越南语代词 掌握代词

Viet

Say Pronouns in Vietnamese: I/You/We and My/Your/Our
Introduction to Vietnamese Pronouns

As we have learned before in the Grammar lessons, Vietnamese sentence structure is similar to that of English.

However, one of the challenges that may hinder you from making rapid progress with your Vietnamese is…pronouns. Their usage is not different from English, just that there are many different Vietnamese words for each English pronoun (I, You, etc.). And the various words are not always interchangeable.

The grammatical reasons for different Vietnamese words for the same word, say I, are, firstly, to express the difference in age, which is culturally a "big deal"; and secondly, to express the 2 genders.

And a further complication is that in different regions (North, Middle, South) local words are used extensively for pronouns (which is not true for most other Vietnamese words).

But there is nothing to be afraid, because after finishing this lesson, you'd know the necessary common words to use in almost every situation, and be understood everywhere in Vietnam.

Let's learn how to say Vietnamese pronouns by starting with the pair 'I – You'.
Say I, You in Vietnamese

From my experience, it's usually more effective to learn this part by shifting our mind from asking questions such as How do I say 'I' in Vietnamese? or How do I say 'You' in Vietnamese?. Instead it's useful to ask the question: What's the correct word to refer to the older/younger person of conversation?.

To see why the latter is a more apt question, let's take a look at the following table:

Vietnamese words for I and You in various situations
Word for I – Word for You     When to use
Tôi – Bạn     'I' and 'You' are more or less at the same age
Em – Chị     'I' is younger than 'You' and 'You' is female
Chị – Em     'I' is older than 'You' and 'I' is female
Em – Anh     'I' is younger than 'You' and 'You' is male
Anh – Em     'I' is older than 'You' and 'I' is male

As can be seen from the above table, if 'You' are older (than 'I') and are female, the correct word is chị. And interestingly, the word for 'I' is also chị if 'I' were female and older than 'You'.

As an illustration, consider the following example:

Mai (female, older than Huy): Em đang đi đâu đấy? (Where are you going?)
Huy (male): Em đang đi học. Còn chị? (I'm going to school. And you?)
Mai: Chị đang đi đến cơ quan. (I'm going to office)

In this conversation, Mai is older than Huy so Mai refers to Huy using the word em in the first line. When answering Mai's question, Huy refers to himself using the same word em!

In line 2, we see again that Huy uses the word chị to refer to Mai while Mai also uses that same word to refer to herself in the 3rd line.

So we've known how to address ourself and the other person in the case of equal or moderately different ages, i.e., within the range of 10 years. The numer 10 is not carved in stone, but approximate. So as long as you feel both persons are in the same 'generation', it's appropriate.

Next, let's learn the words to use when the difference in age is significant.

Say I – You when there is a significant difference in age
Word for 'I' – Word for 'You'     Age relation
Em – Cô/Bác     The other person is much older than you, but not very old yet (looks younger than 70?). For female.
Em – Chú/Bác     Same as above, but for male.
Con – Bà     The other person is really much more senior than you (looks older than 70?)
Con – Ông     Same as above, but for male.

As can be learned from the table above, you'd use the word cô in situations where the other person is female, and quite older than you. It's also this same word cô that would be used by the other person to refer to herself when talking to you. She may choose to use a different word, but its must be equivalent to cô. And since cô is the most common word for this situation, you can just learn this word to get started.

And the interesting observation is that if you don't want to remember the word cô to use for females, and chú for males, you can just remember the word bác, which can be used for both males and females. In practice, the word bác may be more popular than chú in the case of addressing males, while cô is more widely used for females.

As just about no explanation can be as illustrative as a good concrete example, let's go through another example short dialog where a young man called Trung is talking to a very senior couple.

Trung: Ông bà đang nấu gì vậy? (Grandpa Grandma are cooking what?)
The old couple: Ông bà đang nấu xôi. (Grandpa grandma are cooking sticky rice)

In this example, Trung refers to the senior couple as ông bà, juxtaposing the words ông and bà to refer to the couple. When replying to Trung's query, the senior couple themselves use the same phrase 'ông bà' to refer to themselves.

