đó

See also: Appendix:Variations of "do"

Vietnamese

Etymology 1

From Proto-Mon-Khmer *tɔʔ (“that, there”). Cognate with Khmer ដ៏ (dɑɑ) and Bahnar to.

Pronunciation

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

Pronoun

đó • (妬, 𥯉, 𪥾, 𦲼)

that place over there
Synonym: đấy

Đứng đó làm gì ?
Whatcha doin' over there?
that person/thing over there
Đây là phòng khách. Đó là phòng ngủ.
This is the living room. That is the bedroom.
that idea/notion I/we've just described/discussed
Gặp lại nhau bất kể trở ngại, bất kể thử thách. Đó là duyên số.
People keep seeing each other again despite all the obstacles, all the challenges. That's what I call fate.

Usage notes

In the Northern dialects, đấy is usually preferred.
The demonstrative pronoun đó ("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, đó refers to either a location or a movement to the location.

Tụi nó đang tập bóng chuyền ở đó đó. ― They are practicing volleyball there. (location)

Ban đêm đừng có mà léng phéng vô đó. Nguy hiểm lắm nghe chưa. ― 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 đó ("there") and is treated as a noun.

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

Đó là thằng bạn tui. ― That is my friend.

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

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

Mày đi đâu thì tao đi theo tới đó. ― Wherever you go, I will follow you.

Đó 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 đó 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.

As a demonstrative adjective, đó or ấy are used after a noun to indicate which person, thing or idea is being shown, pointed to or mentioned. It is equivalent to English "that, those".

Thằng đó ngáo lắm, đừng có mà rờ vô. ― That guy is off his rocker, just stay away from him.

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

đó

(Southern Vietnam) emphasizes a quality that the listener may not have known; you see?; I'm telling you
Tao mới coi tối qua. Hơi bị hay đó ! Bữa nào mày cũng dành thời gian coi đi !
I finally saw it yesterday. Really good, I must say. You should go see it when you have the chance.

Em mới đến nên không biết, thằng này khùng lắm đó !
You've just moved here so you might not have known, but he's pretty screwed up in the head.

Etymology 2

Vietnamese Wikipedia has an article on:

Ngư cụ truyền thống Việt Nam

Wikipedia ^vi

From Proto-Vietic *tɔːʔ (“trap”). Cognate with Toum tɔː³. Compare Lower Ta'oih tɔː ("to trap, to strain"), Kuy [Salavan] tɔː ("to trap birds, fish, etc.").

Noun

(classifier cái) đó • (𥯉, 𣔧)

(fishing) a kind of fish trap