Vietnamese Names and How to Address People

Lesson Transcript

Want to speak real Vietnamese from your first lesson?

Hi everyone, my name is Linh and welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com

the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Vietnamese

Xin chào các bạn, mình tên là Linh. Rất vui được gặp lại các bạn.

Are you confused every time pronouncing Vietnamese name

because it has tones, it has different accents or different pronunciations

or you just don't know whether it's their name or their last name.

So today I'll be introducing and sharing you guys some common Vietnamese names

and how to pronounce them, ok?

Now, let's get started.

What is your name?

To introduce myself, my name is Dang Phuong Linh.

So usually Vietnamese names will have three words

Đặng is my family name or my last name

So we will follow our father's name

So my dad's last name is Đặng

So my last name is also Đặng

Ok, next one is Phương Linh.

So Phuong Linh is my name.

So usually when I book the tickets, when I travel

then my last name would be Đặng and my first name would be Phương Linh.

Now let's talk about one other interesting thing

which is, for example, you have a sister or you have a brother

So usually you will have similar or maybe the same middle names

For example, Ngọc Anh- Phưong Anh

Ngọc Anh- Phưong Anh

So you will have the same name and different middle name

Hoàng Anh, Hoàng Vy

So same middle name and different names

But it doesn't have to be the same every time, ok?

For example, in my family, my name is Phương Linh.

My elder sister is Thủy Chi

And my younger sister is An Anh

So it's completely different.

Next one is some very common names, ok?

For example, for female names, usually in Vietnam you will see Linh a lot

Or maybe Trang as well

Especially in the North, people really like to name their baby as Anh

You will have a lot of versions of Anh, for example

Phương Anh, Ngọc Anh, Thủy Anh, Lan Anh, etc

Because just like my father as well, he believes that if your name starts with letter A

Then you will be in the top of the list

So you will have to try harder because usually teachers will call your name a lot

When it comes to check homework or something

Also you may hear a lot: Ngọc or Hiền

So usually the names of baby girls will mean something like beautiful or smart or nice, something like that

But they are both from traditional language

Vietnamese traditional language

So sometimes names have meanings but sometimes they don't

It's just a name.

Now let's talk about some common male names

You will hear a lot people named Trung, Trung or Tuấn, Tuấn

Or maybe Tú, Tú or Minh, Minh

Usually these kinds of names also mean looking good or strong or smart or intelligent, something like that

But they are all traditional words.

Now let's see how to pronounce some Phương names in Vietnamese

Let's try my name first:

Đặng Phương Linh

So my last name has dấu nặng and my name has no tone.

Đặng Phương Linh

Alright, next one is

Nguyễn Ngọc Mai

So Nguyễn has dấu ngã, Ngọc has dấu nặng and Mai has no tone

Nguyễn Ngọc Mai

Phạm Thu Hằng

So Phạm has dấu nặng, Hằng has dấu huyền and Thu has no tone

Phạm Thu Hằng

Đặng Thanh Huyền

Ok and some male names

For example:

Phan Anh Minh

This one is a little bit easy to pronounce because it has no tone at all

Phan Anh Minh

Nguyễn Ngọc Tú

Also there is one more thing

Usually Vietnamese people will not address each other by their last names

My name is Đặng Phương Linh so when I introduce myself

Tên tôi là Đặng Phương Linh.

They will not address me as Miss Đặng or Cô Đặng.

No, they will call me Ok Chào Linh

And also depends on how old the person is or how is the relationship between you and the person that you are talking to

You will address people based on their age or their relationship

In Vietnam, it's very common when asking each other when you were born

Because this is very important to decide how you address a person

So for example, people who are a little bit older than you, maybe a few years

For women, you will call Chị, chị.

And for men, you will say Anh, anh.

So Anh and Chị

If someone is younger than me, then they will call me Chị Linh

But for people who are completely younger than you, you can just call them Em, em for both men and women.

Now for a little bit older generations like your parents' generation

Or your uncle or auntie

There are two words

First for auntie, you can call them Cô, cô.

And for uncle, you can say Chú, chú.

Cô and Chú are for people who are younger than your parents

And if with people who are older than your parents, then we have one word only for both, women and men: Bác, bác

For example, my father's elder brother, I would call him as Bác Đức

And for my father's younger brother, I would call him Chú Quang, chú Quang. Ok?

When it comes to address people, I hope that you find this video useful and not so confusing

Because one of the most difficult things about learning Vietnamese is how to address people with their names.

So I hope that you enjoy the video today

Please don't forget to like the video

Subscribe the channel and visit the website vietnamespot101.com to learn more Vietnamese with us

Thank you so much for watching this video and I hope to see you soon

Bye bye

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