How Everyone Is Family In Vietnamese (Kinship Pronouns)

Pronouns in Vietnamese work quite differently from what they are in English, to the point where everyone can technically be called family through kinship words! Learn more in this video!
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Sources:
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[@gheorghitaalsunculitei9146]

The thought of a man referring to himself as "older brother" while flirting with someone referred as "younger sibling" makes my head explode

[@XavierVB]

In Spanish (especially my dialect: Puerto Rican Spanish), the words "mami" and "papi" can be used when folks are dating, but they're essentially used as just general terms of endearment. They mean "mommy" and "daddy" specifically

[@edibleandsentientautomobil5396]

"Adik manja, nak tak abang bawa kau pergi tengok wayang?" This literally means "sweet younger sibling, can big brother bring you to watch cinema" Living in Malaysia and speaking Malay all my life, this doesn't sound very jarring since it can be used to someone you date in the same age

[@cmyk8964]

Ah, you seem not to enjoy hentai.

[@edibleandsentientautomobil5396]

@@cmyk8964 their obnoxious, unrealistic and overexaggerated moans as well as unnecessary dialogue plus sometimes the unrealistic body proportions turn me off quickly so yes

[@cmyk8964]

@@edibleandsentientautomobil5396 Imagine taking an obvious joke this seriously. :P

[@phuong3749]

Native Vietnamese here. Two non family pronouns not mentioned in the video are mày and quý khách. Mày is a rude (or friendly) version of bạn. You can use it while speaking with a close friend, or when insulting a stranger (wouldn’t want to call someone friend while yelling at them for being an asshole…). Quý khách means “valued customer” and is used by workers and employees to customers. It’s usually seen on signs at stores, or in announcements that are speaking directly to all customers. If an employee is talking to you directly, they’ll just use what pronoun apply to the situation.

[@karaqakkzl]

and cán bộ, which means cadres, when you're in prison or work as a military officials

[@natsuchoseki]

An employee may also just use khách on its own too. It's a bit uncommon but not unheard of. My mom does it to her customers in her... nail.. salon..

[@thevannmann]

There's also quý vị (貴位, formal address to others), quý thính giả (貴聽者, formal address to listeners) and quý khán giả (貴看者, formal address to viewers/watchers).

[@duc8250]

There's also tao, which is the first person equivalent of mày

[@duc8250]

There's also tao, which is the first person equivalent of mày

[@ItsPForPea]

1. Not only in Vietnamese/Malay/Khmer, but pretty much the entirety of South East Asia, as a Thai, you are pretty much explaining Thai's pronoun system also. (But we also have pronouns for different registers so take that :v) 2. Also, Vietnam's provinces (63) would still be lass painful than memorising Thailand's provinces (77) lol, plus the extra long Bangkok's full name xd

[@gotoastal]

หนู/ໜູ is my favorite pronoun

[@arius4633]

Oh, I didn't expect to see you here)

[@mannyn2587]

We can barely memorize Vietnamese provinces in geography class, how tf do Thais manage 77 lmao

[@ItsPForPea]

@@mannyn2587 simple, we don't lmao

[@paper2222]

@@mannyn2587yeah we don't

[@Trolligi]

As someone who doesn’t speak Vietnamese but loves all the funny silly goofy accents on the vowels, I cannot confirm that this is true

[@ivan69420.]

how is that silly goofy?

[@titan9259]

Imagine Hausa with ɓ ɗ ƙ ƴ

[@ivan69420.]

@@titan9259 nah i dont speak hausa

[@minhjohn4070]

Stop giving disrespect to other languages, especially our Vietnamese.

[@dragondog9597]

@@minhjohn4070 how can you assume that the commenter was intending offense? people usually talk this way about unfamiliar things

[@ellotheearthling]

Vietnamese seems like such a unique yet hard language (especially the pronunciation)

[@MinecraftMasterNo1]

I think the hardest part to grasp for most nonnative speakers is that Vietnamese is a true tonal language so the way in which you say a word can affect its meaning. Once you have that down, it's pretty much easy breezy.

[@beached1093]

I think most Asian as well as Pacific island languages have this kind of language ingrained by their culture, mainly out of respect and how much family is valued, everyone is treated as family. My mother language is also the same, though one unique thing is we don't have a term for "aunt", because women are highly respected as caretakers, all older women are simply referred to as "mother"

[@galgrunfeld9954]

"Everyone is family in Vietnamese" You're right, brother.

