Lesson 2: Personal Pronouns 1 | Learn Vietnamese With Linh!

After learning the sentence structure, now I will introduce you to pronouns, one of most subjects in Vietnamese. So in Vietnamese, instead of first name, people use pronouns A LOT and there are A LOT OF pronouns in Vietnamese.

In the positive side, it’s much more colorful in Vietnamese language, since there are so many ways to call someone, rather than “you” in English.  Also, there are so many ways to call yourself considering the situation and who you are talking to, including the formal and the informal situations.

So let’s begin!

I	Tôi
You	Bạn
We	Chúng tôi
They	Họ
It	Nó
She	Cô ấy
He	Anh ấy

In this chart, the Vietnamese words are literally what the English words are. You  is bạn. They is họ. There is no doubt about their meanings. However, these pronouns are not commonly used in Vietnamese. In fact, the “tôi” and “bạn“ sound quite awkward, not formal but awkward. If you use them, there seems to be a big wall between you and the person you talk to. The rest of the chart, chúng tôi, nó are commonly used. Cô ấy, anh ấy is so so, since there are so many ways to call “she” and “he.”

About “ấy“, it’ very hard to explain this word because it’s so powerful. I will explain about it later in the advanced grammar. For now, this word means “that“, so cô ấy means that girl/woman and anh ấy means that guy/man. 

Here come the interesting things. So in Vietnamese, we address people differently based on their genders, ages, their relationship with us, their ranks in the society, and also based on the areas we are living in (it’s dialect that I’m talking about). I will explain as many pronouns as possible. I may leave out some, especially the ones that are actually dialects, I will leave them in the dialect section. You should not be so overwhelmed in the beginning.

You and I

Bạn:  is a pretty awkward word to call someone. It can be used sometimes by girls, but it’s not really common at all. Adults will use this word more than teenagers, but even so, they tend to call each other first name rather using this word.

Tôi:  a very good pronoun that is used to call oneself, but people don’t use this pronoun often since it sounds like you are mad at the person you talk to, or you mean serious. For example, a couple will address each other very different (em/anh) but when they get into a fight, they will address themselves as “tôi” when talking to each other. They want to point out their egos, their selves. However, it’s not always the case. It’s a common word that is used in novels, since it’s formal and honest, also a little bit humble. It keeps a safe distance from anyone, so the writer can write easily without offending anyone.

Since the literal transcript of the you and I in Vietnamese are not commonly used. I will introduce you to other personal pronouns that are used more. In Vietnamese, we have different pairs of “you” and “I” that go together and are used in different situations, and by people with different relationships.

• Interchangeable pairs

Tớ và cậu
I	Tớ	This is a very sweet way to address oneself. It’s usually between friends, so you will hear it a lot at school. School girls will use this more often than school boys.
	Mình	It’s as sweet as tớ  and can pair with cậu  as well, but it sounds slightly heavier, so to me, it’s slightly more humble and honest than the tớ.
You	Cậu	It pairs with tớ.
	Đằng ấy	These words mean (over there). You can imagine it’s like a shy girl who tries to call a guy she likes. It’s like that. It’s a very sweet word, especially when people don’t know each other’s name, so they call each other like that. Normally, it will be between guys and girls when they flirt at their first meet. It can be used between friends too without any flirting intention.
These words are unisex, so they can be used for/by both genders.

Tao và mày
I	Tao	When you use these words, you may be at the peak of a fight. This word is usually used by delinquents. You use this word when you really look down on the person you are talking to. So sometimes, (bad) parents talk like this to their children. However, between friends, people use these words too. The reason is it’s rude when you use it to someone you don’t know, but to close friends, it’s a funny word to address oneself. So at school, girls are more likely to use tớ/cậu while boy prefers mày/tao since the former ones are too sweet.These words are unisex, so they can be used for/by both genders.
You	Mày

Anh, chị và tôi
I	Tôi	They are used mostly by adults such as in-laws, colleagues, neighbors, strangers… It’s because people don’t know each other’s real ages and sometimes it’s not convenient to ask someone’s age, so they don’t know how to call each other. So to pay respect to another adult, they call the male “anh” and the female “chị”, in case the others are older than them.In this case “anh” “chị” are “you”.You will see in a lot of government papers and forms, they will address you as “anh/chị” instead “bạn” which is too friendly. The government surely is not your friends and neither you are to them. However, when you register for a membership on an online website, they may address you “bạn,” because Internet is your friend. (just kidding)
You	Anh Chị

 

Ta vs ngươi/mi
I	Ta	Originally, these words are used in historical films (I’m not sure if people in the old days actually used them).  Ta is used by people who have the power and money. Ngươi and mi are what they use to call people who are below their ranks. So if you watch historical dramas in Vietnamese, you will hear or see these words a lot. However, there is adaption to these words. Between close friends, people use these words too since between close friends, it’s OK to be a bit arrogant in the way you speak. It’s more like a way to tease your friends, than look down on them.In addition to that, you can call yourself “ta” and call your close friends “ngươi/mi”. While in the historical films, you’ll see that people from lower ranks cannot use the same words to answer their superiors.These words are unisex, so they can be used for/by both genders.
You	Ngươi Mi

These pairs below are interchangeable pairs. For example, in the first pair, you call yourself “tớ” and call your friend “cậu“. When you friends talk to you, she/he calls herself or himself as “tớ” and call you “cậu.” That’s why these pairs are interchangeable. It’s the same as “tao vs mày” and “tôi vs anh/chị”. 

In the case of “ta vs ngươi/mi”, between friends, they are interchangeable pairs, but in historical context, they are words that can be used by only people who has the power and money like the kings, queens, officers. People from lower  ranks cannot use these words. They will have to use different words that I would love to introduce them later.

For example, between friends:

– Ta  về đây. (I’m leaving now). Mi về sau nhé. (You leave later, ok?) – Ờ, lát ta về. Gặp mi sau. (Uh, I’ll leave soon. See you later).

In historical context:

– Ngươi dám phản bội ta sao? (How dare did you betray me?) – Tiểu nhân không dám. (I didn’t dare ) Xin ngài tha thứ cho. ((I) beg you please forgive me).

Tiểu nhân is one of the words people from lower ranks would use, and they will call males who are from higher status as ngài. But let’s not go so detailed in this.

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