bây

See also: bay, Bay, bẫy, bảy, and baþ

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓəj˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓəj˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɓəj˧˧]

• Audio (Hồ Chí Minh City)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Proto-Mon-Khmer *piʔ; cognate with Khasi phi, Pacoh ipe, Central Nicobarese [Nancowry] ifē and possibly Mon ဗှ်ေ.

Alternative forms

• bay

Pronoun

bây

1. (informal) you (second-person plural)

Etymology 2

Part of the b-series of demonstratives, along with bao, bấy.

Determiner

bây • (拜, 悲, 𣊾, 碑)

1. of this extent, of this amount

   Con cua này chỉ bây lớn thôi.

   This (species of) crab only grows to this size.

See also

Derived terms

• bây chừ
• bây giờ

 

Vietnamese demonstratives
Laurence Thompson (1965), Vietnamese Grammar
					Unspecified					Close to the speaker or newly introduced					Remote, already identified
PLACE đ- (first register)					đâu ‘wherever’					đây ‘here’					đấy ‘there’
REFERENCE n- (second register)					nào ‘whichever’					này ‘this’					nọ ‘that’
PROPORTION b- (first register)					bao ‘to whatever extent’					bây ‘to this extent’					bấy ‘to that extent’
MANNER s- (first register) v- (second register)					sao ‘however’					vầy ‘this way’					vậy ‘that way’
Nguyễn Phú Phong (1992), “Vietnamese Demonstratives Revisited”
				D• (Indefinite)				D1 (Proximal)				D2 (Medial)				D3 (Distal)
+NOM(inal)				đâu place-what				đây place-this				đấy place-that1
±NOM(inal)												đó (place-)that1				kia (place-)that2
–NOM(inal)				nào what				nầy this				nấy/ấy that1				nọ that2

Vietnamese demonstratives (alternative version)

	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	nấy	nớ	nọ	nào
Place, nominal2 đ-	đây	đí đấy	—	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”).