[@karaqakkzl]

basically summerised the Village Culture (Văn Hoá Làng Xã) in general

[@AgmaSchwa]

we're all family in the Big Lang gang 🫡

[@mollof7893]

Hello ŋə

[@konokiomomuro7632]

It's /ˈæɡmə ʃwɑː/!

[@makarafap]

Hi Agma Schwa!!!

[@Aurelian369_]

Zaddy

[@AgmaSchwa]

oh hey! lol

[@pumpkin2477]

This makes me think of meme/internet slang. If someone is doing something embarrassing, people will say something like: "Bro is doing X". I know it is kind of disconnected but it just made me think of that.

[@isyraqfirdaus5322]

As a Malaysian, I can confirm that here (and I assume Indonesia too) we call people (unrelated by blood) too by words used for calling family. Its the exact same system as vietnamese, just with Malay words ofc.

[@d.b.2215]

Your pronunciation is pretty good, for someone who doesn't speak the language. The (Northern) tones are quite well done. Not perfect, but very understandable.

[@LingoLizard]

I’ve actually learned a lot of Vietnamese! I forgot many words, but it seems my pronounciation has remained in tact from what it was

[@benis7081]

@@LingoLizard ur also the first non vietnamese ive ever heard pronounching the broken tone (ngã) correctly lol

[@fanihaerul5612]

In Indonesian, it's not just "saudara" that can be used as a pronoun. We also use other kinship terms like Bapak (father), Ibu (mother), Kakak (older sibling, often gender-neutral but female-only in some regions), Abang (male older sibling), etc. Also, people often incorporate kinship pronouns from their regional languages into Indonesian. For example, in Javanese, we use Javanese Mas and Mbak (male and female older sibling respectively) more commonly than we use Kakak or Abang, even when we are speaking Indonesian.

[@kusumandriyanto]

4:12 in Indonesian you can also use "Bapak", "Ibu", "Om", "Abang", "Mas", "Mbak", "Kakak", "Adek/adik" (Father, Mother, Uncle, older sibling, younger sibling) as the word for "you" if you don't want to be too formal but still want to be respectful. (fyi, "saudara" as "you" is too formal) - Bapak/Ibu (pak/bu) if you speak to someone one generation older than you or if you want to show big respect for them, same with Om but it is more casual/friendlier (male exclusive, the female counterpart "tante" might offend the lady you talking to). - Abang/Kakak (bang/kak) and Mas/Mbak (javanese) if you speak to somone older or the same age as you, Abang/Mas is exclusive for male, Mbak for female and Kakak is gender neutral. - Adek/adik (dek/dik) if you speak to someone significantly younger than you.

[@dasyad00]

In Indonesian, you generally use the English equivalents of older sibling (kakak) or sir and ma'am (bapak, ibu), but in my experience, you also have to keep in mind the regional language. So in reality, you have to be aware of the regional equivalences of "kakak" (mas/mbak, aa/teteh, Abang/kakak)

[@thealchemist2428]

In hindi, If a girl is old enough to be your elder sister, you call her "didi" which means elder sister. If a boy is old enough to be your elder brother, you call him "bhaiya" which means elder brother. This logic also works with uncle, aunt, son, daughter, grandfather, and grandmother

[@Aurelian369_]

Wow that kind of reminds me of Tagalog. Filipinos call older women ate and older men kuya

[@lambn1208]

It also played in a social way too I’m Vietnamese and at least in my region, if the person your talking with is around the same age and you know each other well. We can call each other “ông”

[@totallydead5908]

In latvian you can tehnically use the words 'this' and 'that' as pronouns and depensing on context you can call a man 'female this' (and also these words have polite and inpolite forms and so in context develop gender)

[@sethlangston181]

That's part of the reason why Vietnamese people often ask how old people are before they ask for someone's name. Even if a Vietnamese person doesn't know your name, they still know how to address you. Regarding people born on the same day as you, it's not really that big of a deal, you can kind of negotiate will be "anh/chị" or who will be "em".

[@Someone-ym1ny]

I think you accidentally copied the wrong IPA for má at 1:12. As for the ch digraph, I’m pretty sure /c/ would be a more accurate transcription(at least in the south). But wow super cool to see my heritage lang being featured in a video 🤩 keep it up 👏

[@gotoastal]

Lao and Thai do similar. The funny one is women will often call themselves “mouse” when talking to parents or older generations.

