Predicative Elements: Vị ngữ

Vietnamese sentences have two main parts such as Subjective (Chủ ngữ) and Predicate Vị ngữ

Predicates usually start from the verbs that include the tense marker.

+ Be : Là
- Anh ấy là sinh viên: He is a student.
> Anh ấy: Subject
> Là sinh viên: Predicate

- Ông David và Ông Johnson là hai sinh viên Mỹ: Mr. David and Mr. Johnson are two American students.
+ Other verbs:
Aspect:
- Tháng sau tôi sẽ hai mươi tuổi: Next month, I'll be twenty years old.
> Tháng sau: Temporal aspect.
> Tôi: Subject
> sẽ hai mươi tuổi: Predicate

- Tôi sẽ đi: I'll will go.
- Chị ấy đã quên: She's forgotten.
 Present tense:
- Tôi hai mươi tuổi: I'm twenty years old.
- Tôi đi: I'm going.
- Chị ấy quên: She forgets.

Negatives in Predicative elements.

- There are some negative words in Vietnamese such as Không (Not),chẳng  or chả (definitely note), chưa (not yet) and chớ (Better not, don't)
Example:
- Cô ấy không có tiền: She has no money or She has not any money.
- Có ai thấy con chó ở đâu không?: Does any one see where the dog is?
Chẳng chè, chẳng chén sao say/ Chẳng thương, chẳng nhớ sao hay đi tìm?
-> No drink, no cup, how be drunk? / don't love, don't recall nostalgically, why so often go looking (fork saying)
- Chớ có uống rượu: You shouldn't drink liquor.
- Chị ấy chưa về: She hasn't returned home yet/

Family members between North and South of Vietnam

In a family, there are some ways to adress each other.

Father: Ba, bố, Cha, Thầy

In the north of Vietnam: Bố

in the South of Vietnam: Ba.

However, there are some derivations for the Father in Vietnamese such as: Tía, or cha used in the South and Cậu or Thầy used in the North

Mother: Mẹ, U, Ầm, Má

Similar to Father, Mother in Vietnamese also has some different equivalent words between the South and the North.

South: Má

North: Mẹ, sometimes used in the South

Derivation, in the North, there are some other ways to address Mother: U, Ầm, Mợ

Brother: anh trai, em trai

Older than you: Anh (trai)

Younger than you: Em trai.

Cousin: Anh họ, Em họ, Chị họ

Sister: Chị or em. 

Older than you: Chị (gái).

Younger than you: Em gái.

When you talk to you friend about you older brother or sister, we don't have to use the word "Trai" -Male or "Gái" - Female because "Anh" and "Chị" already imply gender. However, if you mention you younger brother or sister without the word "Trai" or "Gái", your audience will not know when gender of the person you are talking about.

Aunt: This word has some meaning as follows:

+ in the North:

- Dì: your mother's younger sister.

- Cô: your father's younger sister.

- Mợ: your mother's younger brother's wife.

- Thím: to address to your father's younger brother's wife

+ In the South or centre region of Vietnam

- Dì: used for both your mother's younger and older sister.

- Cô: used for both your father's younger and older sister.

- Mợ: your both mother's older and younger brother's wife

- Thím: to address to your father's younger brother's wife.

Older Aunt: your mother's or father's older sisters. Bác or Bá

Uncle: Chú or Bác, Dượng, Cậu

- Chú: for you father's younger brothers

- Bác: for your father's older brothers.

- Dượng: used in the centre and South only. This title is used for your mother's younger or older sisters' husbands and your father's younger or older sisters' husbands.

- Cậu: 

In the North: Your mother's younger brother

In the South and Centre: For both your mother's younger and older brother.

Oldest brother: 

North: Anh lớn, Anh cả

South: Anh Hai

Youngest Brother or sister: Em út

Oldest sister: 

North: chị lớn, chị cả

South: Chị Hai

In the South and Centre: Nephew and niece usually address their mother or father's sibling by the ordinal number:

Chú ba: Your father's younger brother born right after your father

Bác hai, Your father's older brother born right before your father.

In-law is used to call a female person that married to your male members in your family.

Mother in-law: Mẹ chồng

Father in-law: Cha chồng, bố chồng

Daughter in-law: Con dâu:

Sister in-law: Chị dâu or Em dâu.

Brother in-law: Anh rễ, Em rễ.

Son in-law: Con rễ

Grandchild in-law: Cháu rễ, cháu dâu (Used for grandpa address to sons' children's wife or husbands.

Nephew in-law: Cháu rễ, Cháu dâu

Niece in-law: Cháu rễ, cháu dâu:

Derivatives in Vietnamese

Derivatives is a way that language can expand its lexicons like English or other languages in the world.
In Vietnamese, Derivatives are called Từ Phái Sinh.

The great majority of derivatives are reduplicative :Từ láy

Rules of reduplicative:

A reduplicative should contain at least two words, the longest reduplicative has four words ; in some case, it's formed by three words (sạch sành sanh: completely clean or empty).

There are two required parts in reduplicative: Repetition (Lặp or Điệp) and changing parts (Đối).

Types of reduplicative:

Tonal affixes: two words have the same base but different tones:
Example: Bứ-bự (Very big)
Đen đẻn: Be rather black

Vocalic affixes: The vowel of the second word is different.
Lếu láo: be ill mannered. ếu differs from áo and the repetition is L's

Rhyme affixes: The second parts of the two words are the same.
Khóc lóc: Cry
Bối rối: be uneasy.

