{"id":46,"date":"2021-01-14T06:40:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T06:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/vietnamese\/?p=46"},"modified":"2021-01-14T06:40:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T06:40:50","slug":"greetings-and-personal-pronouns-in-vietnamese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/vietnamese\/greetings-and-personal-pronouns-in-vietnamese\/","title":{"rendered":"Greetings and Personal Pronouns in Vietnamese"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image by Nghi Nguyen Tuyen from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

It doesn’t matter what language you would like to acquire, one of the first subjects for a beginner to learn is how to greet and address people in their native language.<\/p>\n

To greet people in English, you can simply use one word like “hi” or “hello”, and add a name to address a specific person, or more formally, add a prefix before the name.\u00a0 In Vietnamese, the word ch\u00e0o<\/em> (hello) can’t be used alone to greet people.\u00a0 It has to go with either a name, or a personal pronoun.\u00a0 And to greet someone formally, you have to add the word k\u00ednh <\/em>(respectfully) in front of ch\u00e0o<\/em>, then followed by the personal pronoun.<\/p>\n

When it comes to personal pronouns, it becomes much, much more complicated in Vietnamese.\u00a0 This is where most foreigners have trouble.<\/p>\n

In modern English, the personal pronouns include I, you, he, she, it, we, they, them, us, etc., and generally are used arbitrarily.\u00a0 In Vietnamese, it’s very important to know how to address a person or a group in a respectful fashion.\u00a0 The personal pronoun changes depending on the age, gender, social rank, family ties on the maternal side or paternal side, job position, level of respect, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, the familiar terms you often hear when one addresses another that is equivalent to “you” in English are:<\/p>\n