If everything has been clear so far to you: Congratulations! you've got the knack of Vietnamese pronouns. Really.

Before we wind up this section, it's worth repeating that one of the deciding factors when choosing the correct word pair to use is the age difference of the 2 speakers, not absolute age. If you're a 45 male, a young chap at 20 would call you anh but your high-school friends, who are also 45 years old, would definitely not refer to you using anh because to them, you're not older.

The following Video by Donna Vo would help you review what we've gone through so far.
Say He, She in Vietnamese

The not-so-good news is that just as for the pronouns I and You we've learned above, there are many different translations for He and She, depending also on the age relation between the speaker and the referred person as well as the gender of the referred person (and note how English also has 2 words: she for female and he for male.

The absolutely fantastic news is that you've already learned all those words! The following table confirms why.
He, She in Vietnamese

[The word for 'You', if you were talking to the person directly] + ấy (or ta).

To clear things up, what's the phrase for he if the man is older than you?

To get to the correct answer, what's the word to refer to an older guy you're talking to? It's anh, right? (If you got it wrong, please review the section about 'I' and 'You' above).

So the phrase for he is then… anh + ấy = anh ấy. What if he's younger than you? The answer is em ấy.

Just to make sure everything is absolutely well understood, how would you translate She likes chatting with friends? The answer is below:
Cô ấy     thích trò chuyện     với bạn bè
She     likes chatting     with friends
You (plural), We and They

In this section, we'll learn how to refer to a group of people.

We've learned in section 1 above that there are many words for the (singular) You such as em, anh and chị. To make You plural to refer to the many people you're talking to, we simply add the word các in front.
To refer to the plural version of You, use các + [The suitable word for singular You]

Next, let's talk about the pronoun They as it shares a similar rule as the plural You. The standard translation is họ or bọn họ. In cases when they comprises of only men or only ladies, we normally translate they in another way to indicate this explicitly.
They (all men) 'các' + [The suitable word for 'He']
They (all ladies) 'các' + [The suitable word for 'She']

So what does [The suitable word for 'He'] above mean? It means you need to choose the appropriate word for the pronoun he, depending on the age relation. For example, if they is a group of men all older than you, the correct phrase would be các + anh ấy. Again, anh ấy is the translation of he when referring to older men.

What should you use for they if some of them are older than you while some are younger? If some of them are older than you, I think you wouldn't mind refer to the group as a whole as if they consisted of people all older than you. Would you?

Lastly, let's see how we say we in Vietnamese:
We = tụi/bọn/chúng + [the suitable word for 'I'].

For example, a group of children talking to their teacher would refer to themselves as tụi em or bọn em. A group of senior students would use tụi anh in the place of we when talking to junior students.
Some caveats on pronouns usage

In this lesson, we've learned how to say the various pronouns: I, You, He, She, We, You, They. There is one thing you must be aware of by now is that there are many different words for each of the English pronouns, due mainly to 2 reasons: age and gender.

The first point I would like to remind you is that in the cases where there are different words for male and female, please take your time to use the correct word. Or they may think you're confused about their gender…Just kidding.

For age, however, you really need to exercise some caution. And the reason is that if you talk to an older person, which necessitates the word anh for male or chị for female but you use the word em instead. This would make the other person think you are not respecting him/her and this is definitely be among the mistakes you don't want to make (unless you're disrespectful on purpose). And if the other person is a male, there's no doubt it's not a trivial mistake.

In our discussion in section 1, we said you'd use anh or chị when the other person is older than you. But if you have the slightess doubt whether you or they are older, consider them older and use the appropriate word. That's the short and simple way to be right.

Now, let's delve a bit into the dynamics behind why using the appropriate word is necessary. When the person you talk to is male, talking to them using anh shows that you value them highly because the word has evolved to become a symbol of strength, not just a mere language-correct way to refer to someone older than you. As such, it's obvious that you should take every opportunity to use the word anh to refer to a man you talk to, especially in business settings. And you'd see they refer to you using anh or chị as well. It's polite and is used everyday by locals, so you should follow.

