Vietnamese Pronouns - Non-kinship Terms Used As Pronouns

Non-kinship Terms Used As Pronouns

In Vietnamese, virtually any noun used for a person can be used as a pronoun. These terms usually don't serve multiple roles like kinship terms (i.e. the term has only one grammatical person meaning). Words such as "doctor", "teacher", "owner", etc. can be used as a second-person personal pronoun when necessary. When referring to themselves, Vietnamese speakers, like speakers of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, tend to deprecate their position while elevating the audience. While many of these terms are now obsolete, some remain in widespread usage. The most prominent of these words is tôi, literally meaning "servant". It is used as a fairly neutral term for "I" (not very friendly, nor very formal). Tớ, also meaning "servant", is also popular among young people to refer to themselves with close friends (used in conjunction with cậu for "you").

Pronouns that elevate the audience still in use include quý khách (valued customer), quý vị (valued higher being). Bạn (friend) is also popular among young people to call each other.

Vietnamese speakers also refer to themselves and others by name where it would be strange if used in English, eliminating the need for personal pronouns altogether. For example, consider the following conversation:

John: Mary đang làm gì vậy?

Mary: Mary đang gọi Joe. John có biết Joe ở đâu không?

John: Không, John không biết Joe ở đâu hết.

Directly translated into English, the conversation would run thus:

John: What is Mary doing?

Mary: Mary is calling Joe. Does John know where Joe is?

John: No, John doesn't know where Joe is.

A normal translation of the conversation into English would be:

John: What are you doing?

Mary: I am calling Joe. Do you know where he is?

John: No, I don't know where he is.

While always referring to oneself or the audience by name would be considered strange in English, in Vietnamese it is considered friendly, and is the preferred way to converse among close friends (however, in a kinship context, people with a lower rank can not refer to their superiors by name).