Vietnamese, like many languages in Southeast Asia, is an analytic (or isolating) language.[1] Also like other languages in the region, Vietnamese syntax conforms to subject–verb–object word order, is head-initial (displaying modified-modifier ordering), and has a noun classifier system. Additionally, it is pro-drop, wh-in-situ, copula-drop, and allows verb serialization.
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Vietnamese lexical categories (or "parts of speech") consist of nouns, demonstrative noun modifiers, articles, classifiers, numerals, quantifiers, the focus marker particle, verbs, adverbial particles, prepositions.
The syntax of each lexical category and its associated phrase (i.e., the syntactic constituents below the sentence level) is detailed below. Attention is paid to both form and function.
Words belonging to the noun (or substantive) lexical category can be distinguished from verbs syntactically in that the copula là "to be" is required to precede nouns in predications whereas the copula is not required before adjectives.
In the sentence above, the noun sinh viên "student" must co-occur with the copula. Omitting the copula, as in *Mai sinh viên results in an ungrammatical sentence.[2] In contrast, adjectives do not co-occur with the copula.
The adjective cao (as in the sentence above) does not require a preceding copula, and thus the sentence *Mai là cao is ill-formed.
The noun category can be further subdivided into different noun classes according to semantic and syntactic criteria. Some of the subclasses identified in Nguyễn (1997) include:
Nouns can be modified with other words resulting in complex noun phrases. These modifiers include demonstratives, quantifiers, classifiers, prepositional phrases, and other attributive lexical words, such as other nouns and verbs. These modifiers co-occur with the modified noun (known as the head noun or noun phrase head), but there are restrictions on what kind of modifiers are allowed depending upon the subclass of noun. The noun phrase has the following structure:
| TOTALITY | + | ARTICLE | + | QUANTIFIER | + | CLASSIFIER | + | HEAD NOUN | + | ATTRIBUTIVE MODIFIER(S) | + | DEMONSTRATIVE | + | PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (possessive) |
|---|
Example:
| cả hai cuốn từ điển Việt Anh này của nó | ||||||
| cả | hai | cuốn | từ điển | Việt Anh | này | của [nó] |
| all | two | clfbook | dictionary | Vietnamese-English | prox.dem | of [3rd.pron] |
| totality | quantifier | classifier | head noun | attributive noun phrase | demonstrative | prep phrase |
| "both of these Vietnamese-English dictionaries of his" | ||||||
Following Nguyễn Hùng Tưởng (2004) and Nguyễn T. C. (1975), Vietnamese has an article lexical category slot that occurs before a quantifier.
| những | ý nghĩ |
| pl | idea |
| "(the) ideas" | |
| các | quả | cam |
| pl | clf | orange |
| "(the) oranges" | ||
Quantifiers (also known as numerators) are words that can occur within a noun phrase before a head noun (with or without a classifier). Quantifiers include cardinal numerals, and other words which indicate some quantity. (Cardinal numerals are described in the numeral section.) Examples of quantifiers:
| Quantifier | English gloss |
|---|---|
| một "one", hai "two", etc. | cardinal numerals |
| vài, vài ba | "few" |
| dăm, dăm bảy | "several, few" |
| mọi | "every" |
| mỗi | "each" |
| từng | "each in turn" |
| mấy | "few, how much/many" |
| bao nhiêu | "how much/many" |
| bây nhiêu/bấy nhiêu | "this much/many" |
Quantifiers directly precede the head noun that they modify when that head noun is of a noun type that does not require an obligatory classifier:
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When a classifier co-occurs with a following head noun, the quantifier word precedes the classifier:
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Mass (such as, thịt "meat", đất "earth, soil") and collective nouns (such as, trâu bò "cattle", ruộng nương "(rice) fields") cannot be modified with a quantifier. For example, the following are ungrammatical noun phrases:
| *ba | thịt |
| *three | meat |
| *"three meats" | |
| *một | con | thịt |
| *one | clf | meat |
| *"one meat" | ||
| *hai | trâu bò | |
| *two | cattle | |
| *"two cattles" | ||
However, mass nouns can be preceded by a unit noun (such as cân "kilogram", lạng "tael", nắm "handful", chén "cupful") that indicates a measurement of the mass noun, which can, then, be modified with a quantifier. For example, the ungrammatical *ba thịt "three meats" and *một con thịt "one meat" (above) can be rendered as grammatical phrases with unit nouns present:
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The optional particle cái is identified as a focus marker by Nguyễn Hùng Tưởng (2004). It has been called by several other names, including general classifier, general categorical, ''extra" cái, "extra" general classifier, definite article, superarticle, definite word, demonstrative word, and chỉ xuất "indexical". Focus cái occurs directly before classifiers or unit nouns and may be preceded by other pre-noun modifiers such as quantifiers, numerals, and articles. It must always co-occur with a classifier.[3]
As can be seen by descriptions of focus cái as "general classifier", etc., this particle has often been analyzed as a classifier. However, it can be distinguished by its different behavior. Focus cái always precedes a following classifier and may not directly precede the head noun. The noun phrase
| cái | con | chó | này | ||
| foc | clf | dog | dem.prox | ||
| "this very dog" | |||||
is grammatical, but the phrase
| *con | cái | chó | này | ||
| *clf | foc | dog | dem.prox | ||
| *"this very dog" | |||||
is not grammatical. More than one classifier is not allowed within the same noun phrase, whereas focus cái does occur along with a following classifier (as can be seen above). Examples of other modifiers preceding the focus marker are below:
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Again, cái must follow the other pre-noun modifiers, so phrases where cái precedes a numeral or article (such as *cái hai chó đen này or *cái các con mèo này) are ungrammatical.