If the other person is a lady, the wind flows in the opposite direction. Vietnamese women, like women everywhere else, want to be viewed as "young" in the eyes of men. So if you're male and older than the lady, definitely use the word em to refer to her. And even when you're younger but the age difference is small, use em as well. And if she ever mentions you're younger than her, congratulate her on looking so young (that you were mistaken she's younger than you). It simply works.

In business settings, however, it may be safer to use chị when it's unclear who's younger.
In business settings, it's polite to refer to the other person using the word for a senior person.
My, Your, Our in Vietnamese

Vietnamese language doesn't really have a direct equivalent of possessive pronouns such as My, Your, etc. This means that in order to say, for example, my, you would say of me or belonging to me when translated literally to English. And the Vietnamese translation of 'of' or 'belonging to' is của.
My = của + [the suitable word for 'I']
Your = của + [the suitable word for 'You']

The above rule applies to all other cases: his, her, our, its, their, etc.

To practice, let's translate the sentence: This is my friend, John. The table below explains the translation:

.
Đây là     người bạn     của tôi     , John
This is     the friend     of me     , John
Me, You, Us in Vietnamese

It can't be better: the same word for 'I' is used for 'me'. The same word for 'we' is used for 'us'. The same applies to other pronouns. What a good news!
Mary     loves     him
Mary     yêu     anh ấy
He     loves     Mary
Anh ấy     yêu     Mary
Summary

There is no doubt that this is a tough lesson. So please review it as many times as you need to. And if you have any questions, please simply write in the Comments section below.

The most important points in this lesson are:

    There are different Vietnamese words for each English pronoun, depending on the age relation and gender of the person you talk to.
    The common canonical Vietnamese words for I – You are tôi, bạn, anh, chị, and em, etc. Other pronouns: He, She, We, They are built upon the words for I and You.
    In business settings, it's polite to refer to your associates as anh and chị
    The way to say my in Vietnamese is belonging to me or of me. Similar for your, his, her, our, their.
    In Vietnamese, the same word is used for both subject and object pronouns: I and me, He and him, etc.
    We didn't quite mention this: the word for It and Its is Nó.

If you have questions related to this post, please comment below.

https://yourvietnamese.comm/learn-vietnamese/vietnamese-pronouns/

Viet

越南语里的“em”到底指代什么？请看下面的解释。

"Dạ, thưa cô, em tên là Lê Hùng ạ."
What does this mean? Explain each word too.

"Dạ, thưa cô, em tên là Lê Hùng ạ" is a polite and formal way of introducing oneself in Vietnamese. Here's the breakdown of each word:

    "Dạ" is an honorific particle used to show respect, similar to "Yes, ma'am" or "Yes, sir" in English.
    "Thưa" is a respectful term used when addressing someone of higher status or older age, similar to "dear" or "honored" in English.
    "Cô" is a term of address for a woman older than the speaker, which can be translated as "aunt" or "ma'am."
    "Em" is a pronoun meaning "I" or "me," used by younger people or when speaking to someone of higher status.
    "Tên" means "name."
    "Lê Hùng" is a Vietnamese name, composed of the family name "Lê" and the given name "Hùng."
    "ạ" is an honorific particle used at the end of the sentence to show politeness and respect.

Putting it all together, the sentence translates to something like "Yes, dear, my name is Lê Hùng, ma'am" in English. It's a courteous way of introducing oneself in formal situations.

Here's a simpler and more casual way to answer the question "Chào em, tên em là gì?":

"Em tên là Minh."

This sentence translates to "My name is Minh." It's a straightforward and common way to respond when someone asks for your name in Vietnamese.

In the sentence "Em tên là Minh," the word "em" is a personal pronoun in Vietnamese. It is often used by younger individuals or by people addressing those who are younger or of equal age. "Em" generally translates to "I" or "me" in English, depending on the context of the conversation.

In Vietnamese, the word "em" can have different meanings depending on the context of the conversation and the relationship between the speakers. Here are the common usages:

    Referring to oneself (I/me) when speaking in a humble or modest manner:
        Em muốn hỏi anh một câu hỏi. (I want to ask you a question.)

    Referring to someone younger or of equal age when addressing them directly (you):
        Em ăn cơm chưa? (Have you eaten yet?)

