Prefixes or paired words?

[staskothomas_1693]

I have been studying Vietnamese for a few years, and there are certain prefixes that help identify a word (if I am using the correct term) such as "con" for animal or "mau" for a color. Your learning system usually does not use these words that are commonly (but not only) found paired with these words. Helps one to distinguish between "ca voi" (whale) and "con voi" (elephant).

The flashcards are generally without them, which can be a good learning tool, especially for me, who needs to develop listening comprehension.

However, I have noticed that here are times you make use of them, like with "con tho" (rabbit) or "mau cham" (indigo). Is this done by mistake or it intentional?

Thomas McTernan Stasko

[community.vietnamese]

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your comments.
What you mentioned is called a noun classifier. Words such as "con"(con cá), "cái" (cái bánh), "quyển" (quyển sách) are common noun classifiers. They are used in front of a noun to indicate whether the noun refers to an object, an animal, a book and so on.
We teach about them in more detail in the grammar section of the beginner series. In the flashcards, we only teach individual words.

Cheers,
Giang
Team VietnamesePod101.com