tôi nhớ bạn
[toj˧˧ ɲəː˧˦ ʔɓaːn˧˨ʔ]word by word
In Vietnamese, "I missed you" is said as tôi nhớ bạn.
The phrase is used to tell someone that you felt sad or lonely because they were not with you. While grammatically correct, using tôi nhớ bạn sounds very unnatural in most real-life Vietnamese social contexts.
How does it change in a sentence?
The verb nhớ can mean both "to miss" (someone) and "to remember" (something), such as a fact or a piece of information.
Did you know?
- The pronoun tôi used in this phrase originally meant 'slave' or 'servant'. It evolved into a humble way to refer to oneself during the 17th century.
- Because tôi is a humble pronoun, using it with bạn in tôi nhớ bạn creates a strange social imbalance. In real life, Vietnamese speakers prefer using kinship terms like 'brother' or 'sister' instead of generic pronouns to show affection.
Examples in context
- Mình nhớ bạn lắm.I missed you so much.
- Mình nhớ bạn rồi đấy.I've missed you already.
- Tôi đã nhớ em suốt ngày.I missed you all day.
- Nhớ anh/ chị/ em lắm!I missed you so much!
- Tôi nhớ bạn rất nhiều.I missed you very much.
Example conversation
Lan and Hùng meet at a cafe after a long trip.
- LanChào Hùng, tôi nhớ bạn!Hi Hùng, I missed you!
- HùngTôi cũng nhớ bạn nhiều lắm, Lan.I missed you so much too, Lan.
- LanChuyến đi của bạn thế nào?How was your trip?
- HùngRất tuyệt, nhưng tôi muốn về nhà.Great, but I wanted to come home.