    【*** Referring to someone younger or of equal age when talking about them in the third person (he/she):
        Em đến trường muộn hôm nay. (He/she arrived late to school today.)***注意，这个说法可能有误】

So, "em" can refer to "I/me" when speaking humbly and modestly, and it can also refer to "you" or 【**  "he/she" depending on the context.**注意，这个说法可能有误】


请关心学问的同学要仔细了。
不能还没看完整个文章就下结论。
因为上面的AI给的答案可能不准确的。

这个就是机器人的回答。如果你再次问的话：
提问：
When "em" is referred to as the third person, this situation is common too?

ChatGPT回答：
No, in Vietnamese, the pronoun "em" is not used to refer to a third person. It's primarily used as a second-person pronoun (singular) to address someone younger or of equal or lower status. When referring to a third person, other pronouns like "anh" (older brother, older male) or "chị" (older sister, older female) are used depending on the gender and relationship between the speaker and the person being referred to.

I apologize for any confusion. In Vietnamese, the pronoun "em" is primarily used as a second-person pronoun (singular) to address someone younger or of equal or lower status. It can also be used when speaking about oneself humbly and modestly. However, it is not used to refer to a third person (he/she). For third-person references, other pronouns like "anh" (older brother, older male), "chị" (older sister, older female), "ông" (grandfather, older male), or "bà" (grandmother, older female) are used depending on the gender and relationship between the speaker and the person being referred to.

如果查询字典，回答是这样的：
Em
①弟，妹
②第①解的第一人称代词，对兄姐辈的自称或妻子对丈夫的自称
③第①解的第二人称代词，用作对弟妹辈的称呼或丈夫对妻子的称呼
【这个答案可以自信参考，因为来自字典的权威】


这个时候，再和ChatGPT聊天，就会这样说：
ChatGPT回答："Em" 在越南语中通常有以下几种用法：

• 作为第一人称代词，用于自称或妻子对丈夫的自称，例如：
  
  • Em đến từ Hà Nội. (我来自河内。)
  • Em biết không anh? (你知道吗？)
    
• 作为第二人称代词，用于对弟妹辈的称呼或丈夫对妻子的称呼，例如：
  
  • Chị ơi, em đã về đấy. (姐姐啊，我回来了。)
  • Em đi đâu vậy anh? (你去哪里了？)
    
• 用作对年纪较小、地位较低的人的称呼，例如：
  
  • Em hãy dọn dẹp phòng nhé. (你收拾一下房间吧。)
  • Chúc em may mắn. (祝你好运。)
    

总的来说，"em" 的具体含义取决于上下文和使用情境，可以表示自己（第一人称）、对方（第二人称）或对弟妹等亲属的称呼。

更多解释：

What do "Chị", "Anh", and "Em" mean in Vietnamese? How are they used?
https://www.quora.com/What-do-Ch ... e-How-are-they-used
@★★@
Primary meaning:

"Chị" means "elder sister", "Anh" means "elder brother", "Em" means "younger sibling" - these are the first (and primary meaning) that comes to mind.

Familial usage:

However, in conversational use, Vietnamese people often use relational nouns as conversational pronoun, much like how English speakers say "How are you feeling, grandpa?" Only that in Vietnamese it extend that use all the way to "how are you feeling, younger aunt on my mother's side".

Non-familial usage:

In additional to the use with your family, these particular nouns are also used in conversations outside of the family. In this case, "Anh" would be used as the first-person pronoun (similar to "I" in English) if the speaker considers himself to be a somewhat older male, while "Chị" would be used as the first-person pronoun if the speaker considers herself to be a somewhat older female. In the same vein, "Em" will be used if the speaker considers herself to be younger.

These three words can also be used as second-person pronoun (similar to "you" in English), which goes along the same vein of the aforementioned use: "Anh" if the person the speaker is talking to is judged to be a somewhat older male, and so forth.

You can read another answer of mine on Quora to see this: Nguyen Dinh Giang's answer to How would you say "Who are you? I don't know you" in Vietnamese?

