









































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 5, No. 1, 2022 
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

27 
 

Original Paper 

Metaphorical Expressions with “Sweet” in English and “Ngọt” 

in Vietnamese 
Ho Trinh Quynh Thu1* & Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha2 

1 Department of Foreign Languages, Quang Nam University, Vietnam 
2 Faculty of Economics, Law, and Foreign Languages, Quang Nam College, Vietnam 
* Ho Trinh Quynh Thu, Department of Foreign Languages, Quang Nam University, Vietnam 

 

Received: May 1, 2022          Accepted: May 10, 2022          Online Published: May 20, 2022 

doi:10.22158/csm.v5n1p27                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v5n1p27 

 

Abstract 

On the foundation of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the 4-step metaphor identification procedure by 

Pragglejaz Group, the paper discovers 87 metaphorical expressions containing the word “sweet” in 

English, equivalent to “ngọt” in Vietnamese through an investigation into four English and four 

Vietnamese novels composed in the 20th century. These gustatory expressions are found to be used to 

describe other senses, including olfaction, audition, vision, and tactition. Besides, the metaphorical 

expressions with “sweet” and “ngọt” are also employed to talk about emotion and manner. Despite 

several resemblances between English and Vietnamese metaphorical expressions containing the words 

“sweet” and “ngọt”, which are shed light upon by the universality of metaphors and human embodied 

experience, there are some differences in expressing the world via these two words between the two 

languages that are assigned to distinctive linguistic characteristics in each language. 

Keywords 

metaphorical expressions, conceptual metaphors, sweet, ngọt, metaphoric universality and variations 

 

1. Introduction 

The views considering metaphor as a unique rhetorical device of literary and poetic language has been 

changed since the birth of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980. 

According to CMT, metaphors play an important role in everyday life of human beings. It is found 

pervasive in daily conventional language and understood via conceptual metaphorical mappings related 

to embodied experience (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003). In the same vein, Gibbs, Lima and Francozo (2003) 

provide evidence for that human metaphorical thought and language develops on the base of embodied 

experience. More specifically, Muler et al. (2021) reveal the experience involving senses, taste included, 



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is often used to metaphorically express human cognition and emotions. Moreover, Kelly (2014) 

demonstrates that taste-related metaphors are more recurrently used and more effective in everyday 

communication related to emotions than the word in its literal sense with the same meaning. One of the 

tastes that may appear the most frequently in linguistic metaphors is sweetness (Bagli, 2016).  

Sweetness is known as the taste bringing pleasant and satisfying feelings to human beings. It is thus 

employed to describe the experience of gratification and positive emotional values (Barcelona, 2008; 

Zawisławska & Falkowska, 2018), which is also proved by Ho and Phan (2016), who arrive at a 

conclusion that “sweetness is used to convey the bliss the persons in love experience”. Besides, in line 

with the statistics by Chan et al. (2013) on an overwhelming number in favor of this taste in figurative 

association with love, Akuno et al.’s (2018) findings represent sweetness as the most prolific source 

domain to express various abstract concepts of pleasure and love (Akuno et al., 2018). In addition, 

sweet taste is metaphorically utilized to convey the happiness and good things a person has or perceives 

through other senses (namely, vision, olfaction, audition, and somatosensation) (Pham, 2017). In other 

words, metaphors related to sweetness are prevalently exploited to depict pleasurable sensations or 

positive feelings which are quite popular in conventional languages in different cultures around the 

world. So far, there have been several studies on metaphors related to sweetness in different languages 

such as Chinese (Yu, 1998), English in comparison with Polish (Zawisławska & Falkowska, 2018), 

Chinese-Vietnamese (Pham, 2017). However, there appears to be a gap in researching the metaphors 

attached to sweetness, especially linguistic metaphors with “sweet” in English, equivalent to “ngọt” in 

Vietnamese. As a result, the paper is carried out with a view to making sense of and finding out 

possible similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese metaphorical expressions 

comprising “sweet” and “ngọt”. It is hoped to facilitate the use of metaphors with these words in 

English and Vietnamese communication. 

