How to say “He” and “She” in Vietnamese?

There is no single word for “he” or “she” in Vietnamese — instead, the correct word for he/she depends on the person’s relative age compared to the speaker, in the same way the Vietnamese use different words for younger brother, older brother, younger uncle, older uncle, grandpa, etc.

In fact, to say “he” or “she” in Vietnamese is almost identical to saying brother/uncle/sister/aunt, except that you add the modifier-word ấy. For instance, Anh ấy cao means “he is tall”, but when you translate it literally, Anh means “older brother”, ấy modifies the word anh into a 3rd-person pronoun “he”, and cao means “tall”.

The challenging thing for foreigners is that familial-pronouns, like Anh or Chị, can only be used for men (women) who are the approximate same age as you older brother (sister), whereas there are different words for other age-groups. Vietnamese people understand this intuitively.

How to say “He” in Vietnamese

The five most important ways to say “he” in Vietnamese are:

Em ấy cao – He is tall (referring to a male who is younger than you)
Anh ấy cao – He is tall (referring to a man who is older than you, within 15 years)
Chú ấy cao – He is tall (referring to a man who is the same age as your father’s younger brother)
Bác ấy cao – He is tall (referring to a man who is the same age as your father’s older brother)
Ông ấy cao – He is tall (referring to a man who is the same age as your grandfather)

Notice that ấy is common to all the “he”-words, but you must use the correct familial-designation based on the age of the person being referred to, like Em for young males, and Ông for super-old men.

If this sounds strange, you must understand the role of familial-pronouns in the Vietnamese language: basically, everyone in Vietnam is referring to strangers as uncle, auntie, older uncle, older sister, grandpa, etc, based on their relative age — read more about this phenomenon in our posts about Em, Anh, and Uncles/Auntie. These familial-pronouns are a key aspect of politeness and good-manners in Vietnam — to not call someone uncle/aunt/brother/sister is be to rude and insulting.

The roll that “ấy” plays is to modify these familial-designations into “he” (third person pronoun) rather than “you” (second person pronoun). For example: If you say “Anh ấy đẹp trai” it means “he is handsome”, but if you drop the “ấy” it means “you are handsome”.

How to say “She” in Vietnamese

There is no single word for she in Vietnamese — instead, the correct word depends on the relative age difference between the speaker and the woman being referred to:

Em ấy đẹp quá – She is very beautiful (referring to a female who is younger than you)
Chị ấy đẹp quá – She is very beautiful (referring to a woman who is older than you, within 15 years)
Cô ấy đẹp quá – She is very beautiful (referring to a woman who is the same age as your father’s younger sister; used more in the North)
Dì ấy đẹp quá – She is very beautiful (referring to a woman who is the same age as your mother’s younger sister; used more in the South)
Bác ấy đẹp quá – She is very beautiful (referring to a woman who is the same age as your father’s older sister)
Bà ấy đẹp quá – She is very beautiful (referring to a woman who is the same age as your grandmother)

Just like for “he”, the role of ấy is crucial in distinguishing between she versus you. For example, without ấy, “Em đẹp quá” means “you are beautiful”, whereas “Em ấy đẹp quá” means “she is beautiful”.

How to say “They” in Vietnamese — Third-Person Plural

Unlike he or she, it is relatively easy to say “they” in Vietnamese — there are three expressions that depend on the age of the group of people being referred to:

Bọn họ – they (when referring to a group of older people; respectful)
Bọn nó – they (where referring to a group of younger people; casual)
Chúng nó – same as bọn nó

Unlike singular pronouns (he/she), the word for they doesn’t differ by sex.

In general, you should use the polite version bọn họ to refer to groups of people. The casual and informal expressions chúng nó or bọn nó can be used as an insult: Vietnamese use it to refer to people they don’t like, like criminals or enemies.

The fact that the Vietnamese use the same word for “they” when referring to children, as they do when referring to enemies, is very revealing about the Vietnamese system of politeness and manners that venerates older people, and considers it okay to speak impolitely to younger people.