Relationships:

When a heterosexual romantic relationship (yes, yes, I know, Vietnamese is intensely specific about relationships - the language is intricately detailed about social standings!) progressed from boyfriend/girlfriend to intense lovers, the pronoun changed. The male would address himself as "Anh", while the female as "Em".

Fun things about the usage of "Anh", "Chị" and "Em":

• Sometimes, instead of calling a slightly aged/weary woman as a "chị", a confident person can call her as an "em". To some it is flirty, but that belies a compliment that she is younger than she looks!
• In a few romantic novels (even ancient ones), writers use the relationship side of these pronouns masterfully. Often the characters need not profess their love - only a change of pronoun from something less personal to  "anh" and "em", and the recipient's acceptance of the pronoun change, is more than enough as a confession and acceptance of said confession. The right response for readers would be "oh damnnnnnnn they are in love"
• For a younger me, before my voice broke, I sounded like a female. This makes phone call slightly embarrassing, as the caller (if they don't know who you are) would call you as the older person to be polite. The embarrassing thing is, that means they have to choose either "anh" (the male recipient) or "chị" (the female recipient). Guess which pronoun they chose! Damn glad my voice broke.
  

@★★@
1.Older than your parents, your grandparents generation > 2. older than your parents, of their generation > 3. Younger than your parents, still of their generation > 4. older than you, your generation > 5. younger than you, your generation > 6. younger than you, your kid generation, if you had one

Ok, now

Male: ông > bác > chú > anh > em > cháu/con

Female: bà > bác/dì > cô > chị > em > cháu/con

Note: if you are relative/in law, certain exception may apply, and also depends on region

@★★@
There are two usages of those:
case 1: It's used as personal pronouns means "you". "Chị" (for female) and "anh" (for male) are for the older person you are talking to or communicating with. "Em" is for the ones who are younger than you (for both male or female)
case 2: they are used as family words.
"Chị" = elder sister/ elder cousin (female)
"anh" = elder brother/ cousin (male)
"em"= younger siblings/ cousin
note: for couples, the women often call the men as "anh". The men call the women as "em".

@★★@

How do I know which pronoun to use when addressing someone in Vietnamese (ban, ong, ba, co, chi, anh, em, etc…) ?

It is the most difficult topic when learning Vietnamese language. I will try my best to give you the ideas.

Firstly, you need to understand the concept of generations. Then I will list down the popular pairs of pronouns (You and I/me) when addressing someone, and to call yourself.

Let’s call Your Generation as YG - people of your age. They can be younger or older, but not too much - who you think as from the same age level as yours. It’s more from your mindset, not specifically how different you are in real age. Like you have a step wife, who is 30 years younger than you and even younger than your first children, you still consider her as from YG. Generally your younger/older colleagues in your workplace are considered as from YG.

PG - people from your Parents’ Generation. Those are the people you think of as they are from the same generation as your parents.

GPG - from your Grand Parents’ Generation.

CG - from your Children’s Generation

GCG - from your GrandChildren’s Generation

Now let’s come to Pronouns in “You and I/me” pairs, listing in an increasing order of your position compare to the person you talk to.

A. Ông/Bà and Cháu: when you talk to a man/woman of GPG.

B. Bác and Cháu: when you talk to a person of PG, and you think he/she is older than your parents, OR you want to be polite. THIS is a safe and polite way to address someone from PG, whether he/she is older than your parents or not. Bác is used for both male and female.

C. Chú/Cô and Cháu: when you talk to a man/woman of PG, who (you pretty sure) is younger than your parents.

D. Anh/Chị and Em: it’s quite neutral, to use when you think the man/woman you talk to is older than you, but still YG. OR you intentionally want to put yourself into a bit lower position in the conversation. Haha - there is a risk, you may upset a woman by calling her like she is older than you

E. Bạn and Tôi: people of same/similar age, just just YG. It sounds too courteous. Real friends don’t call each other like that, although Bạn literally means Friend.

F. Bạn and Mình/Tớ; Cậu/Ấy and Tớ: mushy ways for friends to call each other. Don’t use these when you have no intention and are not sure how it will be received.