 

2. Method 

A comparative investigation into metaphorical expressions comprising “sweet” in English and its 

equivalent “ngọt” in Vietnamese is mainly carried out by using contrastive analysis which is 

characterized as the scientific description and comparison of two or more languages to identify their 

similarities and differences by Joze-Tajareh (2015). It is a preliminary study conducted based on the 

data collected from English and Vietnamese novels published in the 20th century including In cold 

blood by Truman Capote, The old man and the sea by Earnest Hemingway, The heart is a lonely hunter 

by Carson McCullers, Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell, Con gái người tình (The flame’s 

daughter) by Hạ Thu, Nỗi buồn chiến tranh (The sorrow of war) by Bảo Ninh, Thời xa vắng (A Time 

Far Past) by Lê lựu, and Một khoảng trời yêu thương (A space of love) by Châu Liên. To make sure of 

the accuracy, validity and reliability of the data for the research, we use Pragglejaz Group’s (2007) and 



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the extension of Pragglejaz’s procedures of metaphor identification in discourse, including four steps 

(cited in Ho & Phan, 2016): (1) Read the entire text-discourse to establish a general understanding of 

the meaning. Next, (2) determine the lexical units in the text-discourse. Then (3) take into account what 

comes before and after the lexical unit, determine if it has a more basic contemporary meaning in other 

contexts than the one in the given context. If yes, decide whether the contextual meaning contrasts with 

the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it. If yes, (4) mark the lexical unit as 

metaphorical. Besides, as a comparison of cultures should be involved in the scope of a contrastive 

study (Lado, 1957, extracted from Johansson, 2008), cultural influences on English and Vietnamese 

metaphorical expressions containing “sweet” (“ngọt”) will also be discovered through descriptive 

methods. 

 

3. Result 

Investigating eight novels (four in English and the same number in Vietnamese) as mentioned in 

section 2, we discovered 43 expressions with “sweet” in English and 42 expressions with “ngọt” in 

Vietnamese unevenly distributed into 6 conceptual metaphors that are shown in the following table. 

 

Table 1. Conceptual Metaphors Underlying Metaphorical Expressions with “Sweet” in English 

and “Ngọt” in Vietnamese 

Conceptual metaphors 
English metaphorical 

expressions 

Vietnamese metaphorical 

expressions 

HEARING IS TASTING 7 14 

SMELLING IS TASTING 8 2 

TOUCHING IS TASTING 0 1 

APPEARANCE IS A NUTRIENT// SEEING IS TASTING 4 2 

EMOTION/ SENTIMENTAL OBJECT IS A NUTRIENT 18 23 

MANNER IS A NUTRIENT 6 0 

Total 43 42 

 

As can be seen from the table, metaphorical expressions containing the word “sweet” in English and its 

equivalent-“ngọt” in Vietnamese is mainly understood via two source domains- nutrient and tasting. It 

is, in fact, unsurprising that these two domains are applied to understand the sweetness expressed in 

language because of special relationships between taste and nutrient. The findings by Astrid et al. (2016) 

reveal the nutrient-signaling function of taste and that sweet taste is one of the signals for the presence 

of nutrients. 

 



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4. Discussion 

4.1 Conceptual Metaphor Theory 

Out of line with traditional views on metaphor as a rhetorical device mainly used in literary language, 

Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) argues that metaphor is pervasive in our everyday language. It 

does not operate at lexical level but works as a matter of thought and is manifested in language through 

metaphorical expressions. CMT thus distinguishes metaphorical expressions (or linguistic metaphors) 

from metaphorical concepts (or conceptual metaphors). The essence of a conceptual metaphor is the 

understanding of a concept in terms of another through cross-domain mappings, the principal 

mechanism of meaning transfers in metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003). These mappings are 

understood as the projections of basic knowledge elements from a source to a target through the 

structure TARGET DOMAIN IS/AS SOURCE DOMAIN. Mapping is systematic, partial, and 

unidirectional, laid from the source to the target and could be schematically presented in Figure 1. 

 

 
Figure 1. Conceptual Mapping (Ho & Phan, 2016) 

 

In this structure, a source domain is the conceptual domain from which the input of the mapping comes. 

A target domain is the conceptual domain showing the output of the mapping that people strive for 

understanding. The linguistic expression “her singing voice is so sweet”, for example, is a metaphorical 

expression understood via the conceptual metaphor HEARING IS TASTING. In this case, HEARING 

is a target domain while TASTING is a source domain. As sweetness is a pleasing taste, the “sweet 

singing voice” refers to a perception of pleasant and attractive sounds. 

