Body parts in Vietnamese
In this post, we will learn how to say common body parts in Vietnamese.
Table of Contents
Vocabulary
| hair | tóc |
| face | mặt |
| eye | mắt |
| eyebrow | lông mày |
| eyelash | lông mi |
| nose | mũi |
| mouth | miệng |
| ear | tai |
| lip | môi |
| neck | cổ |
| shoulder | vai |
| arm | cánh tay |
| hand | bàn tay |
| finger | ngón tay |
| leg | chân |
| thigh | đùi |
| foot | bàn chân |
| toe | ngón chân |
Specialty of doctors and medical facilities
These words are not only used to describe body parts, but some of them can also be used to describe the specialty of a doctor or medical facility.
For example:
“Mắt” means “eye”. “Bác sĩ mắt” means “eye doctor.” If you don’t remember what “bác sĩ” means, you can review it here.
“Phòng khám mắt” means “eye clinic.”
“Phòng khám tai mũi họng” is literally translated as “clinic ear, nose, throat” or “ENT clinic.”
“Bệnh viện tai mũi họng” means “ENT hospital.”
Ngón tay
Do you remember what “ngón tay” means? If not, you can review it above. “Ngón tay” means “finger”. But not all fingers are the same. Let’s take a look at what they are called:
| Thumb | ngón tay cái |
| Index finger | ngón trỏ |
| Middle finger | ngón giữa |
| Ring finger | ngón đeo nhẫn |
| Pinky finger (little finger) | ngón út |
Plural
Vietnamese words do not change form for plural or tense. To indicate how many or whether a countable noun is plural or singular, you can add number or quantity indicator in front of the noun.
For example:
“Đôi mắt” – “Đôi” means a pair, double, or two. “Đôi mắt” means “eyes” (two eyes, pair of eyes).
In a sentence:
I like your eyes.
Remember, “I” doesn’t necessarily mean “anh” and “you” doesn’t simply means “em” in Vietnamese. This was explained in this post.
Sometimes, when you talk about a body part in general, quantity indicator is often omited, but people can still understand.
For example:
Tôi thích mắt nâu.
I like brown eyes.
Another example:
Mắt nhìn đi đâu vậy?
This is a tough one to explain. In this case, even though “mắt” is mentioned, it doesn’t necessarily mean eye. “Mắt nhìn đi đâu vậy?” can be literally translated to “where are/were your eyes looking?” Or it could simply mean “where are/were you looking?” Since eyes are facing forward, what it could mean is you were supposed to look in front of you so the question isn’t really a question to be answered, but it is a complaint that you weren’t paying attention.
Left and right
We have learned how to say certain body parts in Vietnamese, but how do we indicate the left side or right side? Say, left leg?
| left | trái |
| right | phải |
To indicate which side, you just say the body part following by the word indicating the side you are referring to.
For example:
To say “left leg,” we say “chân trái.”
In Vietnamese, we always need to identify what the object is first before we describe it in details.
Following this rule, can you guess what right hand is in Vietnamese?
if you guess it’s “bàn tay phải,” you are correct.
Practice
Write the following words in Vietnamese.
hair
face
eye
eyebrow
eyelash
nose
mouth
ear
lip
neck
shoulder
arm
hand
finger
leg
foot
toe
thumb
index finger
middle finger
ring finger
pinky finger (little finger)
Now can you name your body parts in Vietnamese?