G. Mày and Tao: two situations. 1- you use it in a very casual talk with your closed YG friends, or you call an younger member of your family. Nowadays the classmates/very closed friends call each other this way. In the old days these pronouns are considered as rude, nasty. 2- when someone made you VERY ANGRY and you wanted to shout at him/her.
So, BE CAREFUL. Don’t use these if you are not absolutely sure, even when someone call you Mày, you shall not automatically call them by the same.

H. Em and Anh/Chị: similar to D above, but the other way around - you are the older (man/woman) and the other is younger than you, still YG. It is not polite to address a stranger or your business partner like that.

I. Bypassed

J. Cháu and Chú/Cô: you (man/woman) are addressing someone from CG, and you think that the child’s parents are older than you. Or you know the person you talk to is CG, and you want to be polite to his/her parents (by putting yourself to a lower position)

K. Cháu and Bác: similar to J, but you are sure you are older than the child’s parents - likely you know them in person.

L. Cháu and Ông/Bà: you (man/woman) are addressing someone from GCG

## The below pairs are for formal contexts.

M. Anh/Chị and Tôi: to a man/woman in a formal context, when the one you talk to is obliviously from YG and below - CG, GCG. This is SAFE and NEUTRAL to use.

N. Ông/Bà and Tôi: similar to M, but in a VERY FORMAL context.

Besides M/N, A/B/C can be used for formal context as well. Please note that in a formal context, you should NEVER put yourself in a higher position.

If all the above is not complicated enough to you, you can continue with the below, which is interesting to think about, even for me as a native speaker

Traditionally Vietnamese people when became parents may start calling/addressing others on behalf of their child. And then when became grandpa/grandma - start to be on behalf of their grandchild. It’s only in a friendly context. So don’t be surprised if one day as a greeting your Vietnamese neighbor (being with his/her child/grandchild) say to you “Cháu chào Chú/Cô ạ” by him/herself although he/she is of YG, or even your PG.

Hope this helps

@★★@
You should use the Vietnamese pronoun system with your family and with others as you would your own family. This means you have a sense of your mom and dad, and their respective sides of the family and the ages of their siblings. You also recognize your grandparents on either side, and perhaps pay respect to your great grandparents, with memorials or prayers. The terms Chị, Anh, and Em deal with both sexes or gender at about the same age. You call someone slightly older and woman, Chị; someone slightly older and man, Anh; and someone slightly younger, and man or woman, Em. The common sense for these personal names is common generation or nearly the same generation, perhaps side by side. You start to call people older personal names, such as Bác when you recognize a whole generation greater; or Con when you recognize a whole generation younger. The generational sense is probably the more important when you want to learn and use the Vietnamese pronoun system in practice.

@★★@
It depends.

In family, "chị" means big sister, "anh" is big brother while "em" means litter sister or brother.

In conversation, they are used as personal pronounces. For example, when you talk to someone a couple years older than you, you call them "anh/chị" and you mention yourself as "em". When you talk to someone younger than you, you call them "em" and mention yourself as "and/chị" depend on you’re a man or a woman.

@★★@
The word "anh" has a lot of meaning in Vietnamese.

It can mean

    a male who's (presumably) slightly older than you; an elder brother

Pronoun address terms

    1. I/ me
    2. you (can be formal)
    3. (endearing) your boyfriend/ husband
    4. young (adult) man
    5. he/ him

It also shares the Sino-Vietnamese term of

   1. used for part of the Vietnamese person’s given name
   2. flower, petal
   3. outstanding
   4. brave
   5. hero
   6.Eng- OR Ang- as in English, England OR Anglophone, Anglicize
        a.Vietnamese:
            i.tiếng Anh: English language
            ii.người Anh: British
            iii.(nước) Anh/ (Anh Quốc): England

The second meaning can be "cherry blossom"

Yes, this is the Japanese Kyūjitai form of「桜」(さくら) /sa ku ra/: "cherry blossom".

Vietnamese vocabulary: "cây anh đào" OR "hoa anh đào" (花櫻桃)

   —Literally means "tree" + "cherry (blossom)" + "peach (blossom)"
   —OR "flower" + "cherry (blossom)" + "peach (blossom)"

If you add "anh": "cherry (blossom)" and "đào": "peach (blossom)", then it becomes "runus species" OR " Prunus cerasus " which means " cherry plum tree ".

