đấy

See also: Appendix:Variations of "day"

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɗəj˧˦]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɗəj˨˩˦]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɗəj˦˥]

Pronoun

đấy • (帝, 𦷾)

there, that place, that
Synonym: đó

Usage notes

In the Southern dialects, đó is usually preferred.
The demonstrative pronoun đấy ("there, that") denotes a place, person or thing far from the speaker, but close to whom the speaker is talking to. When denoting a place, đấy refers to either a location or a movement to the location.

Họ đang tập bóng chuyền ở đấy. ― They are practicing volleyball there. (location)

Đừng đi đến đấy vào ban đêm. Nguy hiểm lắm. ― Do not go there at night. It is very unsafe. (movement to the location)

The destination for đi in the "đi + preposition + destination" construction can be expressed by đấy ("there") and is treated as a noun.

Đấy can serve as the subject of the sentence containing the predicate noun.

Đấy là bạn tôi. ― That is my friend.

Indefinite pronouns and adverbs are formed by placing a question word before the demonstrative đấy: ai đấy ("someone"), cái gì đấy ("something"), ở đâu đấy ("somewhere"), khi nào đấy ("sometime"), nơi nào đấy ("somewhere, someplace, in some place"), người nào đấy ("someone").

Đấy and đâu are also adverbs of place and can be semantically paired to form a similarity clause.

Chị đi đâu, tôi đi đến đấy với chị. ― Wherever you go, I will come with you.

Đấy is used after a preposition to refer to an action or event that has just been mentioned.

Tôi học cao học về Việt Nam học. Trước đấy ở bậc đại học tôi chuyên về Đông Nam Á học.

I did my master's degree in Vietnamese studies, and before that as an undergraduate I majored in Southeast Asian studies.

In recent years, the demonstrative pronoun đấy is used in the Hanoi dialect with the function of the demonstrative adjective ấy, for instance: kĩ sư đấy, cái áo đấy, bộ phim đấy.

Vietnamese demonstratives
Visibility/evidentiality⁶
	Proximal (*-iː)	Distal 1 (*-iːʔ)	Distal 2 (*-əːʔ)	Distal 3/ Remote (*-ɔːʔ)	Interrogative (rime was a rounded back vowel)
Place, attributive¹ n-	ni nì này/nầy nây	nấy	nớ	nọ (nó)	nào
Place, nominal² đ-	đây	đấy (ấy)	—	đó	đâu
Manner r-	ri rày	—	rứa	—	ru sao³
Extent 1⁴ b-	bây	bấy	—	—	bao
Extent 2⁵ v-	vầy	vậy	—	—	—
¹ Originally can only follow a nominal (being used attributively), hence nơi này (“this place; here”), nơi nào (“where”) (no longer completely true in the modern language). ² Can be used on its own/is itself nominal, hence đây (“here”), đâu (“where”). ³ From earlier C-raːw (where C is nonspecific consonant). ⁴ Placed before the head: bây nhiêu (“this much”), bấy nhiêu (“that much”), bao nhiêu (“how much”). ⁵ Placed after the head: nhanh vầy (“this fast”), nhanh vậy (“that fast/so fast”).
	Distal (ngang)			Remote (huyền)
Northern-Southern	kia (cơ)			kìa (cờ)
Central	tê			tề
⁶ Originally, these demonstratives might have been used to assert that something is visible and/or verifiable. They have been bleached quite thoroughly and currently are usually used like other distal demonstratives. The biggest trace of their evidentiality might be in their usage as final particles, often in reduced forms cơ/cờ: [t]ừ đấy về tới Hà Nội, còn những ba cái cầu nữa cơ mà! ("From there to Hanoi, there're still three more bridges to cross!") (Ba ngày luân lạc, 1943).

Particle

đấy

(Northern Vietnam) sentence-final particle used in questions for asking in a more polite way
Anh đang chờ ai đấy?
Who are you waiting for?
(Northern Vietnam) sentence-final particle in statements to express affirmation
Máy bay của họ hạ cánh rồi đấy.
Their airplane has in fact landed.

Usage notes

When used in questions, đấy can be replaced by thế. In the Southern dialects, đó is used instead of đấy and vậy instead of thế.
When expressing affirmation, the meaning of đấy is similar to the English "actually" or "in fact". In the Southern dialects, đó is used instead of đấy.