[@ItsPForPea]

Thai here, always thought that they were unrelated, apparently we really do call ourselves "mouse" then talking to elderly lmao

[@tupocbsher]

Similar sing in russian. Babushka is word for grandma, we say Aunt or Uncle for midle-aged people (or even 20-year-olds), but not sister or brother

[@RanmaruRei]

However, it is not the same. in Russian we can use those words only as vocative expressions. In Thai, they could be used as full-blown pronouns. Think of it like a normal phrase: - Тётя хочет, чтобы сестрёнка помогла старшему брату с уборкой склада. (lit. Aunt wants the younger sister to help the older brother clean the warehouse) to mean "She wants you to help me clean the warehouse").

[@tupocbsher]

@@RanmaruRei Я имел ввиду только про Бабушек/тёть Петровных или Дяди/Деда степана

[@deacudaniel1635]

It's quite the same in Mandarin and maybe other Chinese varieties.Chinese also call elders grandma/grandpa, middle aged people aunt/uncle, and same aged people sisters and brothers pretty often in daily life.Also, same as in Vietnamese, you better use the word "teacher" instead of "you" when addressing your Chinese teacher. Btw, my favourite "pronoun" in Mandarin is 小朋友，used by adults when talking to kids and it literally means "little friend"😂😂😂.

[@misteryA555]

Aww, little friend!

[@Hieulegen27]

The system in mandarin is more like using honorifics after a pronoun so its quite different but yes, its roughly the same. In fact most vietnamese pronouns actually comes from chinese nouns, they just turn into pronouns over ttme lmao

[@deacudaniel1635]

@@Hieulegen27 Anyway, using kinship terms to address people who are not related is an East Asian cultural sphere thing.I don't really get what you say about Mandarin honorifics though.Can you give me an example?

[@Hieulegen27]

@@deacudaniel1635 The system mostly sticks to name, mandarin when refering to you tends to only have 你(general) and 您(formal). Also fun fact it used to have 妳 to refer to a female "you" lul Anyways, its basically stuffs like 老师，老板，... that goes after name of somebody. Function wise it's more like honorifics that goes after a name to address a person rather than actual pronouns. Imagine it kinda like japanese sama, chan, ... they are all honorifics. It's a bit hard to grasp since vietnamese and chinese dont have honorific system that complex like korean and japanese and it works quite differently in both language but I hope you get my point.

[@cubing7276]

@@Hieulegen27 it is allowed to not say the name (if you do this it feels too formal) or surname of the person before the honorific, effectively turning it into a pronoun

[@computeruser75]

In Vietnamese comedy, it's common to hear an older person to use an older pronoun towards a younger person as a form of sarcasm

[@Pointlessusername-zr3jy]

This kinda works in Finnish too. The words ”setä” (uncle from your fathers side) and ”täti” (aunt) are often used when refering to middle-aged strangers. For older people ”mummo” (grandma) and ”pappa” (grandpa) can be used alongside grandpa’s diminutive form ”papparainen”. For some reason these are mostly used when talking to small children in which case the speaker can also refer to theirself with the same nouns.

[@hiyathea]

Could you perhaps make a video about Zaum? It's super interesting.

[@TrueSchwar]

Fascinating

[@sundude800]

That was great!

[@ttajja]

notice this: child: Khmer: /koun/ Vietnamese: /kɔn/ grandchild: Khmer: /caw/ Vietnamese: /tɕaw/

[@kilanspeaks]

4:09 Saudara/saudari is more of an Indonesian thing, but they are only used in formal context. Just like in Vietnamese, it’s more common to use kinship pronouns like ibu/bapak (mother/father), nenes/kakek (grandma/grandpa), adik/kakak (younger sibling/older sibling), etc. But although it’s similar in most of Southeast Asia, it’s just not on the same level with Vietnamese. For example, at school Indonesian students can refer to their seniors and juniors with kinship pronouns for ‘older sibling’ and ‘younger sibling’ but they don’t do it with their peers. They would just refer to each other with the ‘regular’ pronouns, and most probably use the lowest level of pronouns as being rude to each other shows that you are good friends 😁

[@orecula]

Nah... I thought this title read "Everything is in the Vietnamese family", as in "Every language is part of the Vietnamese language family" 💀

[@kegoemetshe]

