Adjectives
A Vietnamese adjective is a verb. Đẹp means "beautiful" and also "to be beautiful", which is why no copula ever stands in front of it and why it takes the same markers a verb takes — đã đẹp, sẽ đẹp, không đẹp, đẹp không?
No "to be"
Nhà này to. — "This house is big." Tôi mệt. — "I'm tired." Phở ngon quá! — "The phở is so good!"
After the noun
As a modifier the adjective follows the noun, and the demonstrative follows the adjective:
nhà to — a big house · cuốn sách hay này — this good book · cô gái đẹp — a beautiful girl
No agreement
One form, for singular, plural, any gender, any case. Người đẹp, những người đẹp, cô ấy đẹp, anh ấy đẹp — đẹp never changes.
Degree: rất, lắm, quá
| word | position | force |
|---|---|---|
| rất | before | very — rất đẹp |
| lắm | after | very (spoken) — đẹp lắm |
| quá | after (or before) | so! / too — đẹp quá!, quá đắt |
| khá | before | quite, rather — khá tốt |
| hơi | before | a bit, slightly — hơi lạnh |
| cực kỳ | before | extremely |
Rất and lắm do the same job from opposite sides; use one, not both. Quá after an adjective is the exclamation of the country: nóng quá, đắt quá, ngon quá.
Comparison: hơn, nhất, bằng
| pattern | example | |
|---|---|---|
| comparative | adj + hơn (+ than-object) | Hà Nội lạnh hơn Sài Gòn. — "Hanoi is colder than Saigon." |
| superlative | adj + nhất | Sài Gòn nóng nhất. — "Saigon is the hottest." |
| equality | adj + bằng / như | Anh ấy cao bằng tôi. — "He's as tall as me." |
| less | ít adj hơn, or kém … hơn | ít đắt hơn — "less expensive" |
There is no separate word for "than": hơn takes the standard directly. "Better" is tốt hơn, "best" tốt nhất; "more" (of quantity) is nhiều hơn.
Reduplication softens
Doubling an adjective, with the copy taking the level tone of its register, means "-ish":
đỏ → đo đỏ reddish · nhỏ → nho nhỏ smallish · lạnh → lành lạnh chilly · vàng → vàng vàng yellowish
The pattern is the one regular tone change in the language — see the tone lab.
Nominalising: sự, cái, điều
An adjective becomes a noun with a classifier-like word in front: sự (Sino-Vietnamese, formal) or cái / điều (native):
sự thật — the truth · cái đẹp — beauty · điều tốt — a good thing
Adjectives as adverbs
There is no adverb form. The adjective goes after the verb: nói to "speak loudly (big)", chạy nhanh "run fast", làm tốt "do well". Một cách + adjective — một cách cẩn thận "carefully" — is the formal, written way.
If you speak Korean
Vietnamese adjectives are verbs, and so are Korean ones (예쁘다, 크다 conjugate like verbs) — so no copula, and đã đẹp / không đẹp / đẹp không? will look normal. Two differences: the adjective comes after the noun (nhà to, not 큰 집), and comparison is done with a word after the adjective (cao hơn) rather than 더 before it. Nhất is 제일 / 가장, placed after: cao nhất.
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