Vietnamese for Nurses: Ward Vocabulary, Pronouns and Polite Phrases

On a week-long medical mission at a provincial hospital in Vietnam, you notice that the corridors are lined with folding beds, thermoses and small rice cookers. Almost every patient has a relative staying beside them, day and night. In bed nine, a woman stands up as you pass and says, 「Cô ơi, ba em tối qua sốt, chân đau lắm.」 You catch sốt and đau, so you know it is fever and pain. What you might miss is that she called you cô, called her father ba, and that your reply depends on those small words.

Two things set a Vietnamese ward apart. First, người nhà, the family member who stays, helps with feeding and washing, and is often the person you actually talk to. Second, every conversation begins with choosing pronouns by age, while six tones and small particles such as ạ and nhé carry the meaning and the politeness. Grammar is the lighter part, since verbs do not conjugate and there are no articles.

This article is for nurses, medics and carers who work with Vietnamese-speaking patients: foreign staff in Vietnam, volunteers on medical missions, and nurses of Vietnamese heritage whose patients speak Vietnamese at the bedside. You get ward vocabulary by situation, a guide to pronouns, five grammar points, two model dialogues and a practice plan.

• Who is at the bedside, and what to call them
• Ward words, shift by shift
• Five sentence patterns for the bedside
• Two conversations: bed 9 and the handover
• Practice before and during a placement
• Questions from foreign nurses and volunteers
• Before your first morning on the ward

Who is at the bedside, and what to call them

Người nhà: the family at the bedside

In many Vietnamese public hospitals a relative stays with the patient around the clock. People call this person người nhà (family member) or người nuôi bệnh (the one who looks after the patient). They bring meals, help with washing and toileting, and often answer for the patient, especially when the patient is old or tired. As a nurse you will speak to them as often as to the patient, and sometimes more often.

The pronouns can look tangled at first, because each person uses their own family words. The daughter says ba (father) for the patient, calls you cô, and calls herself em or con. You call the patient bác, ông or bà, call her chị, and call yourself em. Which relative may be told what is set by each hospital, so ask the nurse in charge (điều dưỡng trưởng) before you discuss a diagnosis with anyone.

Pronouns: you choose them by age

Vietnamese uses family words as pronouns. You pick one for the patient and one for yourself based on who is older and by how much. The table shows common patterns on the ward, but treat them as patterns that shift a little between the north and the south.

Vietnamese nurses often say em for themselves with patients who look somewhat older, and cháu or con with much older patients. As a foreign speaker you can fall back on tôi, a neutral “I”, and still call the patient by the right family word. Avoid bạn with an older patient, since it is a word for peers.

Tones: six of them

Every syllable has a tone, written with a mark. A wrong tone gives you a different word, so treat the tone as part of the spelling and learn it together with the word, from the first day.

In many southern accents hỏi and ngã sound alike, so you will not always hear the difference. A classic trap is đau (pain) against đâu (where). Together they make the most useful question on the ward: Đau ở đâu? Where does it hurt?

Particles: ạ, nhé, dạ and vâng

Ạ added at the end of a sentence shows respect to an older person. Nhé softens a request or announcement, close to “okay?” or “all right?”. For “yes” in a polite reply, northerners say vâng and southerners say dạ. Both also work as a respectful “I am listening”.

Ward words, shift by shift

The four tables run from the morning handover to care at the bedside. Examples use em for the nurse and bác for the patient, so if you are older than the patient, swap in the pronouns from the table above. All 42 words of the practice set appear here, together with a few extras such as phòng bệnh, chuông gọi and loét tì đè.

Admission, the ward and handover

The word bàn giao ca means handover, and in a Vietnamese ward the report often refers to patients by bed number, as in giường số 12. Listen for numbers early in each report, because they tell you who is being discussed.

Vital signs and symptoms

Patients often describe feelings rather than medical words, such as tức ngực (tightness in the chest) or mệt (tired). When an answer is unclear, ask a second, narrower question before you write it down.

Medication and procedures

Doses are spoken with classifiers and a frequency, for example hai viên, hai lần một ngày, sau khi ăn (two tablets, twice a day, after eating). The grammar section below explains the pattern. Say it aloud and let a colleague check it when safety depends on it.

Two small notes. Y lệnh is the ward word for what the doctor has ordered for a patient, and care follows it. Đơn thuốc, the prescription slip, is what an outpatient or a patient going home receives. And nội soi, endoscopy, is a common reason for being told to take nothing by mouth.

Bedside care and emergencies

The last two rows of the table, cấp cứu and phẫu thuật, are the ones you will hear when something changes fast. Learn to recognise them even when you cannot yet say the whole sentence.

Five sentence patterns for the bedside

1. Polite requests: pronoun, verb, giúp em, nhé or ạ

The frame for asking a patient to do something is pronoun, verb, giúp em, then nhé or ạ. Giúp em means “for me, please” and nhé makes it gentle.

• Bác nằm xuống giúp em nhé.
• Chị chờ một chút ạ.
• Anh xắn tay áo lên giúp em nhé.

The usual learner mistake is to say 「Bạn nằm xuống」 with tôi as the speaker. It is grammatical, but it sounds flat and blunt to an older person. Use the family word for the patient and add nhé or ạ.

