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Nouns & Classifiers

No grammatical gender or plural marking; classifier words (loại từ) and noun phrase structure
Không có giống ngữ pháp
Vietnamese nouns have no grammatical gender
-
Unlike German/Greek, nouns aren't masculine/feminine/neuter
Không đánh dấu số nhiều
No plural marking on the noun itself
-
The same word serves for "one" and "many"
cái
general classifier for inanimate objects
kai
Used before most non-living countable nouns
con
classifier for animals (and some objects)
kon
con mèo (cat), con dao (knife) — animate-leaning class
người
classifier for people
nguh-oy
Used before nouns referring to persons
một cái bàn
one table
mot kai ban
number + classifier + noun word order
hai con mèo
two cats
hai kon meh-oh
number + animal classifier + noun
ba người bạn
three friends
ba nguh-oy ban
number + people classifier + noun
quả / trái
classifier for round fruit
kwa / chai
quả (North) / trái (South) — regional variants
cuốn / quyển
classifier for books
kuon / kwee-en
Used before books, notebooks, bound volumes