4.2 Metaphorical Expressions Expressing Sweetness under Tasting Metaphors 

Human beings perceive the world via their senses, including touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. 

Sweetness is one of the basic tastes they can physically differentiate through their tongue. However, the 

truth of the matter is that sweet taste is still expressed in terms of other senses (namely, 

somatosensation, vision, audition, and olfaction) with the evidence from the novels mentioned in 

section 2. 

4.2.1 HEARING-AS-TASTING Metaphor 

Hearing is a mechanical process showing the ability to receive and interpret information through ears. 



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Meanwhile, tasting relies on chemical interactions and deals with information through tongue. It is 

likely that the two senses are not related to each other but the language used in communication, 

especially the linguistic expressions with the word “sweet”, demonstrates the opposite. 

(1) She could hear clearly the sweet voice (Mitchell, Gone with the wind) 

(2) Her laughter was sweet (Carson McCullers, The heart is a lonely hunter) 

The word “sweet” in (1) and (2) obviously does not refer to gustation but audition since it is used as a 

modifier of the nouns “voice” and “laughter”. As “sweet” denotes a pleasing and satisfying taste, 

“sweet voice/laughter” describes pleasant sounds that are easy to hear and make the hearer satisfied. 

The expressions “sweet voice” and “sweet laughter” may thus not be literally made sense but should be 

explicated figuratively. In these cases, the expressions are metaphorically understood via the metaphor 

of hearing as tasting. Such metaphorical expressions can be found in Vietnamese. 

(3) Cả hai bên đều nói năng ngọt xớt (Lê Lựu, Thời xa vắng) 

(Both parties talk [to each other] sweetly.) 

(4) Giọng nói của bà sao mà êm ru và ngọt lịm. (Châu Liên, Một khoảng trời yêu thương) 

(How smooth and sweet her voice is.) 

Similar to “sweet” in English, “ngọt” in Vietnamese refers to the taste of sugar. When the sound is 

expressed to be “ngọt xớt” or “ngọt lịm” (sweet), it is understood as being gentle and easy to hear, 

bringing about hearers’ pleasant and enjoyable feelings. 

Besides “ngọt xớt” and “ngọt lịm”, “ngọt ngào” is also found in Vietnamese.  

(5) Tiếng Khánh Dung ngọt ngào như suối chảy (Hạ Thu, Con gái người tình) 

(Khanh Dung’s voice is as sweet as a flowing stream.) 

Vietnamese dictionary distinguishes three words “ngọt xớt”, “ngọt lịm”, and “ngọt ngào” although they 

are all referring to the sweetness. “Ngọt xớt” is defined as “(often used to present sounds) very sweet 

and gentle, easy to hear. “Ngọt lịm” is “so sweet that the taste penetrates into the body, causing a 

pleasant and enjoyable feeling”. Meanwhile, “ngọt ngào” is “generally sweet and pleasant”. In example 

5, the word “ngọt ngào” is used to depict a person’s voice but not something that can be eaten or tasted. 

It is hence a metaphor where the sound is interpreted in terms of the taste. 

4.2.2 TASTING metaphors for other Senses 

Besides hearing, other senses (smelling, touching and seeing) are also expressed in terms of tasting.  

(6) In the kitchen there were rich, sweet odors. (Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter) 

(7) the sweet blood smell all over me (Hemingway, The old man and the sea) 

Both “odor” and “smell” are a sensation one has through stimulations of the olfactory organ- the nose. 

However, the smell and odor in examples 6 and 7 are “sweet”, which is perceived by the gustatory 

organ- the tongue. Therefore, the expressions in 6 and 7 are probably unperceivable logically but they 

are rather pervasive and conventional in use. “Sweet smell” or “sweet odor” is, in fact, a linguistic 



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metaphor interpreted through the conceptual metaphor SMELLING IS TASTING. A similar perception 

is expressed in Vietnamese. 

