4 ms·

I want to point out that "mam" does not mean sauce. Nouc means water and is applied to water-type liquids, including fish sauce. Mam means salted fish. It's sal

I want to point out that "mam" does not mean sauce. Nouc means water and is applied to water-type liquids, including fish sauce. Mam means salted fish. It's salted fish water. Mam does not mean sauce.

NhanH 6y ago
To be truly pedantic, "mam" means more "salted thing" than "salted fish". There are "mắm nhum" or squid mam that has nothing to do with fish. And it is overloaded in any case. Asking for "mam" to go with your main dish means asking for a mam-based sauce. Mam does mean sauce, frequently.
- JCharante 6y ago
  For sauce though you'd probably say "nước chấm", of which "nước mắm" is a subset of. All mắms are chấms but not all chấms are mắms.