Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Vietnamese
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Intro |
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| Michael: Is it common to omit the subject in vietnamese sentences? |
| Nguyet: And why? |
| Michael: At VietnamesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Lan Ly is in a bookstore with her friend, Sasha Lee. She points at a book and says, |
| "[Did you] read that book?" |
| Lan Lý: Đã đọc cuốn sách đó chưa? |
| Dialogue |
| Lan Lý: Đã đọc cuốn sách đó chưa? |
| Sasha Lee: Có hay không? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Lan Lý: Đã đọc cuốn sách đó chưa? |
| Michael: "[Did you] read that book?" |
| Sasha Lee: Có hay không? |
| Michael: "Is [it] interesting?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Omitting the subject or the pronoun is possible in so-called "pro-drop languages." Pro-drop-languages are languages where omitting the pronoun, or the subject, doesn't affect the information conveyed by the sentence. This is not possible in the English language, but you can observe this in Romance and Slavic languages. In the Vietnamese language, dropping the subject or pronoun in a sentence is also a frequent practice. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Lan Ly says "[Did you] read that book?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nguyet: Đã đọc cuốn sách đó chưa? |
| Michael: If we translate this literally in English, we would get "Already read book that already," which doesn't seem to make sense. That's because Vietnamese is a topic-prominent language. We'll cover this later, but, for now, let's just focus on the example. If you notice, the sample sentence lacks a pronoun. Based on the context, Lan Ly is asking Sasha Lee whether she has already read the book she was referring to. In English grammar, the proper way to say this is "Have you read that book already?" which includes the pronoun "you," or |
| Nguyet: bạn |
| Michael: In Vietnamese, it's normal for pronouns to be dropped if they can be worked out from the context. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Is [it] interesting?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nguyet: Có hay không? |
| Michael: This is an expression that could mean "Yes or no?" In this context, it means "Is it any good?" Just like in the first example, you won't find any pronoun or subject in this statement, and yet the message it conveys is clearly understood because of the context. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: We've learned in this lesson that Vietnamese is a pro-drop language. This means that subjects and objects can be dropped in a sentence without the message losing its meaning. Let's take a look at a dialogue where the subject can be dropped: |
| Nguyet: Đã ăn gì chưa? |
| Michael: Which literally means "Already ate something or not?" while, in English, grammatically it should be "Have you had something to eat?" or "Have you eaten something?" |
| The answer to this question could be: |
| Nguyet: Mới ăn một cái bánh mì thôi, vẫn đói lắm. |
| Michael: which literally means, "Only ate a baguette, still very hungry?" while the better translation would be "I have only had a baguette. I'm still hungry.") |
| In both cases, the pronoun was dropped by the speaker. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Like in many languages, the presence of the subject in a sentence is also not necessary in imperative sentences in Vietnamese. If you're going to use the imperative sentence either for second person singular or second person plural, there is no need for you to add the subject because the sentence already implies it. For instance, if you want to tell someone to stop doing something, you can simply say, |
| Nguyet: Dừng lại! |
| Michael: or "Stop!" If you want to tell someone to go or leave, you just say, |
| Nguyet: Đi! |
| Michael: And, if you want to politely ask someone to be quiet, just tell them to |
| Nguyet: Hãy giữ yên lặng |
| Michael: or "Please keep quiet." In these examples, it's obvious that the message is directed to a second person, rendering the adding of the pronoun unnecessary. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: We've mentioned that Vietnamese is a topic-prominent language. This is important to learn when you're studying Vietnamese because it plays a role in why the subject is sometimes dropped in a sentence. This means Vietnamese sentences are structured around topics, or, |
| Nguyet: đề tài |
| Michael: rather than subjects, or, |
| Nguyet: môn học |
| Michael: For instance, let's consider the sentence, |
| Nguyet: Anh ấy rất giỏi tiếng Anh, |
| Michael: or "He is very good at English." In this sentence, the topic, which is also the subject, is |
| Nguyet: Anh ấy |
| Michael: or "he," while the comment, which is also the predicate, is |
| Nguyet: rất giỏi tiếng |
| Michael: or "very good at English." This can also be structured as, |
| Nguyet: Anh ấy tiếng Anh rất giỏi. |
| Michael: or "His English is very good." This time, the topic is no longer the subject, In this sentence structure, the subject has become, |
| Nguyet: tiếng Anh |
| Michael: or "English," and the predicate has become |
| Nguyet: rất giỏi |
| Michael: or "very good." In this case, it can be seen that the subject of the sentence doesn't' matter as much as the topic. That said, in the second sentence, "He" is still the center and not "His English," although you don't actually have to add the pronoun for the statement to make sense. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Nguyet: Tạm biệt! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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