Both can be used as names:

    "Anh" (英): can be unisex due to the meaning of "flower" (feminine), "brave" (masculine), and "outstanding" (both).
    "Anh" (櫻): the meaning sounds more "feminine" which I don’t think I have ever met any Vietnamese male with this given name meaning.

@★★@
"Anh" means older brother and is used for "you" or "me" in informal conversation.

"Chị" means older sister and is used for "you" or "me" in informal conversation.

"Em" means younger sibling (brother or sister).

Among friends and casual acquaintances, we could address or refer to one another with "anh" and "chị".

When speaking with family members, "em" could be used in reference to an actual younger sibling. However, when a male addresses a female the term "em" implies a much more intimate, even romantic, relationship, such as a boyfriend speaking with his girlfriend or a husband with his wife. Thus, unless you have such a relationship, better to use "chị" or "cháu" (nephew or niece) to avoid embarrassment.

Finally, all three terms "anh chị em" could be used in addressing a mixed group of people. I learned to use this expression in writing letters to a church group in Vietnam, where we all consider one another "brothers" and "sisters" in the Lord.

@★★@
How do I know which pronoun to use when addressing someone in Vietnamese (ban, ong, ba, co, chi, anh, em, etc…) ?

So those other comments are right, but I’m just polishing a bit of them:

Ông - For grandfather, (or an old male around from 60 and above), also is used to address male that plays an important role in the system of the country (like the previous president - Trần Đại Quang, is preferred as "ông Trần Đại Quang"), and an informal way to preferring friends.

Bà - Is like "ông" but used for female

Cô - For aunt, your female teacher, or someone that’s older than you, around your mother’s age.

Chị - Used for preferring an elder sister, also used for addressing female that is older than you and more professional than you, but not as old as your mother. Is also used by high school and university teachers to address their students (Ex: Your name is Lê Thùy Mộng Tuyết. Those teachers will prefer you as "Chị Tuyết").

Anh - Like "chị" but is used for male. Also is used to addressing your boyfriend or husband.

Em - Used to addressing a younger sister, or someone who’s younger than you. Is also used to addressing your girlfriend or wife.

Bạn - To address a friend in a formal way.

Cậu - To address an uncle of yours, also to prefer a friend in a formal way.

Mày - To address someone around your age with an angry way of speaking, also is used to address a friend in an informal way.

Tao - Like "mày" but is used to preferring yourself.

Tớ, mình, tôi - A formal way to address yourself.

Tui - A less formal way to address yourself, is regularly used to talk with your friends.

I haven’t included some other pronouns like "ba, mẹ, dượng, thầy,u,…" as a part is it’ll make this answer way too long. Another part is that it is quite complicated. Another is I haven’t even really understand the "addressing your members in your family" thingy since it’s a bunch of mess left unsolved (For example, you have uncles. They are all your uncles, but one of them must be addressed as "chú" and not "cậu", another must be called "dượng" but not "chú",…)

Hope I can help.

@★★@
in VNese, that word can stand alone or combine with other sound to make a complex word. To see what does it mean, you have to have the context. That is the difficulty of VNese.

The most popular meaning of this word, when it stands alone, is in a context of family talk. In this case, it mentions an elder brother.

Then, in a couple, the husband, generally older than the wife, frequently called by his wife or self-called by this word too. Even sometimes, the husband is younger the wife, he also is called and self-called by this word. Note that, I said frequently but not always. In my family, the husband is simply "husband", and the wife - "wife"

The third case, when the parents got mad with his boy, they can use this word in a phrase to express the serious situation. "Anh có làm đi không thì bảo" - "Do YOU do it" (if you do not, you will have some serious punishments)

And VNese, with the Myth of "Đồng Bào" - all people are descendants of one Ancestor Couple, generalize this context to social relationship, use this word to call someone "look " slightly older than the subject. It means you in this context.

Many times, in a formal context, young man also called by this word - "And Kim Đồng" for example.