It's similar in Afrikaans! Middle aged people are adressed as "oom" /uəm/ (uncle) and "tannie/antie" (aunt) by everyone younger than them, especially children and people in their 20's. Kids also never address their teachers as "jy" (you) they call their male teachers "meneer" /məniər/(sir) and their female teachers "juffrou" /jəfrəu/ (which just means female teacher). Kids would sometimes get detention for being disrespecful if they addressed one of their teachers with "jy" Sometimes kids also aren't allowed to use the word "jy" with their parents and relatives especially their grandparents. Weirdly, Afrikaans inherited the formal you "u" /y/ (like Sie and Usted) from Dutch but it's only used in formal writing and in religious contexts and "jy" (you) is used with anyone the same age or younger than you. ex. Kan Oom vir my sê waar Oom, Oom se kar parkeer het? Can you (addressing an older male) tell me where you parked your car. Lit. Can uncle tell for me where uncle, uncle's car parked has It's also sometimes used as a first person pronoun and a 3rd person pronoun. Like: "Meneer wou nie vandag hier wees nie" means "I didn't want to be here today." but instead of using "I" the word for "sir" is used. The third person pronoun form of it is also common. "die tannie hou van dans" means "she likes dancing" but literally uses "the aunt" for it. It's mostly done in a honorific way and the normal pronouns would become taboo.

[@SyuaibZulkarnain]

Just adding to many other Indonesian comment here, in and around Jakarta you can have up to 6 kinship pronouns just for someone around your age or a bit older than you. They are abang/kakak (comes from Malay, kakak is more gender-neutral here while abang is male), mas/mbak (comes from Javanese, mas is male, mbak female). As Jakarta is pretty much surrounded by Sundanese-speaking region, it's also possible to call someone kang/tétéh or maybe a'a/ceuceu. Though I'm not really sure about the latter, kang/teteh used pretty much the same as abang/kakak etc

[@protondium_8927]

Heck yeah

[@karaqakkzl]

5:27 imma try remember 51 states in the US, also Ohio is equivalent to Vietnamese province of Thanh Hoá

[@chauhoanglongnguyen7790]

It's funny that "Tôi" is often used as a general "I" by foreigners. For Vietnamese people "Tôi" is an extremely formal pronoun pretty much only used in legal documents and forms. When someone says "Tôi", shit is about to go down.

[@karaqakkzl]

"the word for you is 'bạn' which is friend, aww how sweet" ya should used that like the word "mate" if it can be both mean 2nd pronoun or friend

[@Eraphimm]

As someone who speaks Vietnamese, I can confirm

[@ruedigernassauer]

"Tôi" means literally subject. In the post position it becomes genitive, thus "my" except in "vua tôi" (king and subject(s)). So the king would never refer to himself as "tôi". There the more formal "tao" as "I" could be more proper (Vietnamese speakers please help out!). And the king or his minsters would refer to their subjects with "ngươi" which is lower than "người" ("human"). But in Vietnamese it is also possible to use such nouns as "xin" (to beg, used for "please") without the "I" pronoun. For women there used to be a now antiquated "I" which was "thiếp". It lives on in fairy tales.

[@nomnaday]

"Tao" is actually the informal "I", if you use it with a stranger, it could be offensive. Tôi used to mean "slave" and was used as a humble pronoun. It is actually quite similar to Japanese boku 僕.

[@ruedigernassauer]

@@nomnaday Right, "tao" as "I" goes together with the disrespectful "mày" as "you". Thank you!

[@computeruser75]

I think the word you're looking for is "ta"

[@ragesamuraix5498]

You can say “ông” / “bà” to your mates, like classmates or close friends

[@thevannmann]

Even partners can use it informally.

[@vht1]

u forgot "ấy" the most universal word in vn. ấy means everything. it can be a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective. however, i only talk about ấy as a pronoun here. if u want to mention someone but dont want others to know the person specifically (1) or u dont know someones age (2), u use ấy. example: (1) tôi thích ấy > i have a crush on her/him/person (2) tôi thích ấy > i fancy u

[@cmyk8964]

The “oppa” in “Oppan Gangnam style” means “older brother” but Psy is referring to himself as “being Gangnam style”.

[@drfeelgood7093]

my mom is vietnamese makes my younger brother call me “chị hai” i think i’ve heard him call me by my actual name only a handful of times lol

[@FIRUIN]

У нас в українській мові теж є дещо подібний елемент. Наприклад, діти часто можуть назвати інших дорослих незнайомців як "дядько" (uncle) або "тітка" (aunt), навіть якщо вони не є їхніми родичами. Те ж саме і з "дідусь" та "бабуся" - тут спектр дещо розширюються - це вживають, діти, підлітки та переважно юні дорослі щодо інших людей, які виглядають доволі старо, що цілком могли би бути чиїмись дідусем чи бабусем.