The focus marker cái is distinct from the classifier cái that classifies inanimate nouns (although it is historically related to the classifier cái).[4] Thus, classifier cái cannot modify the noun chó "dog" (in cái chó) since chó is animate (the non-human animate classifier con must be used: con chó), whereas focus cái can modify nouns of any animacy (with their appropriate classifier):
| cái | cuốn | sách | này | sách = inanimate | ||
| foc | clf | book | dem.prox | |||
| "this very book" | ||||||
| cái | con | mèo | này | mèo = non-human | ||
| foc | clf | cat | dem.prox | |||
| "this very cat" | ||||||
| cái | người | lính | này | lính = human | ||
| foc | clf | soldier | dem.prox | |||
| "this very soldier" | ||||||
Functionally, cái indicates grammatically that an element within a noun phrase is in contrastive focus. It has been noted by Nguyễn Đ. H. (1997) (and others) that cái adds a pejorative connotation, as in:
| cái | thằng | chồng | em | nó | chẳng | ra | gì |
| foc | clf | husband | kin.term | 3rd.sg.pron | neg | turn.out | intrg.inanimate.pron |
| topicalized noun phrase | subj noun phrase | predicate | |||||
| "that husband of mine, he is good for nothing" | |||||||
However, Nguyễn Hùng Tưởng (2004) claims that the connotation is not always negative and gives the following positive example[5]:
| tôi | gặp | cái | con | nhỏ | tử tế |
| 1st.sg.pron | meet | foc | clf | little | kind |
| subj noun phrase | verb | obj noun phrase | |||
| "it is the kind-hearted girl that I met" | |||||
Phonologically, the focus cái receives an intonational stress, and, in addition, the element receiving the focus also receives an intonational stress. In the following examples, the stressed words are indicated with capital letters (also in red font):
| tôi | thích | CÁI | con | ngựa | ĐEN |
| 1st.sg.pron | like | foc | clf | horse | black |
| subj noun phrase | verb | obj noun phrase | |||
| "I like the BLACK horse" (but not the horse that's a different color) | |||||
In the above sentence, the item in focus is đen "black", which receives the stress (as does cái). Here, it is the feature of the horse's blackness that is being focused on (or singled out) in contrast to other horses that do not have the feature of blackness. In the sentence below, ngựa "horse" receives the focus and stress.
| tôi | thích | CÁI | con | NGỰA | đen |
| 1st.sg.pron | like | foc | clf | horse | black |
| subj noun phrase | verb | obj noun phrase | |||
| "I like the black HORSE" (but not the other black animal) | |||||
The focus marker is always stressed and must co-occur with another stressed item; thus, cái cannot occur without another stressed element within the noun phrase.[6] Focus cái may focus a variety of noun phrase elements including prepositional phrases, relative clauses, constituents inside of relative clause modifiers, the head noun (by itself), the head noun plus preceding classifier, and adjectival verbs.
