Why English to Vietnamese is harder than it looks
“You” is a decision about the relationship. Vietnamese picks a pronoun based on relative age and closeness — anh, chị, em, bạn, cô — and using the wrong one is noticed instantly. English gives no information at all, so this is the single most important thing to check on a message to someone older or senior.
Tone marks are not optional. Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics that distinguish six tones, and they change the word entirely. A translation that produced unmarked text would be close to unreadable, which is why the marks come through in full.
Verbs stay still; time words move. “I have already sent it” becomes đã gửi rồi, with the tense carried by separate words. If the English is vague about when, the Vietnamese has to guess.
Final particles carry the manner. Nhé softens, ạ shows respect, à turns a statement into a gentle question. English has intonation for this and nothing written, so a direct translation of a plain English sentence can arrive sounding curt.
Written by Hardik Vegad, Co-founder, Translatify. Last updated .
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