2. Questions: có … không and đã … chưa

For yes or no questions about a state, use có … không. For something that should have happened by now, use đã … chưa. The answers are có or không for the first, and rồi (already) or chưa (not yet) for the second.

• Bác có đau không ạ?
• Bác đã uống thuốc chưa ạ?
• Chị có dị ứng thuốc nào không ạ?

The common mistake is to answer or write không when the patient means chưa. 「Chưa」 means not yet, and the medicine may still be due. 「Không」 means no, and the patient may be refusing. On a ward those two answers lead to different actions.

3. Time words: đã, đang, sẽ

Vietnamese verbs do not change form. When you need to make time clear, put đã (done), đang (in progress) or sẽ (will) before the verb. Often the context already says it and you can leave the marker out.

• Em sẽ đo huyết áp cho bác.
• Bác đang truyền dịch.
• Bác đã ăn sáng chưa ạ?

Learners sometimes put đã in every sentence because it feels like a past tense. A sentence like 「Em đã đo huyết áp」 is fine when you want to stress that it is done, but ordinary reports sound more natural without it.

4. Counting and doses: classifiers

Numbers need a classifier before the noun. Tablets use viên, a bag or bottle of fluid uses chai or túi, and times a day use lần. The frame for a dose is number plus classifier plus noun, then frequency, then timing.

• Bác uống hai viên thuốc, hai lần một ngày.
• Mỗi lần một viên, sau khi ăn.
• Một chai dịch truyền chạy khoảng một tiếng.

The usual mistake is to say 「hai thuốc」 without a classifier, which sounds incomplete.

5. Bị, and saying where it hurts

For unpleasant conditions, Vietnamese uses bị before the symptom: bị sốt, bị đau, bị ho, bị dị ứng. To say where, use đau followed by the body part, and ở đây means “here”.

• Bác bị sốt từ khi nào ạ?
• Bác đau ở đâu? Ở đây ạ?
• Bác bị đau bụng bao lâu rồi ạ?

English speakers often reach for là, as in 「Bác là sốt」, because “be” feels necessary. Vietnamese does not use là with symptoms. Use bị or just the symptom word, and ask từ khi nào (since when) or bao lâu rồi (how long now) to place it in time.

Two conversations: bed 9 and the handover

A bedside check with the daughter present

Anna, a foreign nurse on a surgical ward, checks Mr Tư in bed 9. His daughter sits on the folding bed beside him. Read all three parts aloud, and notice who calls whom what.

A handover that starts with the bed number

A Vietnamese handover usually opens with the bed number and the diagnosis, then what happened, the orders in force and what the family has been told. Listen once, then read it back phrase by phrase.

Practice before and during a placement

Start with the nursing set in Falling Stars or Pop It. Play until you can match each word to its meaning, then go back to the tables and read each example aloud, paying attention to the tone marks.

Listening is the harder half, and relatives speak quickly. Pick an episode from the Vietnamese podcasts, write down one sentence at a time and compare with the transcript. Writing it down shows you which tones and small words your ear skips. If you want a path, look at the courses, and use the vocabulary test to see where you start. When you want a benchmark, the Vietnamese mock test gives you one.

Outside WELE, VietnamesePod101 and the YouTube channel Learn Vietnamese with Annie both give short, well-paced lessons. Neither is about nursing, so the ward words still come from this article and from colleagues. Keep in mind that bedside Vietnamese is for routine care. For consent, medication counselling or a complex history, use a qualified interpreter, and do not rely on your own level or on a translation app. If you want the wider picture, see the nursing page or all professions.

On a short mission there is little time for study, so work in small pieces: a round of the game on the way to the ward, a few sentences written down after the shift.

Questions from foreign nurses and volunteers

Who looks after the patient in a Vietnamese ward, the nurses or the relatives?

Both, and the split depends on the hospital. In many public hospitals a relative handles daily care such as feeding, washing and keeping the patient company, while nurses give treatment, monitor the patient and follow the doctor’s orders. Ask the nurse in charge how it works on your ward.

How do I address a patient and the relatives politely?

Use a family word that matches their age: bà, ông, cô, chú, bác, anh, chị or em. Add ạ at the end of questions to an older person. If you are unsure, anh or chị with tôi is a safe starting point for a foreigner, and you can listen to what the relatives call each other and follow that.

Do nurses in Vietnam speak English?

Some do, especially in international hospitals and among younger staff. In public hospitals and outside the big cities you should expect much less English. Learn the basics for your own safety and for your patients’ comfort.

What should I ask the ward manager before my first shift?

Ask which tasks you may do, which relatives may be told what, how the handover is given (by bed number, in which order), and who to call when you need an interpreter. Those four answers cover most of the uncertainty on a first day.

Can I use a translation app with patients?

For simple prompts such as a greeting or asking someone to sit, it can help, but check it against what you know. For medication, consent or anything where a mistake has consequences, use a qualified interpreter and your hospital’s process instead.

Before your first morning on the ward

If your placement date is set, play one round of the set in Falling Stars first, so that người nhà, y lệnh and nhịn ăn uống are not new words when you hear them at bed nine.