phải

Vietnamese

Etymology

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 被 (“to suffer; passive marker”, SV: bị) (Old Chinese: /*m-pʰ(r)ajʔ, m-pʰ(r)ajʔ-s, mə-pʰ(r)aj, pʰ(r)aj-s/ in Baxter and Sagart (2014)), along the semantic evolution of “to have to endure; to suffer” > “have to; must” > “correct” > “right (in direction)”. It may reflect an Old Chinese pronunciation /*N-pʰ(r)ajʔ-s/ with the loss of a nasal prefix as is also seen in other early loans (Sagart, per. comm.).

The common Vietic word for “right” is Proto-Vietic *dam ~ *tam, whence the now-archaic đăm.

Pronunciation

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• (Huế) IPA^(key):
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key):

• Audio (Hồ Chí Minh City)

  (file)

Adjective

phải • (沛, 拜, 派)

1. (often with bên) right (side, direction) (in bên phải)

   Đi bên phải đường.

   Go on the right side of the road.

   Rẽ (tay) phải. Quẹo (tay) phải.

   Turn right.

2. correct

   Không phải như thế.

   Not so.

3. obverse

   mặt phải của tấm vải ― the obverse of a piece of cloth

Synonyms

• (correct): đúng, chính xác
• (obverse): trước, chính
• (the direction right): đăm, mặt

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "the direction right"): trái
• (antonym(s) of "correct"): không đúng, sai, trật
• (antonym(s) of "obverse"): trái

Derived terms

Related terms

• (the direction right): hữu

Verb

phải

1. (modal auxiliary) must, have to, should

   Tôi phải đi ngay.

   I must go right away.

   Phải đủ điểm mới được lên lớp.

   One must earn high enough grades to be promoted to the next grade.

2. (transitive) to have to endure (something unpleasant)

   giẫm phải gai ― to tread on thorns

   ngộ phải gió độc ― in case one encounters bad wind (i.e., the cold or inclement weather)

   Tôi đi phải ngày mưa gió.

   I had to go on a rainy and windy day.

Derived terms

Particle

phải

1. yes (in response to a question containing phải)

References

• "phải" in Hồ Ngọc Đức, Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project (details)
• Lê Sơn Thanh, "Nom-Viet.dat", WinVNKey (details)