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ngươi. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ngươi, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ngươi in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Vietnamese
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Proto-Vietic *ŋaːj, from Proto-Mon-Khmer *[m]ŋaaj (“human being; person”). Cognate with người (“person”), ngài.
Pronoun
ngươi • (𤽗, 𤾰)
- (archaic or literary) you (to address perceived inferiors)
- Genesis 17; 1925 Vietnamese translation by Phan Khôi; 2021 English translation from the New Revised Standard Version
Thiên hạ chẳng còn gọi ngươi là Áp-ram nữa, nhưng tên ngươi sẽ là Áp-ra-ham, vì ta đặt ngươi làm tổ phụ của nhiều dân tộc.- No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.
Đức Chúa Trời phán cùng Áp-ra-ham rằng: còn Sa-rai, vợ ngươi, [ngươi] chớ gọi là Sa-rai nữa; nhưng Sa-ra là tên người đó.- God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
1993, Ngô Sĩ Liên with Lê Văn Hưu, Phan Phu Tiên, “Nhân Tông Tuyên Hoàng Đế”, in Viện Khoa học Xã hội Việt Nam, transl., Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư [The Complete Annals of Great Viet]:Các ngươi là quan tại nhiệm, khi trở về, phải bảo dân gắng sức làm ruộng, xử án phải cho công bằng, nếu có trộm cướp, phải hết lòng lùng bắt, không được thờ ơ lười biếng.- You are incumbent mandarins, once come back, must tell the people to work hard on the paddies, must judge cases justly, investigate robberies and thefts -if there be- to the best of your ability, and never be lazy and complacent.
Usage notes
- The corresponding first person pronoun is ta.
- In archaic contexts, this word is used to refer to someone of lower social status, and it has a somewhat condescending connotation.
- Such a condescending connotation is also utilized by translators to convey hostility between characters in foreign fiction works in place of mày (because mày, for some reason, just doesn't feel quite "right", especially if used by a younger character to refer to an older one), although some translators may use mi instead. Some use both combinations of ta-mi/ngươi for characters of significant age difference, and tao-mày for characters of around the same age.
Particle
ngươi • (𤽗, 𤾰)
- (literary, obsolete) prefixes someone's name, functioning either as a vocative or focus marker.
- 16th century, Nguyễn Thế Nghi's (attributed) Tân biên Truyền kỳ mạn lục tăng bổ giải âm tập chú (新編傳奇漫錄增補解音集註), giải âm/translation of Truyền kỳ mạn lục ("Casual Record of Transmitted Strange-Tales") by Nguyễn Dữ.
碎庭臣𪢍𤽗立言蒸𣦛- Tôi đình thần ghét ngươi Lập Ngôn chưng thẳng.
- The mandarins at the royal court hated the (focusing) honest Lập Ngôn.
- 19th century, Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Tale of Lục Vân Tiên:
𠬠𠇮𥄮陣衝無
𤽗骨突打朱最㝵- Một mình nhằm trận xông vô,
Cùng ngươi Cốt Đột đánh cho tối ngày. - He threw himself into the battle,
Fighting against Cốt Đột regardless of day or night.
See also
Etymology 2
From Proto-Vietic *-ŋaːj, from Proto-Mon-Khmer *[]ŋaaj; cognate with Bahnar ngai (“pupil”) and Shwe Palaung ငါည် (“face”).
From the same root as người (“human being”) and thus also the etymology above; compare English pupil, Japanese 瞳 (hitomi, “pupil”) and 人 (hito, “person, human”), Thao thau (“person, pupil”), Tagalog tao (“human, person”) and balintataw (“pupil”), Persian مردم (mardom, “people, pupil”).
Noun
(classifier con) ngươi • (𥇹, 𥊤)
- pupil (the hole in the middle of the iris of the eye)
- Synonym: đồng tử
Usage notes
- Pretty much always accompanied by the classifier con in modern Vietnamese, to the extent that con ngươi has started to become lexicalized.