Subject, verb and object are the most important parts in Vietnamese construction of the sentence. But another part is also important that is unit nouns or known as countable nouns or classifiers such as con (gà - chicken), cái (nhà - house), chiếc (xe - car)… Today, let’s study more about this important issue.
As we know, English has no unit nouns, it’s quite simple to count the number of objects or people. Such as singular noun - “a cat” or plural noun - “2 cats” with “s” or “es” at the end of the word. But in Vietnamese, we have “unit nouns” and this is the construction of sentence in Vietnamese with “unit nouns”
Tôi có 1 con mèo – I have a cat
Anh ta có 2 cái nhà – He has 2 houses
So, you could see in Vietnamese, we use the construction with a unit noun like this
Subject + Verb + number + unit noun + noun
For understanding easily, you could see how to use unit nouns in the following table
No. |
VIETNAMESE |
ENGLISH |
1 |
1 CON MÈO |
A CAT |
2 |
CON MÈO NÀY |
THIS CAT |
3 |
CON MÈO ĐÓ |
THAT CAT |
5 |
CON MÈO THỨ NHẤT |
CAT NO.1 |
6 |
CON MÈO THỨ HAI |
CAT NO.2 |
7 |
CON MÈO ĐẦU TIÊN |
FIRST CAT |
8 |
CON MÈO CUỐI CÙNG |
LAST CAT |
9 |
CON MÈO NÀO? |
WHICH CAT? |
10 |
CON MÈO MỚI |
NEW CAT |
11 |
NHIỀU CON MÈO |
MANY CATS |
12 |
MỘT CÁI TÔ |
A BIG BOWL |
13 |
MỘT TÔ HỦ TIẾU |
A BIG BOWL OF NOODLE |
14 |
MỘT CÁI LY |
A GLASS |
15 |
MỘT LY NƯỚC LỌC |
A GLASS OF WATER |
USUAL UNIT NOUNS
No. |
UNIT NOUNS |
MEANING |
USED FOR |
1 |
Người |
People |
Woman, man |
2 |
Cái |
Thing, piece |
Shirt, trouser, dress, chair, table, bag, hat, bowl, plate, spoon, fork, watch, clock, glass, bottle, machine |
3 |
Con |
animal |
Animal, doll, road, river |
4 |
Đôi |
Couple |
Shoes, chopstick |
5 |
Bộ |
Set |
Clothes, movie, drama, story |
6 |
Quả |
Fruit |
Fruit, ball, mountain |
7 |
Chiếc |
One |
Car, motorcycle, ship, airplane |
8 |
Cây |
Tree |
Pen, pencil, umbrella, lipstick, tree |
9 |
Món |
Thing, kind |
Food, goods |
10 |
Thỏi |
Ingot |
Lipstick, gold |
12 |
Quyển |
Book |
Book, notebook, magazine |
14 |
Ly |
Glass |
Glass of water, glass of beer |
15 |
Tách |
Cup |
Cup of tea, cup of coffee |
|
Chén |
Small bowl |
Bowl of soup, bowl of rice |
16 |
Chai |
Bottle |
Bottle of beer, bottle of water |
17 |
Dĩa |
Plate |
Food |
18 |
Cục |
Chunk |
Soap, candy, stone |
19 |
Sợi |
Line |
Necklace, string, hair, thread |
20 |
Chỗ |
Place |
Seat |
21 |
Cuộn |
Reel |
Tape, cassette, string, thread |
22 |
Điếu |
Roll |
Cigarette |
23 |
Gói |
Pack |
Gift pack, candy pack, cookie pack, anything is packed |
24 |
Chuyện |
Story |
Story |
26 |
Bản |
Version |
Contract, document, copy |
27 |
Ngôi |
House |
House, star, |
28 |
Miếng |
Piece |
Piece of bread, piece of meat, piece of cookie |
29 |
Bông |
Flower |
Flower |
31 |
Lần |
Time |
Time |
32 |
Phòng |
Room |
Room |
Please translate the following sentences into Vietnamese