In the news, this word is used to avoid the repetition of the name of an young man upto about 40 year old. It means he in this case

This word is also used to call England. It is a short form of the loaned word from CNese 英國 - Yīngguó. VNese adapts the specific name 英, and use VNese form as "nước Anh". Sometimes, it is shortened to only "Anh" - Cái ô ấy làm ở Anh đấy - That umbrella is made in England. Sometimes, some lazy VNese use CNese translation as "Anh Quốc" too.

That are all the cases I see now for stand alone context

When combination with other sound, almost in CNese-VNese words, we have (like Kirby Cho already lists out)

Anh Hùng/Hùng Anh - Hero - 英雄 - Yīngxióng - this can be used as unisex

Anh Thư - Female hero - 女英雄 - Evidently, this is only for women

Anh Dũng - a short form of Anh hùng Dũng cảm - Heroic and brave - 英雄勇敢 - Yīngyǒng

Anh Đào - Sakura - 櫻桃 - Yīngtáo

Note that, in those case, only "Anh" does not mean the listed words like Kirby Cho said. It must combine with an additional sound.

And based on those "beautiful" meaning, this word is frequently used to name people as Kirby Cho pointed out. In my family, we have 3 "Anh". My neighborhood has 4 more.

Viet

mày 你
"Mày" is a second-person pronoun in Vietnamese that is used informally to address someone in a familiar or intimate way. It is equivalent to the English pronoun "you" when addressing someone casually or in a close relationship, such as friends, siblings, or peers. However, it's important to note that "mày" is considered informal and should be used appropriately based on the level of familiarity and respect in the relationship.

mày [Lưu vào danh sách từ cần nhớ.]
                疙疤; 疙; 痂 <傷口或瘡口表面上由血小板和纖維蛋白凝結而成的塊狀物, 傷口或瘡口痊癒後自行脫落。>
                mày; mày vết thương.
        瘡疙疤。
                眉; 眉毛。<生在眼眶上緣的毛。>
                汝; 爾; 乃; 迺。<稱對方(一個人)。>
                anh mày.
        乃兄。
                穎 <某些禾本科植物子實的帶芒的外殼。>
                乞丐 <生活沒有著落而專靠向人要飯要錢過活的人。>

mày [Lưu vào danh sách từ cần nhớ.]

- Một tên gọi khác của dân tộc Chứt

- Tên gọi một nhóm nhỏ của dân tộc Chứt

- 1 dt. Lông mày, nói tắt: mắt phượng mày ngài mặt ủ mày chau.

- 2 dt. 1. Lá bắc ở các cây ngô, lúa, về sau tồn tại dưới dạng vảy ở dưới hạt: làm cho sạch mày ngô mỏng mày hay hạt. 2. Vẩy ốc.

- 3 dt. Từ xưng gọi với người đối thoại, mang sắc thái thân mật, hoặc coi thường: cần gì mày đến gặp tao mày là thằng khốn nạn.

- 1 Một tên gọi khác của dân tộc Chứt.

- 2 Tên gọi một nhóm nhỏ của dân tộc Chứt.
nd. 1. Lá bắc ở hoa, các cây như ngô, lúa, về sau tồn tại dưới dạng hai vảy nhỏ ở gốc hạt. Làm cho sạch mày ngô.
2. Vảy của ốc.nđ. Từ để gọi người đối thoại với giọng thân mật hay coi thường. Mày đến tao chơi. Không thầy đố mày làm nên.nd. Lông mày. Mắt phượng mày ngài.

Viet

cậu
                哥兒 <稱有錢人家的男孩子。>
                姑老爺; 姑爺 <岳家對女婿的尊稱。>
                大舅; 舅; 舅舅; 舅父; 娘舅 <母親的弟兄。>
                cậu cả.
        大舅。
                cậu hai.
        二舅。
                郎舅 <男子和他妻子的弟兄的合稱。>
                老 < 前綴, 用於稱人、排行次序、某些動植物名。>
                cậu Vương.
        老王。
                cậu Tam.
        老三。
                老弟 <稱比自己年齡小的男性朋友。>
                少爺 <舊時尊稱別人的兒子。>