Vietnamese/Personal pronouns
Vietnamese is a bit different than Romance languages, in that Vietnamese doesn't just use different pronouns for casual or formal situations, but Vietnamese actually uses different pronouns depending on the relation between the speaker and his/her audience. This relation takes gender, age, and status into account. Basically, Vietnamese refer to everyone as a family member. Also, it is common to use a third person personal pronoun in the first person.
Singular pronouns
[edit | edit source]- bạn (friend)
- informal, but not casual; a general-purpose version; use with caution
- anh (brother)
- to a male who is the same age as the speaker
- bà (grandmother, old lady)
- formal; to a female who is older than the speaker
- chị (sister)
- informal; to a female who is the same age as or older than the speaker
- con (child)
- from an adult to a child
- em(younger sister or brother)
- to a female who is the same age as the speaker, or to a person (of either gender) who is younger than the speaker (such as a child)
- mày (you)
- informal, even rude or insulting; to a person younger than the speaker, or to a person held in low esteem; use with caution
- ông (grandfather, old man)
- formal; to a male who is older than the speaker
- cô (father's sister)
- formal; to an older woman as old as one's father, a young (usually unmarried) woman
In addition, there are different pronouns for each kind of relative. For a listing of those pronouns, see Family.
(More to come.)