Vietnamese uses an extensive system of classifiers to indicate word classes of nouns. This may be superficially compared to English partitive constructions like one head of cattle ("head", always singular regardless of number, indicates large livestock), two sticks of dynamite ("stick" indicates something relatively rigid, long and comparatively thin), three strands of hair ("strand" indicates something flexible, long and quite thin), or four bars of gold (a "bar" being similar to a "stick", but comparatively less "thin"). Vietnamese's system and usage of classifiers are similar to Chinese and are more variable than English. Among the most common classifiers are:
The classifier cái has a special role in that it can extend all other classifiers, e.g. cái con, cái chiếc.
includes noun phrase modifiers, verb phrase modifiers
Nouns may be modified by certain demonstratives that follow the noun (see also demonstrative section below). These demonstratives include: này "this", nầy "this", nay "this", ni "this", đó "that", nấy "that", ấy "that", nãy "that", kia "that yonder", nọ "that yonder", kìa "that yonder (far)", nào "which". Examples:
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Possession is shown in Vietnamese via prepositional phrases that modify the head noun. These phrases occur at the far right edge of the noun phrase — after the head noun and, if present, any attributive modifiers or demonstratives.
Vietnamese nouns that standalone are unmarked for number and definiteness. Thus, a noun, such as sách, may be glossed in English as "a book" (singular, indefinite), "the book" (singular, definite), "some books" (plural, indefinite), or "the books" (plural, definite). It is with the addition of classifiers, demonstratives, and other modifiers that the number and definiteness can be specified.
Vietnamese pronouns[7] act as substitutions for noun phrases.
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Thus, the third person singular (arrogant) pronoun nó can substitute for a simple noun phrase Hoan (a personal name) consisting of a single noun or a complex noun phrase con chó này consisting of a noun plus modifiers (which, here, are a classifier and a demonstrative).
Note that the pronominal system as a whole also includes kinship terms (see kinship term section below) and certain demonstratives (see demonstrative section below), which can also have a pronominal function.
The pronouns are categoried into two classes depending on whether they can be preceded by the plural marker chúng. Like other Asian pronominal systems, Vietnamese pronouns indicate the social status between speakers and other persons in the discourse in addition to grammatical person and number. The table below shows the first class of pronouns that can be preceded by pluralizer.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| First person | tôi (inferior to superior)[8] | – |
| ta (emphatic, superior to inferior) | ta (emphatic, superior to inferior) | |
| tao [9] (superior to inferior, familiar) | – | |
| mình (intimate) | mình (intimate) | |
| Second Person | mày[10] or mi or bay (superior to inferior, familiar) | bay [11] (superior to inferior, familiar) |
| Third Person | nó (superior to inferior, familiar) y (southern dialect only, see below) |
– |
The first person tôi is the only pronoun that can be used in polite speech. The second person ta is often used when talking to oneself as in a soliloquy, but also indicates a higher status of the speaker (such as that of a high official, etc.). The other superior-to-inferior forms in the first and second persons (tao, mày, mi, bay) are commonly used in familiar social contexts, such as among family members (e.g. older sister to younger sister, etc.); these forms are otherwise considered impolite.[12] The third person form nó (used to refer to inanimates, animals, children, and scorned adults, such as criminals) is considerably less arrogant than the second person forms tao, mày, mi, bay. The pronoun mình is used only in intimate relationships, such as between husband and wife.
The pronominal forms in the table above can be modified with plural chúng as in chúng mày "you (guys)", chúng nó "them". There is an exclusive/inclusive plural distinction in the first person: chúng tôi and chúng tao are exclusive (i.e., me and them but not you), chúng ta and chúng mình are inclusive (i.e., you and me). Some of the forms (ta, mình, bay) can be used to refer to a plural referent, resulting in pairs with overlapping reference (e.g., both ta and chúng ta can mean "inclusive we", both bay and chúng bay can mean "you guys").
The other class of pronouns are known as "absolute" pronouns (Thompson 1965). These cannot be modified with the pluralizer chúng. Many of these forms are literary and archaic, particularly in the first and second person.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| First person | min (familiar, literary) | choa (literary) |
| qua (male to female, literary) | ||
| thiếp (female to male, literary) | ||
| Trẫm (king to subject, archaic) | ||
| thần (subject to king, archaic) [13] | ||
| Second Person | bậu (female to male, literary) | – |
| chàng (female to male, literary) | ||
| ngài (subject to king, archaic) | ||
| Third Person | y (familiar) | người ta (generic) |
| hắn (familiar) | ||
| va [14] (familiar) | ||
| người ta (generic) |
Unlike third person pronouns of the first type, these absolute third person forms (y, hắn, va) refer only to animate referents (typically people). The form y can be preceded by the pluralizer in southern dialects in which case it is more respectful than nó. The absolute pronoun người ta has a wider range of reference as "they, people in general, (generic) one, we, someone".[15]
As a result of language contact, some linguists have noted that some Vietnamese speech communities (especially among young college students and bilingual speakers) have borrowed French and English pronouns moi, toi, I, and you in order to avoid the deference and status implications present in the Vietnamese pronominal system (which lacks any truly neutral terms).[16][17]
Kinship terms in Vietnamese have become grammaticalized to a large extent and thus have developed grammatical functions similar to pronouns[18] and other classifiers. In these cases, they are used as honorifics or pejoratives. Kinship terms may also, of course, be used with a lexical meaning like other nouns.
