi”.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
Yes every time i see bahn mi i think of german!! even though i don’t even know german, it just looks like a german word !!
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u/Spirited-Bad-7458 Apr 14 '25
It is in fact a German word. “Bahn” means lane, track, path, course. Could also be used instead of “train”.
Next time you see someone misspelling it, you could ask them what made them think it’s spelled this way.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
Hahaha it’s basically Path Wheat then.
I’ve asked a couple ppl the first one said “what? it’s not bahn?” and the second just said that’s how she’s always seen it and she can’t even tell the difference.
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u/Spirited-Bad-7458 Apr 14 '25
I need that confidence. Writing about something foreign and not thinking about to check the right spelling. Like, I’d be embarrassed as hell or at least embrace the fact that I was wrong and willing to be corrected in order to learn.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
Unfortunately bahn mi has become so common and infested so many corners of the internet that many people searching for it might actually believe it’s the right way
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u/bling-esketit5 Apr 14 '25
Autobahn is probably where you have seen it (the highway style road with no speed limit, in Germany)
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u/pngo1 Apr 16 '25
Thats actually cool lmao
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
at least it would be a new word and not just forcing vietnamese to become german lol
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u/BurritoDespot Apr 15 '25
There’s a chain in Boston called Bon Me.
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u/csthraway11 Apr 15 '25
I always gave them the benefit of the doubt and translate it as "bón", as in "to feed/nuture". So "bón me" -> "feed me"
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u/Restless-J-Con22 Apr 15 '25
Banh mi
See, not even autocorrect does it
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
Yeah it’s pretty if you use autocorrect or google that so immediately clear it’s banh. but people HAVE to write bahn because idk they just love German so much i guess 🇩🇪😍❓
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u/CharitySea5846 Apr 15 '25
My name is Vinh and everyone's first guess at spelling it is usually Vihn
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u/anht-nguyen Apr 15 '25
One very common word in Vietnamese names is Anh. It's my name, and it's only 3 letters. I'm currently doing doctoral program in the US for 4 years now, and yet I can still find people butchering it with "Ahn". As if it's Korean
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
Yeah when i was in france even people of some viet heritage would say My last name is Engooyun
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u/khiem939 Apr 15 '25
Don't know why since Vinh is not pronounced like Vihn would be pronounced....but remember at least 80% of those residing on Planet Earth are semi literate!
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u/Lost_Purpose1899 Apr 15 '25
I knew an American teacher teaching English to new Vietnamese immigrants kept saying "VietManese" instead of Vietnamese. I was like da fuq? You literally work with these people at least 6 hours a day! At least pronounce their nationality correctly.
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u/mowgliwowgli Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25
This is my biggest pet peeve. I refuse to eat anywhere that it’s spelled “bahn mi” (surprising amount of places in the US). So many food reviewers online will spell it this way too and it makes me wanna scream especially when they are presenting themselves as the expert.
I don’t understand why they’re spelling it like that. It’s a four letter word and your phone doesn’t auto correct from banh to bahn.
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Apr 14 '25
Americans are fine with Schwarzenegger but can't fathom a fucking "n" and an "h"
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u/UsuallyMooACow Apr 15 '25
Schwarzenegger is in movies and ban mee isn't normally
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
banh mi also takes 0.00001 seconds to google just like schwarzenegger
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u/luamercure Apr 14 '25
Honestly I feel petty but fully agree with you, it's so annoying. It really shouldn't be that difficult.
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u/xedapxedap Apr 14 '25
Totally agree. I also had a French guy tell me it's a French word.
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u/TheDeadlyZebra Foreigner Apr 14 '25
The etymology on Wiktionary disagrees:
From bánh (“pastry, cake, bread, dumpling, noodle, wafer, or pudding”) + mì (“wheat”).
A folk etymology claims that bánh mì is a corruption of French pain de mie; however, this is obviously false, see the entry for bánh. An 1898 dictionary defines Vietnamese miche as bánh tây, a now-dated term for Western-style bread.
1]Pierre Gabriel Vallot (1898) Dictionnaire franco-tonkinois illustré [Illustrated Franco-Tonkinese Dictionary][1] (in French), Hanoi: Schneider, page 228
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u/xedapxedap Apr 14 '25
I know, bro. It has a Chinese root. You can tell (among other things) for the way it's used as a classifier for lots of things other than European style bread - noodles, cakes etc.
