• Unlike English, VIETNAMESE has many pronoun which are used in daily conversation.

• The first person: 

For beginners, I recommend learners to use “Tôi” as the first person – I for polite speech.

Example:

-> In sentence:

Jessie: Chào!  Tôi tên là Jessie.

(Hi!                            My name is Jessie)

People: Chào Jessie. Hôm nay khoẻ không?

(Hi Jessie.             How are you today?)

Jessie: Tôi khoẻ. Cảm ơn.

(I’m fine.         Thanks)

 

• The second person:

Pronoun will be changed , depends on gender and age.

**How do we adjust THE FIRST PERSON to match with THE SECOND PERSON in Vietnamese?

** Please note that “CHÁU” and “CON” can be used equally as the SECOND person (for someone 15- 20 years younger than the FIRST person)

 

 

• The third person:

In order to address the third person, Vietnamese adds the word “ẤY”  after the personal pronoun.

Beside CHỊ ẤY , SHE also can be used as BÀ ẤY,  CÔ ẤY, EM ẤY,…. in Vietnamese

 

Beside CHÚ ẤY , HE also can be used as ÔNG ẤY, ANH ẤY, EM ẤY,…. in Vietnamese

 

NÓ often refers to the OBJECTS, ANIMALS or  sometimes PEOPLE.  “NÓ” can denote for A CHILD in informal case or FRIEND (disrespectful)

 

• Plural personal pronoun:

 

A. For the first person:

Vietnamese adds “CHÚNG” before the first person pronoun

• CHÚNG TA (including the addressed subject)

Example:

              Mai                        Nga

-> In sentence:

Mai: Tôi đói rồi!!!!

(I’m hungry)

Nga: Tôi cũng vậy. CHÚNG TA đi ăn ở nhà hàng nhe.

(Me too.                              Let’s go eat something at the restaurant)

 

 

 

• CHÚNG TÔI (excluding the addressed subject)

Example: 

              Mai                           Nga

-> In sentence:

Nga:  Hôm qua chị làm gì?

(What did you do yesterday?

Mai: Hôm qua CHÚNG TÔI xem Ti-vi ở nhà.

(Yesterday we watch TV at home.)

 

 

B) For the second person:

Vietnamese  uses the word “CÁC” before the Personal address: Các anh, các chị, các cô,…

 

Beside, when addressing plural pronoun for the second person, we also can use these pronoun refers to a group of people in general both male and female:

 

**Please note that “Mọi người” means EVERYONE 

 

 

C) For the third person:

Vietnamese adds the word “ấy” after the SECOND  person pronoun to form the PLURAL personal pronoun for the THIRD person:

However, in reality,  SOUTHERN Vietnamese do not use these plural pronoun for the third person due to the formality. We adjust this based on the context in order to form these pronoun more practical in daily conversation

 

 

Example:  

          Mai                                  Nga

-> In sentence:

Nga: Dạo này chị có gặp chị Mỹ và chị Trang không?

( Have you met My and Trang recently?)

Mai: À…..Tối qua, tôi mới thấy hai chị đó uống bia với bạn ở quán bar.

(Ah . Last night I have seen two of them were drinking beer with friends at bar)

 

**Please note that we can replace the number (một, hai,….) instead of “MẤY”: HAI chị đó, BA anh đó,…

 

In additional, Vietnamese uses “HỌ” as “THEM” when addressing PLURAL pronoun for the THIRD person. It refers to a group of people in general both male and female.

Example: 

               Mai                           Nga

-> In sentence: 

Mai: Dạo này em có gặp Huy và Linh không?

(Have you met Huy and Linh recently?)

Nga: Nghe nói họ đi picnic với bạn ở Vũng Tàu.

(I heard people say that they went for picnic in Vung Tau)

 

** Difficult word and phrase: 

Nghe nói = Hear say (I heard people say that)

Dạo này = recently