Language/Vietnamese/Grammar/Articles

The Vietnamese Articles

Chào! Vietnamese Learners! 😃

➡ In today's lesson you will learn how to use the articles in Vietnamese.

In Vietnamese, the gender is non-existent (neither masculine nor feminine). However, common names are preceded by an article, which differs depending on the nature of the thing to which the name refers. It is very convenient, for example, quả cam designates orange. But changing just the article, cây cam , reference is made to the orange tree, the tree that produces oranges.

To begin, we will primarily retain the following articles.

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Consider broadening your understanding by checking out these related lessons: Negation, Plurals, Nouns and Gender & Adjectives.

Article	To be used with	Examples
cái	inanimate objects	cái nhà : the house cái bàn : the table
quả (trái)	the fruits !	quả chuối : the banana quả dừa : the coconut quả dứa : the pineapple quả chanh : the lemon quả xoài : the mango quả ớt : the chilli
cây	trees	cây chuối : the banana tree cây dừa : the coconut tree … you got the idea
	slender objects	cây bút : the pen
con	animals	con mèo : the cat con chó : the dog con vịt : the duck con gà : the chicken con bò : the beef con lợn (heo) : the pig

Basic articles of the Vietnamese language. Non-exhaustive list.

In practice, the Vietnamese do not systematically use the articles. We can quite do without it and make ourselves understood. Tôi đã mua hai kilo chuối (I bought two kilos of bananas) is absolutely correct, it is not necessary to precede chuối with his article quả.

There are many articles that we will not cover in our introduction to the language. They concern in particular the expression of feelings. Let us return instead to the articles presented in the table above.

• Regarding animals, the table indicates to use the article con . If the article is now placed behind the name, it means the animal's cub. For example, mèo con : the kitten.
• There are nouns where there is no specific rule for which article to assign. We must learn by heart what is feminine and masculine, you will have to know that, for example:
  • quả núi : the mountain; quả bóng : the ball; quả can : the weight (for scales)
  • con sông: the river

Sources

• https://zestedesavoir.com/billets/2060/introduction-a-la-langue-vietnamienne/#3-les-articles
• https://wikipedia.org

Other Lessons

• Negation
• Questions
• Gender
• Ask Questions
• Personal pronouns
• Future Tense
• Nouns
• Conditional Mood
• Tenses