Lesson 13: What's your name in Vietnamese

Summary: The first question you usually ask a stranger is about their name. Let’s learn how to ask What is your name in Vietnamese to start making new local friends.

Xin chào, welcome back to Learn Vietnamese 30 Days. After learning some basic greetings in Vietnamese, today we will discuss how to ask someone’s name. But first, we need to learn some new words to form a question and answer.

Learn Vietnamese Lesson 13 - What’s Your Name In Vietnamese

1. Vocabulary about name in Vietnamese

Tên

Của

Là

Gì?

Xin lỗi

Rất vui được biết + [pronoun]

2. Possessive form in Vietnamese

Vietnamese	English
[Noun 1] + của + [noun 2] (Noun 2 is the owner)	[Noun 1] + of + [noun 2] (Noun 2 is the owner)
Của + [pronoun]	Mine, yours, its, his, hers, theirs.

Note: In spoken Vietnamese, “của” in the structure “[noun 1] + của + [noun 2]” can be omitted. For example, “Ba của bạn” (Your dad) can simply become “Ba bạn” in casual conversation.

Examples:

Vietnamese	English
Tên của tôi	My name (word-by-word translation: Name of me)
Ba của bạn	Your dad (word-by-word translation: Dad of you)
Tên của anh ấy	His name (word-by-word translation: Name of him)
Của tôi	Mine (word-by-word translation: Of me)
Của bạn	Yours (word-by-word translation: Of you)
Ba và mẹ của bạn có khỏe không? ⇒ Họ khỏe./Họ không khỏe.	How are your dad and mom? ⇒ They’re good./They aren’t good.

Exercise 1: How do you say “Andy’s grandpa and dad” in Vietnamese?

Exercise 2: How do you say ask “How is Min’s uncle and aunt?” in Vietnamese?

3. A simple Vietnamese sentence structure

As I mentioned in the first lesson, grammatically Vietnamese doesn’t have genders and verb tense. For examples:

Vietnamese	English
Tôi là Andy.	I am Andy.
Bạn là Lý.	You are Ly.
Chị của tôi là Linh.	My elder sister is Linh.
Andy là bạn của Min.	Andy is a friend of Min. (Or Andy is Min’s friend.)
Chú Tài là ba của chị Linh.	Mr. Tai is Linh’s father.

Meanwhile “to be” in English transforms into am, is, and are when it goes with different pronouns, “là” (to be) in Vietnamese still the same in all sentences.

4. Question about name in Vietnamese

4.1. What’s your name in Vietnamese

Question:

Vietnamese:	Tên	+	của	[pronoun]	+	là	gì?
	1		2	2		3	4
English:	What	+	is	[my/ your/ his/ etc.]	+	name?
	4		3	2		1

Answer #1:

Vietnamese:	Tên	của	+	[pronoun]	+	là	[name]
	1	2		2		3	4
English:	[My/ your/ his/ etc.]		+	name	+	is	[name]
	2			1		3	4

OR answer #2:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+	là	+	[name]
	1		2		3
English:	[I/ You/ He/ etc.]	+	[am/ are/ is]	+	[name]
	1		2		3

Examples:

Vietnamese	English
Tên của bạn là gì? ⇒ Tên của tôi là Nam.	What’s your name? ⇒ My name’s Nam.
Tên của bạn của bạn là gì? ⇒ Bạn ấy là Linh.	What’s your friend's name? ⇒ He is Hau.
Tên của ông ấy là gì? ⇒ Ông ấy là Hậu.	What’s his name? ⇒ He is Hau.

Exercise 3: How do you say ask “What is his mom’s name?” in Vietnamese?

4.2. Is your name … in Vietnamese

As we learned how to form yes-no questions in the previous lesson, we will now apply this to ask if someone's name is [...] in Vietnamese. However, note that “là” (to be) changes to “phải là” in yes-no questions and negative sentences.

Question:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+	có	+	phải là	+	[name]	+	không?
	1				2		3
English:	[Am/ Is/ Are]	+	[I/ you/ he / etc.]			+	[name]?
	2		1				3

Answer:

- Yes

Vietnamese:	Phải.	+	[Pronoun]	+	là	+	[name].
			1		2
English:	Yes,	+	[I/ you/ etc.]	+	[am/ is/ are].
			1		2

- No

Vietnamese:	Không.	+	[Pronoun]	+	không	+	phải là	+	[name].
			1		2		3
English:	No,	+	[I/ you/ etc.]			+	[am/ is/ are].	+	[not].
			1				3		2

Note: You might wonder why “How are you?” in Vietnamese is literally “Are you good?” but people don’t respond with “Yes” or “No.” This is because “Are you good?” isn't meant to elicit a confirmation. Instead, it’s simply a way to greet people in Vietnam, rather than a question seeking information.

Examples:

Vietnamese	English
Anh có phải là An không? ⇒ Phải. Tôi là An. ⇒ Không. Tôi không phải là An.	Are you An? ⇒ Yes, I’m . ⇒ No, I’m not.
Cô ấy có phải là cô Vân không? ⇒ Phải. Cô ấy là cô Vân. ⇒ Không. Cô ấy không phải là cô Vân.	Is she Mrs. Van? ⇒ Yes, she is. ⇒ No, she is not.

Do you know that every name in Vietnamese has a meaning? Learn more about “Meaning of names in Vietnamese” to know more about your friends’ names and choose one Vietnamese nickname for yourself.

5. Dialog


	Vietnamese	English
Andy	Xin chào. Tên của bạn là gì?	Hello. What’s your name?
Min	Xin chào. Tôi là Min. Xin lỗi, tên của bạn là gì?	Hello. I’m Min. Execuse me, what’s your name?
Andy	Tên của tôi là Andy. Rất vui được biết bạn!	My name’s Andy. Nice to meet you!
Min	Rất vui được biết bạn.	Nice to meet you too!


	Vietnamese	English
Thảo	Xin lỗi. Cô có phải là cô Kim không?	Execuse me. Are you Mrs. Kim?
Kim	Phải. Cô là Kim.	Yes, I’m Kim.
Thảo	Cảm ơn cô Kim.	Thank you, Mrs. Kim.
Kim	Không có chi.	No problem.


	Vietnamese	English
Thảo	Xin lỗi. Cô có phải là cô Kim không?	Execuse me. Are you Mrs. Kim?
Kim	Phải. Cô là Kim.	Yes, I’m Kim.
Thảo	Cảm ơn cô Kim.	Thank you, Mrs. Kim.
Kim	Không có chi.	No problem.

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Vietnamese people will be delighted to know that you like their country and are trying to learn their language. Practice more with your local friends and Vietnamese coworkers to improve your skills every day. See you in the next lesson:

Tạm biệt và hẹn gặp lại! (Goodbye and see you again!)

Lesson 02: Vietnamese alphabet, tone marks and spelling rules

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