Vietnamese pronouns Totally Explained

Everything about Vietnamese Pronouns totally explained

Vietnamese pronouns can act as substitutions for noun phrase. While true pronouns exist in Vietnamese, most are rarely used in polite speech. For most cases, kinship terminology is used when referring to oneself, the audience, or a third party. These terms might differ slightly in different regions. Many of them are derived from Chinese loanwords, but have acquired the additional grammatical function of being pronouns over the years. Vietnamese terms of reference can reveal the social relationship between the speaker and the person being referred to, differences in age, and even the attitude of the speaker toward that person. Thus a speaker must carefully assess these factors to decide the appropriate term. It's not unusual for strangers to ask each other about age when they first meet, in order to establish the proper terms of address to use.

True pronouns

True pronouns are categoried into two classes depending on whether they can be preceded by the plural marker chúng. Like other Asian pronominal systems, Vietnamese pronouns indicate the social status between speakers and other persons in the discourse in addition to grammatical person and number.
The table below shows the first class of pronouns that can be preceded by pluralizer.

	Singular	Plural
First person	tôi (inferior to superior)	–
	ta (emphatic, superior to inferior)	ta (emphatic, superior to inferior)
	tao (superior to inferior, familiar)	–
	mình (intimate)	mình (intimate)
Second Person	mày or mi (superior to inferior, familiar)	bay (superior to inferior, familiar)
Third Person	nó (superior to inferior, familiar)	–

The first person tôi is the only pronoun that can be used in polite speech. The second person ta is often used when talking to oneself as in a soliloquy, but also indicates a higher status of the speaker (such as that of a high official, etc.). The other superior-to-inferior forms in the first and second persons (tao, mày, mi, bay) are commonly used in familiar social contexts, such as among family members (for example older sister to younger sister, etc.); these forms are otherwise considered impolite. The third person form nó (used to refer to animals, children, and scorned adults, such as criminals) is considerably less arrogant than the second person forms tao, mày, mi, bay. The pronoun mình is used only in intimate relationships, such as between husband and wife.
The pronominal forms in the table above can be modified with chúng as in chúng mày, chúng nó. There is an exclusive/inclusive plural distinction in the first person: chúng tôi and chúng tao are exclusive (for example, me and them but not you), chúng ta and chúng mình are inclusive (for example, you and me). Some of the forms (ta, mình, bay) can be used to refer to a plural referent, resulting in pairs with overlapping reference (for example, both ta and chúng ta mean "inclusive we").
The other class of pronouns are knowns as "absolute" pronouns (Thompson 1965). These can't be modified with the pluralizer chúng. Many of these forms are literary and archaic, particularly in the first and second person.

	Singular	Plural
First person	min (familiar, literary)	choa (literary)
	qua (male to female, literary)
	thiếp (female to male, literary)
	Trẫm (king to mandarins, archaic)
Second Person	bậu (female to male, literary)	–
Second Person	chàng (female to male, literary)	–
Third Person	y (familiar)	người ta
	hắn (familiar)
	va (familiar)

Unlike the first type of pronoun, these absolute third person forms (y, hắn, va) refer only to animate referents (typically people). The form y can be preceded by the pluralizer in southern dialects in which case it's more respectful than nó. The absolute pronoun người ta has a wider range of reference as "they, people in general, (generic) one, we, someone".

Kinship terms

Kinship terms are the most popular ways to refer to oneself and others. Anyone can be referred to using kinship terms, not just people who are related. For example, lovers referring to each other as anh (elder brother) and em (younger sibling) sounds incestuous in Western languages, but is perfectly normal (and expected) in Vietnamese. The Vietnamese kinship terms are quite complicated. While there's some flexibility as to which kinship terms should be used for people not related to the speaker, there's often only one term to use for people related by blood or marriage, for up to three generations. Some of the kinship terms are:

Term	Literal meaning	Non-kinship usage	Note
cha	father	a priest	Many other terms are used, depending on the dialect: ba, bố, tía, thầy
mẹ	mother		mẹ is the Northern form, má is used in the South. Many other terms are used, depending on the dialect: u, bầm, mạ
anh	elder brother	a slightly older man, the man in a romantic relationship
chị	older sister	a slightly older woman
em	younger sibling	a slightly younger person, a child, the woman in a romantic relationship
con	offspring	a young child
cháu	grandchild, niece, nephew	a young child
ông	grandfather	a middle-aged man	paternal and maternal grandfathers are differentiated as ông nội ("internal grandfather") and ông ngoại ("external grandfather"), respectively
bà	grandmother	a middle-aged (married) woman	paternal and maternal grandmothers are differentiated as bà nội ("internal grandmother") and bà ngoại ("external grandmother"), respectively
cô	father's sister	a female teacher, an older woman as old as one's father, a young (usually unmarried) woman (formal)	in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to father's younger sister
chú	father's younger brother	an older man as old as one's father, a slightly younger man (formal)	in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to father's younger brother
thím	chú's wife
bác	father's elder brother, his wife	a man older than one's father	in some dialects, can also refer to father's elder brother or sister as well as mother's elder brother or sister
dì	mother's sister, stepmother	a woman as old as one's mother,	in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to mother's younger sister
cậu	mother's brother	a man as old as one's mother, a close friend (Northern variety)	in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to mother's younger brother
mợ	cậu's wife		in some dialects, used by the husband to refer to his wife, children to refer to mother, or parents-in-law to refer to a daughter-in-law
dượng	the husband of cô or dì, stepfather
cụ/cố	great-grandparent	a very old person
sơ	great-great-grandparent
họ	clan	they	third person plural for a group of people

Kinship terms are "inherited" from parents if it's unclear what to refer to someone. For example, two cousins whose mothers are sisters will call each other using the kinship terms appropriate for siblings: the one whose mother is younger will have a lower rank (em) than the one whose mother is older (chị, anh) regardless of their ages. Sometimes, old people assume the rank of their children in referring to others (for example, in the case of calling a slightly younger woman cô or a younger man chú) . Spouses have equal rank in each respective side. If two people are related to each other in more than one way (for example, by marriage), the rank of the closest relationship is used. This hierarchy might lead to awkward situations where an older person refers to a younger person using a term usually used for older people, such as ông. In Vietnamese there's a proverb: Bé bằng củ khoai, cứ vai mà gọi (Small as a potato, but call by rank).

Non-kinship terms used as pronouns

In Vietnamese, virtually any noun used for a person can be used as a pronoun. These terms usually don't serve multiple roles like kinship terms (for example the term has only one grammatical person meaning). Words such as "doctor", "teacher", "owner", etc. can be used as a second-person personal pronoun when necessary. When referring to themselves, Vietnamese speakers, like speakers of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, tend to deprecate their position while elevating the audience. While many of these terms are now obsolete, some remain in widespread usage. The most prominent of these words is tôi, literally meaning "servant". It is used as a fairly neutral term for "I" (not very friendly, nor very formal). Tớ, also meaning "servant", is also popular among young people to refer to themselves with close friends (used in conjunction with cậu for "you").
   Pronouns that elevate the audience still in use include quý khách (valued customer), quý vị (valued higher being). Bạn (friend) is also popular among young people to call each other.
   Vietnamese speakers also refer to themselves and others by name where it would be strange if used in English, eliminating the need for personal pronouns altogether. For example, consider the following conversation: � John: Mary đang làm gì vậy?

   Mary: Mary đang gọi Joe. John có biết Joe ở đâu không? � John: Không, John không biết Joe ở đâu hết.

Directly translated into English, the conversation would run thus: � John: What is Mary doing?

   Mary: Mary is calling Joe. Does John know where Joe is? � John: No, John doesn't know where Joe is.

A normal translation of the conversation into English would be: � John: What are you doing?

   Mary: I am calling Joe. Do you know where he is? � John: No, I don't know where he is.

While always referring to oneself or the audience by name would be considered strange in English, in Vietnamese it's considered friendly, and is the preferred way to converse among close friends (however, in a kinship context, people with a lower rank can not refer to their superiors by name).

Obsolete pronouns

Some pronouns are no longer commonly used, such as the royal we trẫm. Many of them are no longer applicable because they refer to royalties, and Vietnam is no longer a monarchy. Some archaic pronouns include:

trẫm - used by the monarch to refer to him or herself
khanh - used by the monarch to address a favored subject
bệ hạ - used by subjects when addressing the monarch
thị - she

Pairs

Some pronouns go hand-in-hand with another: when one is used to refer to the speaker, the other must be used to refer to the audience.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Vietnamese Pronouns'.

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