When used with a pronominal function, kinship terms primarily indicate the social status between referents in a discourse, such as between the speaker and the hearer, between speaker and another referent, etc. Included within the notion of social status are classifications of age, sex, relative social position, and the speaker's attitude.
For example, to say I love you in Vietnamese, one can use one of many translations:
The most common terms of reference are kinship terms, which might differ slightly in different regions.
When addressing an audience, the speaker must carefully assess the social relationship between him/her and the audience, difference in age, and sex of the audience to choose an appropriate form of address. The following are some kinship terms of address that can be used in the second-person sense (you). They all can also be used in the first-person sense (I), but if they're not marked by (S) the usage is limited to the literal meaning:
Using a person's name to refer to oneself or to address another is considered more personal and informal than using pronouns. It can be found among close friends or children.
Vietnamese demonstratives (markers of deixis) all have the function of identifying a referent with respect to another contextual point or position.[19][20] For example, the demonstrative này "this" as in the noun phrase người này "this person" indicates that the person referred to is relatively close to the speaker (in a context where this noun phrase is uttered by a speaker to an addressee) while the demonstrative đó "that" as in the noun phrase người đó "that person" indicates that the person referred to is further from the speaker.
The demonstratives have a basic three-term deictic system — proximal (close - "this, here"), medial (far - "that, there"), distal (very far - "yonder, over there") — plus an indefinite (or interrogative) term ("which, where"). In addition to their deictic function, different Vietnamese demonstratives can function variously as noun modifiers, as noun phrases (i.e., a (pro-) nominal function), or as adverbials.
| Function | Proximal | Medial | Distal | Indefinite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominal | đây "here" | đấy "there" | – | đâu "where, wherever" |
| Nominal/Noun modifier | – | đó "there, that" | kia/kìa "over there, yonder" (bidirectional) | – |
| Noun modifier | này/nầy/nay/ni "this" | nấy/ấy "that" | nọ "yonder" (unidirectional - past) | nào "which(ever)" |
| Proportion | bây "to this extent" | bấy "to that extent, to such an extent" | bao "to what(ever) extent" | |
| Manner | vầy "this way, thus" | vậy "that way, so" | sao "how(ever)" | |
The form này tends to be used in Northern Vietnamese while nầy is the Southern form and ni is the North-central and Central form. In North-central and Central Vietnamese, the form nớ is used instead of nọ, mô instead of nào and đâu, rủa instead of vậy, and rang instead of sao.
In Hanoi, the form thế or như thế "(like) so, (like) this way" is used instead of vầy. Other forms mentioned in Thompson (1965) are nay "this", nây "this (temporal)", nãy or nẫy "that (just past)", and nao "which".
