Shapes in Vietnamese
“Shapes” in Vietnamese is called “hình.” But hình also has another meaning. Hình also means photo or picture. When hình goes with any of the words below, it means shape.
Below are the common shapes in Vietnamese.
Table of Contents
- Tròn
- Vuông
- Chữ nhật
- Tam giác
- Review
- Hình gì?
- Hình nào?
- More shapes
- Other shapes
- Different meanings of hình
Tròn
Tròn means round. Hình tròn means round shape.
Vuông
Vuông means square. Hình vuông means square shape.
Chữ nhật
Chữ nhật means rectangle. The word “chữ nhật” is usually not seen alone. It’s usually used with hình. Hình chữ nhật means rectangle shape.
Be careful not to be confused with “chữ Nhật.” Even though they pronounce the same, depending on the context, they could mean different things. In writing, when N in Nhật is capitalized, it refers to Japan (see post Countries, Nationalities and Languages in Vietnamese for more details). Chữ alone means word(s) or letter(s). Chữ Nhật means Japanese word(s), Japanese letter(s) or in this case Japanese characters since there is no “letter” in Japanese language.
Also, be careful not to be confused with “chủ nhật,” which means Sunday (see post Days of the Week for more details).
Tam giác
Tam giác means triangle. Hình tam giác means triangle shape.
Review
| Hình tròn | round shape |
| Hình vuông | square shape |
| Hình chữ nhật | rectangle shape |
| Hình tam giác | triangle shape |
Hình gì?
To ask what shape it is, simply say “hình gì?” Hình means shape, and gì means what. Together, “hình gì?” means “what shape?”
What if you want to ask “which shape” instead of “what shape”?
Hình nào?
“Hình nào?” means “which shape?” We have learned that hình means shape. While “nào” alone doesn’t mean “which,” when it is used in a question like this, it usually means “which.”
For example:
Cái nào? (Which one?)
Màu nào? (Which color?)
More shapes
The reason why I have a separate section for these following shapes is that unless you are studying math or physics in Vietnamese, I do not think you will see or hear the following words in daily conversation very often. But it is still useful to know.
| Hình thang | trapezoid |
| Hình bình hành | parallelogram |
| Hình trụ | cyclinder |
| Hình cầu | sphere |
| Hình nón | cone |
From above, we learned that triangle is called “tam giác” in Vietnamese. Just like how the “tri” in triangle means three, “tam” in “tam giác” also means three. The prefix “tri” is derived from Greek and Latin, whereas “tam” is Sino-Vietnamese, derived from Chinese.
Similarly, we have the following shapes:
| Hình tứ giác | Quadrangle |
| Hình ngũ giác | Pentagon |
| Hình lục giác | Hexagon |
| hình bát giác | Octagon |
Other shapes
What if you want to say star shape, rabbit shape or a shape of a thing or animal?
Simply say hình before the name of the thing or animal that you want to refer to as shape. Just by putting the word hình in front of any word, you can turn any word into shape.
For example:
| hình ngôi sao | Star shape |
| hình trái tim | heart shape |
| hình con thỏ | Rabbit shape |
Different meanings of hình
As mentioned in the beginning, hình has several meanings. Hình means shape, photo or picture. Therefore, depending on the context, hình could mean different things.
for example
Chị ấy làm sôcôla hình con thỏ. ( She made rabbit shaped chocolate.)
Tấm hình con thỏ này em lấy ở đâu vậy? (Where did you get this rabbit photo?)
Em ấy vẽ hình con thỏ. (She drew a picture of a rabbit.)