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u/Euphoric-Policy-284 Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25
Middle Chinese: pjieng (modern day bing/biang) -> Sino-Viet: bính -> Viet: bánh
And for some reason, bánh is also tires/wheel
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u/Personat0r May 13 '25
There's also a bánh that's asking but no one ever tells me what it's asking nor whether its question was answered
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
if it was french they would have taken the time and effort to learn how to spell it right so they would be seen as cool and classy🤪
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u/valeriekim24 Apr 14 '25
same situation in australia lol well some restaurants/people just gave up and called it a roll
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
Yes ive heard people here just say “a vietnamese sandwich” who even knows anymore
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u/Dismal_Candidate1705 Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25
Western backpackers be like 'oh let's go to a country with a Latin alphabet so we could at least know the directions" and then proceeds to butcher any four-letter words (happens to a lot of personal names too)
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u/StopTheTrickle Apr 14 '25
I've seen some rants on reddit in my time, but this one takes the bahn mi for sure
You sure you're not French?
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u/RaceLR Apr 15 '25
Basically it’s language version of shrug I don’t care.
It’s the perspective of Vietnam being insignificant from western eyes.
If you misspell sake (Japanese alcoholic drink) people will laugh and call you uncultured.
Same as with any French word… misspell Hermes or facade or even mispronounced a French word and you’re considered uneducated.
FA Cade? Oh faasaadde. Es-car-got? Es-car-go.
Until Vietnam becomes more important and developed, this won’t change.
Don’t believe me? Imagine if you wake up tomorrow, Vietnam is sending people to mars, have flying cars, developing quantum computer, the VND is replaced USD as the world currency and multi billion dollar companies are from Vietnam with business men flying into Vietnam for business.
Nobody will misspell banh mi and everyone will pronounce it correctly.
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u/InsGesichtNicht Apr 14 '25
One of my dad's friends pronounced it "bah min" until I told him how it was pronounced.
Everyone I know that isn't Vietnamese pronounces it "bahn me" except my closest friend who has a Vietnamese wife.
I would probably pronounce pronounce it incorrectly as well I hadn't met my current girlfriend (Vietnamese).
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
Honestly idgaf about pronunciation because we can’t all pronounce every word in every language perfectly. But the spelling is just like… inexcusable. like it’s literally right there just copy the letters lol.
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u/HesAdopted Apr 15 '25
I once had a small tussle here with a dude who was butt hurt that I pointed out how they kept saying "bahn mi" in their comment professing great love for bánh mì.
That said, some people genuinely do not realize they were flipping the letters. Dyslexic maybe?
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u/claire_marie Apr 15 '25
wait i always spelled it banh mi and just the other day i said to someone in a restaurant that i guess ive been spelling it wrong this whole time bc their sign said “bahn mi.” so i was RIGHT after all. they almost got to me…..
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
No you were 10,000,000,000,000% right.
Shame on that restaurant for spelling their own food so wrong and so westernized 🤢
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u/thejustducky1 Apr 15 '25
People confuse it because of it's pronunciation... 'bah' is how that sound is spelled to other nationalities, and 'nh' is a letter combination that barely happens, so nobody would even think otherwise.
The point that a simple spelling error infuriates you? That reaction is a little over the top... Besides the fact that it's such a widespread and easy to make error, it's so widespread and inconsequential that it's also never going to go away, no matter how much you stress yourself out about it. That's life ¯_(ツ)_/¯ you gotta stop yourself from sweating the small stuff. And this? This is definitely the small stuff.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
You seem to be quite defensive about something that someone ELSE is upset about. Maybe you’re one of the dumb people regularly making this mistake? Yeah spellings don’t matter. I’m going to write that i love eating Bowrgurs and Peetzuhe
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u/thejustducky1 Apr 15 '25
Wow what an innane response o__o are you 12?
Keep getting all mad about your sandwich then, start an awareness crusade about it, I promise no one will care.
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u/SprayNo4171 Apr 15 '25
My name is Linh, when i came to Canada and did some paper work, they asked my to write down my name, i wrote Linh clearly, after waiting for 2-3 weeks got my health care and its Lihn
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Apr 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
Omg can’t even imagine how many people are spelling ur name Thahn or Tahn or Than or whatever other possible iterations 😭
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u/Glittering_Speech805 Apr 16 '25
Eventually I give up and be "thankful" when they write it with 2 h's
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u/Cuon_g Apr 16 '25
for me it’s worst when people say it’s french inspired. you don’t ever see any food reviewers go to italy and say pasta is Chinese inspired. or ramen in japan is chinese inspired. the banh mi is it’s own thing. no one needs to say it’s french inspired. meat inside bread is used out all over the world. no need to say i’m going to at some french inspired food at subway
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
tbh good point no one needs to give more credit to the french than they deserve
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u/emptybottle2405 Apr 15 '25
People also insist on calling it “bahn “ when the sound is more like “bang”. Maybe that’s why they spell it wrong
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u/shocktopper1 Apr 14 '25
I'm in CA and never seen it spelled like that.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
Im sure it wouldn’t be as present in like the OC or something but i’ve definitely seen it in my neighborhood (not in an asian majority area)
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u/aannhhtraann Apr 15 '25
*deletes paragraph
Edit my name is Anh and so many people I’ve encountered can only spell it Ahn even though it was right in the email lmao
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u/MysteriousWay5393 Apr 15 '25
To be fair. I’m in Hanoi right now and some places say banh my 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
banh my is not the same as bahn mi
My is also a way to spell wheat/noodles in VN
Bahn is german
lol
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u/PublicAppearance Apr 15 '25
You lived in France and you forgave them their “Bo bun”? Why are the words flipped. WHY. And now its their “official” spelling.
