Skills on AI

Locale Vi 001

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Use when working with the Vietnamese locale (`vi-001`) — its endonym Tiếng Việt, Latin script, left-to-right (LTR) direction, or spoken-population data. Reference data and translation guidance (register, grammar, idiom, typography) for this specific locale; see [[locale]] for general i18n/l10n concepts (BCP 47, plural rules, RTL) that apply across all locales.

Reference data for the Vietnamese locale — endonym Tiếng Việt, written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

  • BCP 47 tag: vi-001
  • ISO 639-1: vi
  • ISO 639-3: vie
  • Script: Latn (Latin)
  • Region: 001 (World)
  • Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

  • L1 (native): 86,000,000
  • L2 (additional): 11,000,000
  • L1+L2 (total): 97,000,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Vietnamese. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: other (1 form).

  • other — everything else (e.g. 0~15, 100, 1000, 10000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Vietnamese is an analytic, tonal language written in the Latin alphabet with many diacritics (quốc ngữ). It has no inflection, and its politeness comes from a rich system of kinship-based pronouns. See Locale Vi Vn.

Translate ideas, not words.

  • Vietnamese has no single word for "you" and "I". English "you" must become a form that fits the relationship: "bạn" (neutral peer, common in UI), "quý khách" (formal customer), "anh/chị/em/cô/chú" (kinship terms by age and gender). Do not translate every "you" as "bạn" in formal or banking text; use "quý khách" or restructure the sentence.
  • Word order is subject-verb-object, but modifiers follow the noun: "user account" is "tài khoản người dùng" (account user). Reverse English noun stacks.
  • Vietnamese is topic-prominent and often drops subjects and objects when clear. Avoid literal copies of English pronouns and passive sentences.
  • The "bị" passive implies something unfortunate and "được" implies something beneficial; choose correctly ("Tệp đã bị xóa" for an accident, "Bạn được cấp quyền" for a grant). Neutral text often avoids both.
  • Re-express idioms by meaning: "it's a piece of cake" is "dễ như ăn kẹo" or "quá dễ".

Grammar that trips translators.

  • No conjugation or declension; tense and aspect come from particles (đã for past, đang for ongoing, sẽ for future), which are often omitted when time is clear.
  • Classifiers (loại từ) before nouns: "một cái bàn", "hai con mèo", "ba người". Use the right classifier.
  • Plural is marked with "các" or "những" ("các tệp", "những tệp") or by numerals; do not add them everywhere.
  • Adjectives follow nouns ("tệp mới" for new file), and questions use particles like "không" and "chưa".

Register.

  • Choose the audience: UI strings commonly use "bạn" for a friendly tone and "quý khách" for customer service, banking, and formal text. Government and legal text use impersonal wording or "ông/bà". Be consistent.
  • Politeness particles (ạ, dạ, vâng) belong to speech and personal messages; use sparingly in UI.

Orthography and typography.

  • Every diacritic matters; tone marks and vowel marks change meaning (ma, má, mà, mả, mã, mạ). Use Unicode NFC (precomposed) text.
  • Syllables are separated by spaces, and compound words are written as separate syllables ("máy tính"); only some loanwords are hyphenated. Proper names capitalize each syllable ("Hà Nội").
  • Numbers: decimal comma, period for thousands (1.234,56); dates "ngày 17 tháng 10 năm 2026"; 24-hour clock; currency đồng "₫" or "VND" after the amount ("12.500 ₫").
  • Quotation marks “ ”; sentence case in titles.

Common pitfalls

  • Translating every "you" as "bạn" regardless of tone.
  • Keeping English noun order (modifier before head).
  • Missing or wrong diacritics, or using decomposed Unicode.
  • Adding plural markers or tense particles to every sentence.
  • Mixing northern and southern vocabulary unintentionally.
  • Using "bị" for neutral events.

Learn more

  • Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
  • Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
  • Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Vietnamese (https://aka.ms/vietnamese-styleguide)
  • Viện Ngôn ngữ học (Institute of Linguistics, Vietnam), Từ điển tiếng Việt

View locale-vi-001/SKILL.md on GitHub