(8) Nhất là về đêm hương hoa như thể được cô đậm, ngọt, ngào ngạt, thẩm thấu vào giấc ngủ (Bảo 

Ninh, Nỗi buồn chiến tranh) (Particularly at night, the floral scent seems condensed, sweet, pervasive, 

and absorbed into the sleep) 

“Hương hoa” (the scent of flowers) is obviously denoting to a characteristic odour but defined as 

“ngọt” (sweet) in example 8. In line with “sweet odour/smell” in English, “hương hoa ngọt” (sweet 

scent of flowers) in Vietnamese is an evidence of the SMELLING-AS-TASTING metaphor.  

Not only olfaction but tactition (the sense of touch) is also metaphorically comprehended in terms of 

gustation, namely sweet taste. 

(9) […] nơi có chiếc lò sưởi ấm áp ngọt ngào (Hạ Thu, Con gái người tình) 

(the place with a warm sweet heater) 

The warmth from “chiếc lò sưởi” (heater) can be felt naturally through skin or the sense of touch but 

how can one taste it? The sweet taste in this case surely does not result from any gustatory stimulation 

but it is the pleasant feeling coming from the heater through human tactile sensitivity. In other words, 

“ngọt ngào” (sweet) in example 9 is metaphorically used and understood. It reveals the existence of the 

conceptual metaphor of TOUCHING-IS-TASTING. 

One more sense that is also often expressed in terms of gustatory sensation, i.e. sweet, is vision.  

(10) […] she told him with a sweet smile. (Mitchell, Gone with the wind) 

(11) […] she looked so sweet and pretty (Truman Capote, In cold blood) 

Smile is a happy or friendly expression on the face. It can be discerned via human eyes. Meanwhile, the 

adjective “sweet” is employed to represent a smile (in 10) which cannot be recognized via the tongue. 

Likewise, the girl in (11) is characterized to be “sweet” in appearance which cannot be distinguished by 

gustatory sense. In these cases, “sweet” should not be apprehended literally but figured out through the 

SEEING-AS-TASTING metaphor. 

(12) […] cô bồ có sắc đẹp của một cục đường ngọt ngào. (Châu Liên, Một khoảng trời yêu thương)  

(his beloved’s beauty is as sweet as a lump of sugar) 

How can a person taste someone’s beauty? And how beautiful is a lump of sugar? Why is a girl’s 

beauty compared to a lump of sugar? In fact, the case is not simply interpreted word for word but 

non-literally. Similar to the expressions in (10) and (11), “sắc đẹp ngọt ngào” (sweet beauty) should 

also be shed light on figuratively via the SEEING-AS-TASTING metaphor and someone or something 

that is considered as being sweet is kind and attractive. 

As the look, the beauty, and the smile all refer to the appearance of someone or something, the 

expressions of “sweet smile”, “sweet beauty” or “sweet look” are metaphorical and understood through 

the metaphorical concept APPEARANCE AS A NUTRIENT, where the appearance is shown as 



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something edible and tastes sweet. 

In brief, the adjective “sweet”, which inherently belongs to gustation, is used to manifest other senses, 

including audition, olfaction, taction, and vision. No matter where it appears in text, “sweet” brings a 

pleasant feeling to the reader and makes the thing/ person it describes pleasant and attractive. In 

addition to the conceptual metaphors relating to human senses, “sweet” can be found in metaphorical 

expressions under nutrient metaphors. 

4.3 Metaphorical Expressions Expressing Sweetness under Nutrient Metaphors 

Besides the nutrient metaphor used for the appearance as mentioned above, this metaphor is also 

applied for the comprehension of other concepts manifested by the word “sweet” in English and “ngọt” 

in Vietnamese. 

4.3.1 EMOTION-AS-NUTRIENT Metaphor 

Emotion is any mental experience with reference to such feelings as happiness, love, fear, anger, or 

hatred (Cabanac, 2002), which can be categorized as positive (i.e., love) or negative (i.e., anger). 

Discussing the manifestation of emotion in language, Kovecses (2000) states that a large number of 

emotional expressions are metaphorically used and understood, which is found to be true to linguistic 

expressions with “sweet”.  