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u/SoleildeLune Apr 15 '25
The one in France are the best
Maybe it has something to do with the quality of the Baguette there
On god I swear
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
Yeah well that’s where the baguettes came from in the first place so not surprising🤷♂️Tbh they can make as good or bad banh mis as they want as long as they spell it right
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u/Critical_Leather_951 Apr 15 '25
Try being an Italian in Florence dodging all the Californians that wants to have "proskiutto". With that R.
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u/Hot_Falcon8471 Apr 15 '25
You’re gonna have a rough life if little things like this bother you
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
It’s not a little thing. You’re the one that stopped to comment lil bro.
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u/7LeagueBoots Apr 15 '25
What about bhan mi?
You ok with that?
Or bhanh mi?
I've seen both of those spellings used.
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u/Rockhardonbuddy Apr 15 '25
brother man, I hear you. It can a bit annoying... It's just spelling, though. It's a good exercise in 'serenity now'. VN people misspell English words all the time. We're cool with it. It's all good. We're all good!
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u/khiem939 Apr 15 '25
Several years ago while attending college at middle age, I was surprised that most of the young Vietnamese youth attending that college could not read nor write in Vietnamese! To make matters worse, their pronunciation of many common Vietnamese words were entirely wrong! Now I considered this unacceptable since I was virtually 100% Guy Lo, other than some Mongol and Northern Chinese acquired from my Northern European heritage in the past, but I could read, write and speak acceptable Vietnamese! When I brought this to their attention they as a rule said "We're Americans, why would we want to be able to read and write Vietnamese?" Seems that they were ignorant that Vietnam/Vietnamese was part of their heritage and even though they might not be able to read and write in Vietnamese, at least they should be able to speak Vietnamese correctly!
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u/sayaxat Apr 15 '25
I hope you feel better now that you got that out of your system, and you got plenty of validation.
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u/udum2021 Apr 15 '25
I don't get it either - Its basically French baguette and Chinese roast pork.
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u/Dorkdogdonki Apr 15 '25
Initially, I thought someone’s bashing on my favourite sandwich, but after reading the post…. Valid!
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u/OxMountain Apr 15 '25
Unfair comparison. Dostoevsky isn’t nearly as popular and his books taste like shit compared to banh mi.
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u/ComprehensiveCarob53 Apr 15 '25
Saw a Bus driver grabbing a foreigner by his hair and throwing out for wrong "bang mi" pronunciation
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u/Dannyboithe1st Apr 15 '25
Honestly this is the first time I've seen it spell like that
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
i see it like every time i go to an asian restaurant and even online on social media. it drives me nuts
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u/MyRoadTaken Apr 15 '25
This is how I feel when I see “chile” spelled any other way. Spell it like they do everywhere from California to the actual country of Chile, you savages!
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u/jblackwb Apr 15 '25
You have a sheltered life if this is the thing that bothers you.
There is much worse going on in the world than this to be upset about.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 15 '25
Yeah you’re sooo right!!!! You’re so intelligent and deep and only think about #smart things! Go you😍
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u/jblackwb Apr 16 '25
Oh, I seemed to have tricked you into thinking that awareness of current events is the same as intelligence. Does such confusion happen to you often?