The basic formal pattern of the demonstratives is that the initial consonant and ending vowel nucleus indicate their function and position in the deictic system. Some linguists have analyzed demonstratives as consisting of two (sub-syllabic) morphemes. Following this, the initial đ- indicates a nominal, n- a noun modifier, b- proportion, v-~s- manner, and the vowels -ây~-ay proximal/medial, -âu~-ao indefinite, and -o medial/distal.[21] However, the form kia is analyzed as consisting of only one morpheme. Overlaid on these elements are tones, which indicate contrastive distances increasingly further from the contextual position: ngang tone (closest), huyền tone (further), sắc or nặng tone (even further). Thus, đấy is more remote than đây, kìa more remote than kia, vậy more remote than vầy. There is an idiomatic expression where demonstratives with an even increasing distance modify the noun ngày "day(time)":
Syntactically, the demonstratives đó and kia may function as either nouns or as noun modifiers:
| người | đó | là | anh | nó |
| person | that | be | brother | 3rd.sing.pronoun |
| subj noun phrase | verb | obj noun phrase | ||
| "That person is his brother." | ||||
| đó | là | anh | nó |
| that | be | brother | 3rd.sing.pronoun |
| subj noun phrase | verb | obj noun phrase | |
| "That is his brother." | |||
The nominals đây, đấy, and đâu are only used as nouns typically denoting a space or time and cannot function as noun modifiers. Although they usually refer to position situated in time/space, the nominal deictics can be used to metaphorically refer to people, as in:
| đây | đi | chợ, | đấy | có | đi | không? |
| this | go | market, | that | affirmative | go | negative |
| "I'm going to the market, what about you?" | ||||||
In the sentence above (which would translated more literally as "This is going to the market, is that going or not?"), proximal đây is used to refer (metaphorically) to the speaker (as "I") while medial đấy is used to refer to the addressee (as "you"). The demonstrative noun modifiers này, (n)ấy, nọ, and nào can only modify nouns and cannot stand alone as nouns.
When referring to time, the distal demonstratives kia and nọ differ in directionality. Kia specifies a point remote either in the past or the future while nọ specifies only a remote point in the past:
The proportion demonstratives (bây, bấy, bao) refer to the extent of measurement of time or space. They precede the words they modify, such as giờ "time", nhiêu "(to have) much/many", lâu "(to be) long, (take a) long time":
Numerals (or numbers) consist of two types: cardinal numerals and ordinal numerals. When occurring in noun phrases, cardinal and ordinal numerals occur in different syntactic positions with respect to the head noun.
Vietnamese numerals are a decimal system. "Zero" lacks a dedicated numeral with số không [22] "empty number" (< số "number", không "empty") being used.
Numerals are generally analytic, with multiples of ten following a regular pattern.
| base numeral | + 10 | × 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | một ~ mốt | mười một (11) | – |
| 2 | hai | mười hai (12) | hai mươi (20) |
| 3 | ba | mười ba (13) | ba mươi (30) |
| 4 | bốn, tư | mười bốn (14) | bốn mươi (40) |
| 5 | năm | mười lăm (15) | năm mươi (50) |
| 6 | sáu | mười sáu (16) | sáu mươi (60) |
| 7 | bảy or bẩy [23] | mười bảy (17) | bảy mươi (70) |
| 8 | tám | mười tám (18) | tám mươi (80) |
| 9 | chín | mười chín (19) | chín mươi (90) |
| 10 | mười | – | (mười mươi) [24] (100) |
Additive compounds are formed by with mười- "10" initially and another numeral following: mười tám ("10" + "8" = "18"). Multiplicative compounds are formed with an order that is the reverse of the additive compounds, i.e. -mươi is preceded by another numeral: tám mươi ("8" x "10" = "80").
Consonantal and tonal alternations occur in some compound numerals. The numeral mười "10" in multiplicative compounds has a tonal change (huyền tone > ngang tone) to -mươi "times 10", as in:
The numeral một "1" undergoes a tonal alternation (nặng tone > sắc tone) to mốt when it occurs after mươi (with ngang tone) in multiples of 10, as in:
The numeral năm "5" undergoes an initial consonant alternation (n > l) to lăm as the final element in additive compounds, as in:
The Vietnamese word for 100 is trăm. Number formation generally follows the same logic as before, with the same consonantal and tonal shifts. However, with the numbers 101-109, 201-209 and so on, a placeholder lẻ ("odd") or linh is inserted to represent "zero tens."
| 100 | một trăm | 200 | hai trăm | 900 | chín trăm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | một trăm lẻ một | 201 | hai trăm lẻ một | 901 | chín trăm lẻ một |
| 102 | một trăm lẻ hai | 202 | hai trăm lẻ hai | 902 | chín trăm lẻ hai |
| 105 | một trăm lẻ năm | 205 | hai trăm lẻ năm | 905 | chín trăm lẻ năm |
| 110 | một trăm mười | 210 | hai trăm mười | 910 | chín trăm mười |
| 111 | một trăm mười một | 211 | hai trăm mười một | 911 | chín trăm mười một |
| 112 | một trăm mười hai | 212 | hai trăm mười hai | 912 | chín trăm mười hai |
| 115 | một trăm mười lăm | 215 | hai trăm mười lăm | 915 | chín trăm mười lăm |
| 120 | một trăm hai mươi | 220 | hai trăm hai mươi | 920 | chín trăm hai mươi |
| 121 | một trăm hai mươi mốt | 221 | hai trăm hai mươi mốt | 921 | chín trăm hai mươi mốt |
| 122 | một trăm hai mươi hai | 222 | hai trăm hai mươi hai | 922 | chín trăm hai mươi hai |
| 125 | một trăm hai mươi lăm | 225 | hai trăm hai mươi lăm | 925 | chín trăm hai mươi lăm |
| 155 | một trăm năm mươi lăm | 255 | hai trăm năm mươi lăm | 955 | chín trăm năm mươi lăm |
The Vietnamese word for 1,000 is ngàn or nghìn. With the numbers 1,001-1,099, 2,001-2,099 and so on, the empty hundreds place must be specified with không trăm ("zero hundreds").