(13) “[…] he held my hand. To give me courage.”, -“Very sweet.” (Truman Capote, In cold blood) 

(14) tình iu, nó đẹp đẽ, […] ngọt ngào (Hạ Thu, Con gái người tình)  

(Love, it is beautiful […], sweet) 

The emotion the boy gives to the girl in example 13 is considered to be “sweet”. As emotion is an 

abstract concept while “sweet” refers to food or drink. In this context, “sweet” is a metaphorical 

expression underlying the conceptual metaphor EMOTION IS A NUTRIENT. Unlike “sweet” in (13) 

that does not mention any particular kind of emotion, “ngọt ngào” in (14) represents love, which may 

bring the happiness or pleasant feelings on, making it lovely and agreeable.  

The adjectives “sweet” in English and “ngọt” in Vietnamese are utilized not only to explain emotion 

itself but to depict the sentimental object. 

(15) She’s a real sweet person, your mother. (Truman Capote, In cold blood) 

(16) Nàng […] là tất cả hương hoa, mật ngọt, mà cuộc đời ban thưởng cho một người con trai có quá 

nhiều đau khổ. (Hạ Thu, Con gái người tình)  

(She […] is all floral scent and sweet honey that the life grants a favor to the man with great misery) 

The sentimental objects in examples 15 and 16 are human beings, who are understood in terms of 

nutrient, hence being “sweet” or “ngọt”. Through the sweetness, these objects are perceived lovely, 

kind, and satisfying. 

In short, “sweet”/ “ngọt” is metaphorically used to describe both emotion and emotional objects that 

are characterized to be enjoyable, creating a good feeling of pleasure. 



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4.3.2 MANNER-AS-NUTRIENT Metaphor 

Manner is defined as the way in which one acts and behaves towards the others. It is found to be 

represented in terms of a nutrient via the word “sweet” in English. 

(17) He loved her pertness, her high spirits and the quaint sweet manner she had of showing her love 

for him. (Mitchell, Gone with the wind) 

(18) Buddy always haves such a sweet way with peoples that I don't ever worry concerning him 

(Carson McCullers, The heart is a lonely hunter) 

Obviously, the adjective “sweet” in (17) and (18) does not refer to the taste of food or drinks but to 

someone’s manner. The descriptions appear to be strange and conflicting but they are completely 

acceptable. The wordings are, in fact, metaphorical expressions under the conceptual metaphor 

MANNER IS A NUTRIENT, where a person’s manner is interpreted and expressed in terms of a 

nutrient, namely “sweet”. As “sweet” is a pleasant and satisfying taste, a person with “sweet manner” is 

comprehended to be nice and lovely. 

In summary, the adjective “sweet” in English and its equivalent “ngọt” in Vietnamese is metaphorically 

utilized rather pervasively in language. Though it is used to talk about anything/anyone, “sweet” makes 

the reader think of positive feelings towards the things/persons it describes. 

4.4 Similarities and Differences between Metaphorical Expressions with “Sweet” in English and those 

with “ngọt” in Vietnamese 

According to CMT, conceptual metaphor is universal; it is hence similar between different languages 

and cultures, which is once again demonstrated in this paper. As can be seen from Table 1, most of the 

conceptual metaphors underlying metaphorical expressions with the word “sweet” (equivalent of 

“ngot”) are found in both English and Vietnamese, namely TASTING metaphors for hearing, smelling, 

seeing and NUTRIENT metaphors for appearance, emotion, manner. Besides, metaphorical expressions 

containing “sweet” are rather similar between the two languages, such as sweet voice/sound, equivalent 

to giọng nói/tiếng nói ngọt (see examples 1,2,4,5); sweet odor/smell, similar to hương ngọt (in 

examples 6,7,8); corresponding expressions of sentimental objects as in the following examples. 

(18) She’s a real sweet person. (Truman Capote, In cold blood) 

(19) Anh […] ngọt ngào, khôn ngoan (Châu Liên, Một khoảng trời yêu thương) 

(He […] is sweet, wise) 

Obviously, there are several similar metaphorical expressions with the adjective “sweet” (ngọt) 

between English and Vietnamese thanks to the universality of conceptual metaphor. Moreover, 

metaphor is also a result of embodiment experience (Phan & Ho, 2020). Because sweetness is the 

preferred taste that generally brings pleasant and satisfying feelings to human beings, (Kohlmeier, 2015; 

Molitor, 2021), as human vocabulary may not be enough to express the contentment and pleasure one 

perceives, the terms of sweet taste are used instead.  