[@FIRUIN]

З іншими займенниками дещо складніше: якщо більш старша особа застосовує слово "син" (son) до молодшого чоловіка, то це переважно один з двох випадків: або прояв дуже вдячної поваги, або дуже прямий прояв НЕПОВАГИ. Чогось посередині практично немає. Неповага проявляється в тому, що старша особа робить акцент саме на своїй "старшості" і відповідно акцентує на тому, що або він має суттєво більше досвіду у чомусь, або молодша особа геть не має досвіду у чомусь. Повага ж навпаки, робить взаємини вкрай дружніми, навіть попри різницю у віці - і той відноситься до молодшого наче до власного сина, з усіма перевагами й недоліками. З "донькою" (daughter) простіше - або все та ж повага, або нейтрально. В обох випадках це питання вічливості. З "онуками" (grandson/granddaughter) ще простіше, оскільки в більшості випадків це не застосовується безпосередньо до чужих дітей. Але такі випадки теж є і переважно вже зовсім старими людьми.

[@FIRUIN]

А, ну і дякую за субтитри українською. :)

[@sazji]

Another interesting feature in the South is that third person pronouns can be created just by changing the tone. So em = younger I/you, but ẻm = younger he/she, anh = older I/you but ảnh = older he, etc.

[@TheMathRobloxian7584]

Native Vietnamese here too.

[@fhbirsidha]

We do something similar in Bangla too.

[@ferivertid]

great video but you're also missing quite a lot here (fair enough cus listing all of em would be astronomically time consuming, i'm talking about *hundreds*).

[@co3pE]

Bro really made a video about Vietnamese, damn

[@amilavxilmen5632]

interesting

[@pangolinh]

2:59 OMG ITS ME…

[@zennayo1]

In Portuguese, you can refer to any middle aged woman/man as your aunt/uncle

[@mian09]

Unik

[@toniloquy]

5:53 misspelled "nay" as "bay"

[@NoverMaC]

Chinese kinda does something similar but usually only when speaking to young children

[@callmeandoru2627]

Vietnamese here. I think the weirdest pronoun we have is definitely “mày”, are both used when whoever you are talking to is a very close friend, or someone u really hate

[@user-hv4ll4qr4q]

Can also be used by older generation family members like parents/grandparents/uncle/aunt... when talking to their children/grandchildren/nephew/niece... lol

[@Vesondor]

This really sounds alot like my language, Khmer. I guess we do share some similarities.

[@ferivertid]

khmer and vietnamese both came from the same language family

[@Vesondor]

@@ferivertid sure

[@TheMasaoL]

Thanks my cousin's sibling

[@huyWADSvn]

As a vietnamese i can verify this is real lol

[@1Dr490n]

"It" isn’t the inanimate pronoun, "it" can be a dog or a car aswell, or do I misunderstand the term inanimate?

[@EdwindePaula]

greenlandic please

[@loe-h]

to doh koi

[@Blyfh]

_insert mandatory Fast & Furious Family meme_

[@karaqakkzl]

VÌ GIA ĐÌNH - Đominích Tôréttô even though VÌ ĐỒNG BÀO is more shivering than

[@Yadobler]

Malay/indo: you = bosku (= my boss) 😎

[@jess5620]

First!

[@cariyaputta]

Another word to addressing your friend is "ku", as in "ê ku". Don't write "cu" as it means pennis.

[@protondium_8927]

Oooooooo

[@vothanhtien4911]

Instead of pearning pronouns first, vietnamese learners need to learn FAMILY first...

[@jazarastar4916]

mega pronouce

[@richhornie7000]

In Vietnam pronoun unites the people while in America pronouns divide them

[@svendyy]

please don't translate english title for the video into Ukrainian with google translate

[@karaqakkzl]

about the bro and sis thing, also daddy and mommy, i hope that American Sus culture influences Vietnamese to having bad thinking or crashing the whole family systems, even though many sexual abuse exist in Vietnam.

[@schwellenangst1605]

What?

[@Ibrahim666ss]

Pronouns in vernacular Arabic got simplified, the Dual pronouns fall of use in every Arabic dialect, And majority of dialect lost the distinction between the feminine and masculine in the plural forms, Some even lost it in the singular, As far as I know all maghrebi dialects lost the distinction between the feminine and masculine in the singular second person, Najdi Arabic distinguish gender in the singular second person dependent pronoun -(ə)k and -(ə)t͡s , But younger speakers tend to merge the two forms into -(ə)k, But Pronouns in vernacular Arabic got complicated in some ways, Egyptian Arabic Developed a polite second person pronoun حضرتك ħɑdˀɾɛtæk, And in the majority of dialects of Saudi Arabia the word for boy, girl, Man And Woman are used as a third person pronouns when talking about strangers