How to say “You” and “Y’all” in Vietnamese

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“You” is commonly translated as bạn in Vietnamese. However, the Vietnamese language has many different second-person singular pronouns (i.e. “you” in English) which depends on a person’s age, sex and familiarity, including:

• Bạn – means “you” when referring to a stranger who is your same age. Literally means “friend”.
• Cậu – means “you” when referring to a friend/colleague who is your same age.
• Em – referring to someone younger than you. Literally means “younger sibling”.
• Chị – referring to a woman who is older than you, within 15 years. Literally means “older sister”
• Anh – referring to a man who is older than you, within 15 years. Literally means “older brother”
• Cô – used in Northern Vietnam when referring to a woman who is the same age as your father’s younger sister. Literally means “younger aunt on father’s side”.
• Dì – used in Southern Vietnam when referring to a woman who is the same age as your mother’s younger sister. Literally means “younger aunt on mother’s side”.
• Chú – referring to a man who is the same age as your father’s younger brother. Literally means “younger uncle on father’s side”
• Bác – referring to a man or woman who is the same age as your father’s older brother or sister. Literally means “older uncle/aunt”.
• Bà – referring to a woman who is the same age as your grandmother. Literally means “grandmother”
• Ông – referring to a man who is the same age as your grandfather. Literally means “grandfather”

If the above is confusing, we’ll detail a few different scenarios below in order to help clarify when to use “Bạn” or “Cậu” when talking in Vietnamese.

TIP for tourists: If you are in your late 30’s or older, then em may be the most-common pronoun you’ll use, because most service-workers & tourism-operators will be younger than you. If you are in your late-20’s, then bạn may be the most common pronoun you’ll use. If you are in your early-20’s, then learn anh and chị for people older than you.

Why are there so many different ways to say “You” in Vietnamese?

Vietnamese is unlike most Indo-European languages which have consistent words for the 1^st-, 2^nd– or 3^rd-person pronouns (like “I” vs “you” vs “he”). Instead, the Vietnamese language has same word(s) for all three situations — but they differ based on the identity of the person being referred to.

Confusingly, Vietnamese pronouns are based on familial-relationships, such that you refer to strangers and colleagues as if they were your own family-members, like “Hey older sister” (Chị) or “Hey young uncle” (Chú). Basically, everyone in Vietnam is walking around calling each other sister/brother/uncle/auntie, and these familial-designations are mostly used as the word for “you” — This method of speech, is a key principle of polite-speech in Vietnamese.

The challenging part for people learning to speak Vietnamese is to be able to remember the various familial-pronouns, and use them appropriately based on the relative-age of the person to whom you are referring.

For example, let’s study how to say “you are good” to five different persons: i) a younger person, ii) a close friend who is the same age as you, iii) a customer/stranger who approximately the same age as you, iv) a man ~5 years older, v) a woman the same age as your youngest aunt, and vi) a man who is very old:

1. You are good – Em tốt (referring to a younger person)
2. You are good – Cậu tốt (referring to friend who is the same age)
3. You are good – Bạn tốt (referring to customer/stranger who is the same age)
4. You are good – Anh tốt (referring to a man 5 years older)
5. You are good – Cô tốt (north) or Dì tốt (referring to a woman who is the same age as one’s youngest aunt)
6. You are good – Ông tốt (referring to a very old man)

Notice that, in Vietnamese, there is no verb “to be” in the above conversations.

What does Bạn mean in Vietnamese?

^{· Pronunciation of Bạn – sounds like “ba!” with a short down-tone}

Bạn literally means friend, but is it also the most common translation of “you” in Vietnamese. However, it is only used in very generic situations in which you do not know the age of the 2nd-person. For example, government public signs with instructions, or someone speaking on television to a large audience. For example, a sign that says “You must be quiet” would be Bạn vui lòng giữ yên lặng.

The other situation in which to use Bạn as “you” is when you are speaking to a customer/stranger who is approximately the same age. For example, “what do you want?” would be Bạn muốn gì?.

In almost every other scenario, you would not translate “you” as Bạn, but would use one of the above familial-pronouns; or, if they are a familiar-person, like a work-colleague or friend of the same age, then you would use Cậu as you.

For example, if someone is clearly much younger than you, then you would not say “Bạn”, but would say “Em” (for both sexes), such as “Em muốn gì?” (what do you want?). Likewise, if they are clearly much older than you, then it would be respectful to use Chị, Anh, Cô, Dì, Chú, Bác, Bà or Ông, depending on their age and sex. For example, if you are talking with an older woman who is slightly older than your mother (like an older aunt), then you would say “Bác muốn gì?”

Finally, for friends of the same age, using Bạn as “you” would be too informal — you would would say Cậu instead, e.g. Cậu muốn gì? (What do you want?)

Second-Person Plural Pronouns – How to say “y’all” or “you guys” in Vietnamese?

The second-person plural pronoun (y’all or you guys in English) is relatively easy in Vietnamese — all you do is add the word Các before the pronoun you. For example, “Các bạn” or “Các em”.

However, you still must know all the appropriate familial-pronouns and use them appropriately when addressing multiple-persons as “you”. Let’s review a bunch of different scenarios.

“Các bạn” is the most generic way to say y’all. You use it as a second-person plural pronoun when people’s ages are unknown, especially if they don’t know that they are older than you.

Pay attention to how this scenario differs from the following scenario…

Anh chị is the Vietnamese equivalent of ladies and gentlemen. You would use this weird expression when there are both men and women in the group and some of them are older than you. You can’t use bạn, because they know they are older than you, and so it could be considered rude.

In the above scenario, you have 100% certainty that everyone is older than you and they are all the same age and they are all male, so the polite Vietnamese word to use for you is “younger-uncle” (chú).

In the above scenario, you have 100% certainty that everyone is much older than you and they are all the same age and they are all female, so the polite Vietnamese word to use for “you” is “older auntie” (bác).

In the above scenario, you have 100% certainty that everyone is the same age and they are your friends, so you should use the intimate pronoun specifically for friends of the same age: cậu.

Pay attention to how this differs once we add an extra person who is not your close friend…

In the above scenario, the extra acquaintance means that you can’t use the intimate pronoun cậu — instead you should use the impersonal pronoun bạn (lit. friend), because: i) you are all the same age, and ii) you don’t really know the extra person.

If the unfamiliar person was slightly older, than you would use a more respectful pronoun, like anh or chị

If the children are the same age as your hypothetical neices and nephews, you would address them as Các cháu. If they were slightly older, like your younger siblings, then you would use Các em.

If it were a mix of senior men and women, then you could say Ông bà có muốn ăn trưa không? where Ông bà is the Vietnamese equivalent to Ladies and Gentlemen, but only for very old people.

“Hey, tell me your age so I can address you properly”

It is very common in Vietnamese for new-introductions to ask each other “Excuse me, can you tell me your age so I can address you properly?”

To an English-person, this sounds a little invasive — too much personal information! But in Vietnamese, knowing each-others age is a key part of being polite: the speaker just wants to know the relative age so they can use the appropriate age-specific pronoun for “you”.