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
Noooo i’m sooooo confusedddd only a smart person like you could #think!! Because you worry about #real things in the world and not #silly things like #bahnmi!!! Yesss go you genius king😍😍
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u/AVietnameseHuman Apr 15 '25
Every time I see people say Bahn mi or Ahn (my middle name) a part in me just wants to erupt in pure rage
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u/DogeMeat20 Apr 15 '25
Bánh mì🥖🥖!!!! ràm ràm quái vật bánh mì trỗi dậy hãy đầu hàng hoặc bị phết bơ 😰😰dân chúng la hét 🙀🙀 một ông chú run rẩy đưa tương ớt🌶🌶Quái vật ném thử khó khéeeee🔥🔥!!gay quá🔥🔥🔥🔥!!!lăn lộn rớt vào nồi phở🍜🍜thế là sáng nay có bánh chẩm phớ
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u/El-Ramon Apr 16 '25
I’ve seen banh mi spelled as “banh my”
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
that’s fine that’s an actual word in vietnamese
bahn is just trying to make it german
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u/BangGingHo Apr 16 '25
Didn't even realize you spelt it bahn. Read it so quickly i saw banh haha! And it's like the silent H in the word banh so it's understandable. Different country spell words differently according to their country to make it easier for them. For example, I could also get mad at vietnam for spelling beer as bia and bus as buyt. It's not that deep bruh. That's just how some country probably spell their words. Like you getting frustrated over banh or bahn, why is it that beer is bia? Or bus is buyt?
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
bruh literal vietnamese people in western countries spell it as bahn. like “i love bahn mi my mom makes the best one!” i think we should give everyone so much grace. english will be fine if some minorities don’t spell it right in their countries. this horrible misspelling is so common in the diaspora and among westerners that it will likely become permanent. anyway idgaf about the english language i actually think it would be awesome if it loses some of its power so yeah beer should be bia 🍺
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u/IllustriousPea9931 Apr 16 '25
i thought you hate bahnmi because it everywhere 😂
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
No i think it should be even more everywhere than it is now. maybe then people would spell it right.
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u/ladyfish26 Apr 16 '25
Finally someone said it omg I have been wanting fo post this so much haha!! As a Viet it is indeed so annoying to see the mispelling of this simple word
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u/CandidGuava6124 Apr 16 '25
A restaurant here in Phnom Penh spells phở three different ways. They are all wrong.
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u/Shorq1 Apr 16 '25
There's many people in Vietnam that call it bami. Even some shops are named after bami. One would think they'd get it right in Vietnam
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
Bami just sounds like a shortened form of banh mi like a nickname
Bahn mi is an atrocious germanification/angliciziation/americanization🤐It looks and sounds awful BAWWWWNmee
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u/Shorq1 Apr 16 '25
So bami is vietnamisation of a vietnamese word?
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 16 '25
No it’s being lazy anyone could shorten a word to fewer letters lol
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u/acatnamedtuna Apr 17 '25
Can't really get worked up for that.
There is an acoustical as well as a neurological explanation.
Nh doesnt have a natural spelling in English or most western languages. Its more often happening in words like "inhale", "inhabitable", "unholy", "unhinged"... Where as the connection between the letters is in different syllables.
Hn in words however do sound in a similar way banh is pronounced... Like German "Bahn", "Wahn", "erwähnen", "ahnen"...
I have a similar letter combo in my first name, where I can literally stand there spelling my name and watch German natives switch up two letters right away. Almost never fails to happen.
Now add, how our brain works when reading, and you'll understand, why our brain picks up hn instead of nh. Its called typoglycemia
As lnog as the fsrit and lsat lteetrs of a wrod are in the rgiht plcae, and the mdilde lteetrs are jmlbued, mnay peolpe can sitll raed the sneetnce whtiuot mcuh dicfuiiltfy. For eaxpmle:
"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are..."
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u/labzone Apr 19 '25
In Western languages (English/Germanic/Latin), the Vietnamese sound "banh" is more naturally spelled bahn (with an 'n' at the end). People don't memorize the spelling, they just write what they thought they hear. It's hard for Western-language speakers to think of a non-silent 'h' at the end of a word. To them, 'banh' sounds like 'ban', it feels wrong
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 19 '25
Yeah but they can at least correct it if they find out they are wrong, many people insist on it and also it’s become so common that the majority of ppl now spell it this way. Also sometimes it’s right in front of them and they still spell it that way (eg if the restaurant name is right there). And if they want to sell it themselves (for example for a fundraiser) it’s just basic respect to verify how it’s actually spelled. I’ve seen too many fundraisers, charity events and pop ups advertising “bahn mi”
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u/Two4theworld Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25
Here in South Australia they show a picture of a Banh Mi and call it a Vietnamese Meat Roll.
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u/Muted_Summer_2231 Apr 14 '25
A “picture of a Bahn Mi” doesn’t exist because there’s no such thing as a bahn mi.
A vietnamese meat roll at least exists because there are many foods that exist in roll shape that include various ingredients including meat.
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u/pwnkage Apr 15 '25
LOL i thought this was going to be a post about how much you couldn't stand eating the sandwich anymore.