Overview of Vietnamese Personal Pronouns

Learn about personal pronouns

Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone, it's Linh again.

Welcome back to vietnamespod101.com,

the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Vietnamese.

This video today is going to be the number one confusing video of all time

because it talks about personal pronouns.

I know I've talked about that in the past many times,

but I still want to make this video again to reinforce

and to repeat again and again with you guys

so you can remember how to address like a man,

how to address a woman,

how to address the brother of your father,

how to address like the sister of your mother.

And yeah, it's going to be like that today.

So let's get started.

So first if you want to use You and I for just friends in general

or someone you just randomly know,

just an acquaintance.

So you can say

Tôi

Tôi for “I”

and

Bạn

Bạn for “you”.

So “you and I”: Bạn và tôi

Bạn-tôi

Tôi- bạn

Bạn-tôi

Okay?

If you know each other for some time and you are really friends,

so we have like the other ways to express your friendship.

So instead of saying Tôi- bạn

you can say

Tớ- cậu

Tớ is for “I” and cậu is for “you”.

So that means you are friends, very close.

Tớ- cậu

Or even closers like how do you treat your best friends?

How do you treat your dudes or your mates, right?

So in this situation,

there is a ways that you can use a little bit too casual,

but it's very common in Vietnam.

You can use

Tao

and

Mày

Tao- Mày

So Tao is for “I” and Mày is for “you”.

Okay, but this one we can use only for very very close friends.

Tao- Mày

Now, if you have an older sister,

you will have to address your big sister as

Chị

dấu nặng, ok?

And you have to use em for yourself.

Chị- Em

So for example, if you want to call your big sister,

you can say

Chị ơi

it means “hey sis"

Chị ơi, em bảo này

em bảo này

em bảo này means like “can I say something?” or “can I tell you something?”

So Chị ơi, em bảo này.

Similarly, if you have a brother but an older brother, okay?

Anh

And you use Em for yourself.

Similarly to Chị- Em

So in this situation,

we use Anh for “you" and Em for me.

Anh- Em

Ok?

Anh- Em

So if you want to call your brother, your older brother,

you can say

Anh ơi, em bảo này.

Also, if you have a little brother or little sister,

you can just swap the pronouns like you use Chị for yourself

and you use Em for your little brother or sister.

And if you're a man,

you can use Anh for yourself and you use Em for your brother's or sister.

For parents, we can use

Bố

for “father”, for “dad”, “daddy” and

Mẹ

Mẹ is for “mom”, “mother”.

So you will use Con, Con for yourself, okay?

Con

So if you want to call your dad, you can say

Bố ơi, con bảo này.

Ok?

Bố ơi, con bảo này.

like that to call your dad.

And for your mom, you can say

Mẹ ơi, con bảo này.

Now, next one is your grandparents.

So for grandmother, you can say

Bà

So you use Bà to address your grandmother and you use Cháu for yourself.

And for grandfather, you can say

Ông

Ông for “grandfather”, okay?

And for yourself, the same Cháu

Ông- Bà and Cháu

Your grandparents, but mother side, we say

Ông bà ngoại

And for grandparents, your father side, you can say

Ông bà nội

Bác

We use Bác for both, man and woman.

So they are brothers or sisters of your parents.

Bác

Your mother's younger sister,

we call

Dì

And you will use Cháu for yourself.

The same with Bác- Cháu

Remember, one more time, okay?

Your mother's younger sister,

you will address

Dì

and Cháu for yourself.

And when you address your mother's little sister's husband,

then you will say

Chú

So your mother's little sister's will be Dì

and her husband will be Chú

Your mother's younger brother,

you will address them as

Cậu

And you use Cháu for yourself.

Mợ

Okay?

So when you call your mother's little brother Cậu, right?

and this person's wife, you will call Mợ

Cậu- Mợ

Your father's younger sister,

you will use Cô

Cô

And you use Cháu for yourself.

But your father's younger brother,

you will say Chú

Chú

And you use Cháu for yourself.

Okay?

So they will be father side and mother side.

Your mother's younger brother: Cậu

Your mother's younger sister: Dì

Your father's younger brother: Chú

and your father's younger sister: Cô

I'm confused also.

As you can see here,

I have created a tree just for you to see more clearly

and I hope that it's gonna be helpful for you.

And you can just pause this video and capture the screen

and save it on your computer or whatever is suitable for you.

And that's it for today. No more, I promise.

But it's very interesting because this is also our culture.

This is a part of our culture and it's also our language.

So I hope that it's helpful and you will use it sometime

in the future when you come to Vietnam

or when you have a chance to speak to Vietnamese people.

And that's it for today.

Thank you so much for watching this video again.

I hope to see you very soon in the next few days.

See you in the next one.

Bye bye.

Don't forget to like and subscribe.

Goodbye and see you again.

Xin chào và hẹn gặp lại.

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