Vietnamese

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Etymology

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Sino-Vietnamese word from (abstract thing), from Literary Chinese . Per Chinese morphology, it's used as a suffix and is fossilized in borrowings. In Vietnamese, it became a prefix to conform to native morphology. Compare other verbal nominalizers such as Rade klei and Japanese (koto). Also compare một cách (adverbializer).

Pronunciation

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Prefix

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sự

  1. matters; affairs
    sự đời
    life affairs; life concerns
  2. nominalizes verbs or adjectives
    sự sống còn
    survival
    (literally, “surviving thing”)
    sự đau đớn
    pain
    (literally, “painful thing”)

Derived terms

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Derived terms

See also

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