| 1,000 | một ngàn | 10,000 | mười ngàn | 21,000 | hai mươi mốt ngàn | 155,000 | một trăm năm mươi lăm ngàn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,001 | một ngàn không trăm lẻ một | 10,001 | mười ngàn không trăm lẻ một | 21,001 | hai mươi mốt ngàn không trăm lẻ một | 155,001 | một trăm năm mươi lăm ngàn không trăm lẻ một |
| 1,021 | một ngàn không trăm hai mươi mốt | 10,021 | mười ngàn không trăm hai mươi mốt | 21,021 | hai mươi mốt ngàn không trăm hai mươi mốt | 155,021 | một trăm năm mươi lăm ngàn không trăm hai mươi mốt |
| 1,055 | một ngàn không trăm năm mươi lăm | 10,055 | mười ngàn không trăm năm mươi lăm | 21,055 | hai mươi mốt ngàn không trăm năm mươi lăm | 155,055 | một trăm năm mươi lăm ngàn không trăm năm mươi lăm |
| 1,100 | một ngàn một trăm | 10,100 | mười ngàn một trăm | 21,100 | hai mươi mốt ngàn một trăm | 155,100 | một trăm năm mươi lăm ngàn một trăm |
| 1,101 | một ngàn một trăm lẻ một | 10,101 | mười ngàn một trăm lẻ một | 21,101 | hai mươi mốt ngàn một trăm lẻ một | 155,101 | một trăm năm mươi lăm ngàn một trăm lẻ một |
| 1,121 | một ngàn một trăm hai mươi mốt | 10,121 | mười ngàn một trăm hai mươi mốt | 21,121 | hai mươi mốt ngàn một trăm hai mươi mốt | 155,121 | một trăm năm mươi lăm ngàn một trăm hai mươi mốt |
The word for 106 ("million") is triệu. The word for 109 (short-scale "billion" or long-scale "milliard") is tỉ. Above this, combinations of ngàn, triệu and tỉ must be used.
| 1 × 106 | một triệu | 1 × 1018 | một tỉ tỉ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 × 109 | một tỉ | 1 × 1021 | một ngàn tỉ tỉ |
| 1 × 1012 | một ngàn tỉ | 1 × 1024 | một triệu tỉ tỉ |
| 1 × 1015 | một triệu tỉ | 1 × 1027 | một tỉ tỉ tỉ |
Ordinal numerals are formed by adding the thứ- ordinal prefix to cardinal numerals: thứ- + mười "ten" = thứ mười "tenth".[25] Other examples include: thứ nhất "first", thứ hai (or thứ nhì) "second", thứ ba "third", and thứ bốn (or thứ tư) "fourth".
As mentioned in the noun section above, verbs can be distinguished from nouns by their ability to function as predicators by themselves without a preceding copula là. Additionally, verbs may be categorized into two main subtypes, stative and functive, according to syntactic criteria.
Stative verbs (also known as verbs of quality, extended state verbs, adjectival verbs or adjectives) can be distinguished from functive verbs by two syntactic tests:
Functive verbs (also known as "real" verbs, verbs of action, "doing" words, or momentary action verbs) differ from stative verbs by the same syntactic tests:
Although it is not usually required, past tense is indicated by adding the particle đã, present progressive tense by the particle đang, and future tense is indicated by the particle sẽ. Of course, "đã" and "đang" or "đang" and "sẽ" can be used together.
The topic–comment structure is an important sentence type in Vietnamese. Therefore Vietnamese has often been claimed to be a topic-prominent language (Thompson 1991). As an example the sentence "Tôi đọc sách này rồi." ("I've already read this book.") can be transformed into the following topic prominent equivalent.