Alliterative affixes: The initial bases are the same;
La lết: be with much pain or difficulty
Rõ rệt: be very clear

Tones in Vietnamese Language

Tones in English are used to express the feelings of speakers or writers; Vietnamese Tones affects the meaning of the word itself.

There are six tones in Vietnamese as follows:

Sắc is high and rising
Symbol: ´
Example: You can see it in Sắc, Đá (stone or kick); Táo (apple)

Ngã: high and rising like Sắc; however, it pauses and last a little bit longer.
Symbol: ˜ : 
Example: You can see it in Ngã, Bão (storm); sữa (Milk), cũng (likewise)

Ngang tone is lax;
Symbol: there is no mark above or below the words
Example: Ba (three); Răng (tooth); Nhanh (fast)

Note: ˇ as in sắc and ˆ as in Một or mập are not tones. they are a part of a vowel letter in Vietnamese such as Ê, Ô, Â, Ă,

Huyền: is also lax, starts quite low and strails downward toward the bottom of the voice range.
Symbol: ˋ 
Example: Thuyền (boat), bà (grandpa); nhà (House)

Hỏi tone is tense; it starts somewhat higher than Huyền and drops rather abruptly.
Symbol: ˀ  
Example: mỏi (tired); tỏi (garlic); giỏi (talented);

Nặng is also tense; it starts somewhat lower than Hỏi.
Symbol: . ; this tone is placed under the vowel letters or under Y that stands alone.
Example: Nặng (Heavy); Mạnh (Strong); quỵ ( as in đột quỵ - Stroke)

Compare the meaning of the word when we change the tones.

Nha: Chinese based word: Means dental
Nhà: Huyền Tone is added: it means a house
Nhá: A exclamation word, like please or reminder
Nhã : as in nhã nhặn (Polite)
Nhạ : (no meaning)
Nhả : (Release)

Tones are used to change the meaning of the word root. Please try to learn and use them regularly.

Chairman and its vietnamese equivalent meaning

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, the word "Chairmain" carries two meanings below:

1. the person in charge of a meeting, who tells people when they can speak, etc.
Là người chịu trách nhiệm điều hành một cuộc họp cũng như có quyền chỉ định những ai khi nào được phát biểu ý kiến
2. the person in charge of a committee, a company, etc
Là người chịu trách nhiệm của một hội đồng hoặc một công ty

In Vietnamese, When we want to address to the President of National Assembly, we say: Chủ tịch quốc hội
When we call the person in charge of some departments of Government or NA, we also say Chủ tịch + Name of the Department

For example:

President of People Committee of Province/ City
- Chairman of Ha Noi People's Committee  : Chủ tịch hội đồng nhân dân thành phố Hà Nội
- Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee : Chủ tịch hội đồng nhân dân thành phố HCM
- Chairman/ of Ha Nam People's Committee   : Chủ tịch hội đồng nhân dân thành phố Hà Nam
- Chairman of Hue People's Committee   : Chủ tịch hội đồng nhân dân thành phố Huế
- Chairman of Dong Anh District People's Committee   : Chủ tịch hội đồng nhân dân Huyện Đông Anh, Hà Nội

When the PIC is female, We usually begin the title Bà as Madam in English, for example Bà chủ tịch

A is the first Character in Vietnamese Language

The writing system of vietnamese language is the combination of  one of 29 characters as follows:

Capital Forms:
A Ă Â B C D Đ E Ê G H I K L M N O Ô Ơ P Q R S T U Ư V X Y
Normal Forms:
 a ă â b c d đ e ê g h i k l m n o ô ơ p q r s t u ư v x y

The first one is A

A that stands alone can be pronounced like letter "R", "car", "farther" in English. and we can see A in many words like: Xa (Far), Ba (three or  Dad), nhà (house, home)

Example:
Nhà của ba tôi ở khá xa khu trung tâm thành phố.
My father's house is very far away from downtown.

When A is combined with other letters

A + Vowel sounds to form the dipthongs like english or other languages

1. A+I => "ai" such as Hai  (two), Mai (tomorrow); Tai (ear)
This dipthong is pronounces as same as the sound  / ai / as in bike, like, high

Example: Ngày mai, chúng tôi sẽ đi hà nội
Tomorrow, we will go to Hanoi.

2. A+O =>"ao" such as Bao (bag), Nao (nervous); Cao (high)
"AO" is pronounced the same as / aʊ / in the word House, Cloud

Example: Chiếc cầu này cao thật.
This bridge is really high.

3. A+U =>"au" such as Lau (clean), Sau (later, behind), Mau (fast)
"AO" is pronounced the same as / əʊ / in the word Show, Above

Example: Thời gian trôi qua mau thật.
Time goes so fast.

4. A + Y  as in Hay (interesting), May (Lucky), Thay (replace)
AY can be pronounced like / eɪ / as in Grey, Clay, take, etc

Example: Cuốn sách này hay ghê!
This book is very interesting!

A + Consonants

When A comes with consonants, like English, its pronunciation is affected by the consonant that it attached to and also depends on the local accent of the speaker.
For example:

An is pronounced / a:ŋ / as the person from the middle and south of Vietnam. Meanwhile, the people from the North say / a:n /

Try to distinguish An and Anh ; than and thang