Why Vietnamese to English is harder than it looks
Pronouns describe the relationship, not just the person. Anh, chị, em, cô and chú pick out relative age and status, and they change depending on who is speaking to whom. English has “I” and “you” and nothing else, so a message that carefully places two people in a hierarchy arrives flat.
Tone marks change the word completely. Ma, má, mà, mả, mã and mạ are six different words. Typing without diacritics, which is common in a hurry, leaves a translator guessing between them.
There is no tense on the verb. Tôi đi is “I go,” “I went” or “I will go,” with đã, đang or sẽ doing the work when it matters. English cannot leave it open, so it has to be inferred.
Politeness sits in particles at the end. Ạ and nhé make a sentence respectful or gentle, and they have no English equivalent at all. A message that loses them reads blunter in English than it was ever meant to.
Written by Hardik Vegad, Co-founder, Translatify. Last updated .
Translatify