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However, metaphor is a matter of thought which is affected by cultural features; accordingly, 

metaphors coming into different cultures may be different. Our investigation reveals two distinctive 

conceptual metaphors, i.e. the metaphor of TOUCHING AS TASTING (which only appears in 

Vietnamese) and the MANNER-AS-NUTRIENT metaphor (just discovered in English). Furthermore, 

language and culture are intertwined and unseparated; therefore, metaphorical expressions are under 

cultural influences (Phan & Ho, 2020), which is generally right in our investigation. 

As can be seen from the examples above, the simple word “sweet” is used in most of the cases whilst 

complex words are frequently used in Vietnamese. That is, the adjective “ngọt” is usually modified by 

another component to make different meanings of the words, such as “ngọt ngào” (see more in example 

5), “ngọt lịm” (see more in example 4), ngọt xớt (see more in example 3). While “ngọt ngào” refers to a 

general flavor, “ngọt lịm” reveals a strong feeling of pleasure and joy. In another lens, “ngọt xớt” 

represents the sounds that is gentle and pleasant to ears. A little differently, English shows a situation in 

which an affix is used, namely “sweetish” (slightly sweet). 

(20) He smelled the keen, sweetish odor of gin (Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter) 

The difference may be shed light on by distinctive characteristics of word structure in each language. In 

English, the affixes are bound morphemes attached to roots to form new words with different meaning. 

In (20), it is sweetish, meaning “slightly sweet”. By contrast, an affix in Vietnamese can stand alone as 

a syllable (tiếng) (e.g., ngọt xớt, ngọt lịm). While “xớt” often refers to a negative meaning, “lịm” with 

the meaning of “too X to be unconscious” carries an expressive and evaluative meaning. 

One more difference in our investigation is the using of compound words. Some of them are found in 

Vietnamese, including “ngọt ngào” (in example 5) and “ngọt bùi” (in example 21) but they appear not 

to be discovered in English.  

(21) […] đôi bạn thân, ngọt bùi cùng chia sẻ (Hạ Thu, Con gái người tình) 

Structurally, “ngọt ngào” may be formed by shortening the phrase “ngọt như ngào đường” (to be as 

sweet as being sugared); “ngọt bùi” is a compound adjective which is a combination of “ngọt” (sweet) 

and “bùi” (delicious and fatty). It is used to imply the happiness and pleasure that can be shared in (21). 

If there is no similar phenomenon in English, it is because English vocabulary contains fewer 

compound adjectives formed by “sweet”. 

In short, there are some similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese conceptual and 

linguistic metaphors with the word “sweet”. The similarities are made clear by the universality of 

metaphor and of embodied experiences. The differences may be interpreted by the distinctions in word 

formation between English and Vietnamese. 

 

5. Conclusion 

In the light of CMT, the paper investigates metaphorical expressions with the words “sweet” in English 



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and “ngọt” in Vietnamese extracted from eight novels published in the 20th century, four in each 

language. The findings show 43 English linguistic metaphors containing “sweet” and 42 ones with 

“ngọt” in Vietnamese which are identified based on Pragglejaz Group’s four-step metaphor 

identification procedure in discourse. Interestingly, the metaphorical expressions containing “sweet” in 

English are found rather similar to those in Vietnamese, such as sweet voice/sounds and giọng nói/tiếng 

nói ngọt, sweet smell/odor and hương ngọt, and someone sweet. In other words, these expressions are 

employed to describe other senses (such as hearing, smelling, and seeing), emotion and sentimental 

objects in both languages. However, there is a little difference between the two languages. When the 

MANNER-AS-NUTRIENT metaphor is discovered just in English, the TOUCHING-AS-TASTING 

metaphor only appears in Vietnamese. The similarities are explained by the universality of conceptual 

metaphors and of human embodied experience. The differences are represented by the distinctive word 

structure between English and Vietnamese. Nevertheless, the limited scope of the investigation may 

result in some unsatisfying comparisons to some extent. Therefore, it is necessary to do more 

researches to have a fuller picture of metaphorical expressions with “sweet” in English compared to the 

ones with “ngọt” in Vietnamese. 

 

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