thứ

See also: Appendix:Variations of "thu"

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Hà Nội):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Sino-Vietnamese word from 次.

Note that in spite of superficial similarity, this word is unrelated to Khmer ទី (tii), Thai ที่ (tîi), Japanese 第 (dai), all from Chinese 第 (MC dejH) (SV: đệ).

The "weekday" sense is a reanalysis from its usage in words for weekdays.

Noun

thứ

1. order, rank, sort, type, kind, category
2. thing
3. (by extension) weekday

   Hôm nay là thứ mấy?

   What (week)day is today?

Adjective

thứ

1. (formal) second

   con trai thứ ― the second son

Classifier

thứ

1. Indicates things of the same category, such as languages (tiếng)

Prefix

thứ

1. ordinal number marker

   thứ tám ― eighth

Usage notes

• Vietnamese originally did not mark numerals in ordinal usages. Nowadays, this is usually only seen in titles and forms of address, such as chú ba (“the third/second uncle”), thằng sáu (“the sixth/fifth boy”), etc.

Derived terms

• thứ ngày

Etymology 2

Sino-Vietnamese word from 恕.

Verb

thứ

1. (chiefly in compounds, literary) to pardon, to forgive

Derived terms

• lượng thứ
• tha thứ
• thứ lỗi
• thứ tha