Đây (De Pro)

Situations

S1: Nam introduces Mr. Johnson to his classmates:

Đây là ông Johnson, người Mỹ.
(This is Mr. Johnson, an American.)

Đây, a demonstrative pronoun, is used to show that the person or thing mentioned is near the speaker and the listener.

S2: Nam entered a pub. Seeing an empty chair, he asked a person who was sitting nearby:

Tôi ngồi đây có được không ạ?
(Is it alright if I sit here?)

In this situation, đây is used to indicate a place near both the speaker and the listener.

S3: Nam bought a ticket to go to Nha Trang. The salesperson handed him the ticket and said:

Vé của anh đây!
(Here's your ticket!) (Lit. Your ticket is here!)

Đây in this situation is placed at the end of the sentence and is used to indicate close proximity when the speaker gives / points out something to another person. It can be understood as a syntactic-reversed case. In the sentence "Đây là vé của anh", the speaker focuses on the position đây (here), not kia (there). It can be analyzed as "vé của anh" (your ticket) is the topic, and đây (here) is the comment / explanation.

S4: Tài put a jar of perfume in his pocket. His wife saw it and asked:

Cái gì đây?
(What's this?)

Like in S3, we can understand "Cái gì đây?" as a syntactic-reversed case of the sentence "Đây là cái gì?". This is similar to interrogative questions which have the Wh-question at the beginning of the sentence such as: "Ai đây?" (Who's there?), "Bao nhiêu lâu?" (How long?), "Con gì kia?" (What's that animal?).

Definition

Đây, as a demonstrative pronoun, is used to show that a person / thing / place (which the speaker mentioned) is near both the speaker and the listener.

Related Expressions

• Đây is one of the demonstrative pronouns: đây, đó, kia, đấy, ấy. Cf. đấy1 (p. 131), kia1 (p. 161), ấy1 (p. 11).

The relationship between the speaker, the listener, and the thing which is mentioned is expressed by using the following pronouns:

• đây and này: Both đây and này as pronouns indicate a thing which is near the speaker and the listener. However, này can be used as a subject only when making a list, although this function is seldom used. Cf:

[1] Này / Đây là chị ruột, này / đây là em dâu.
    (This is my blood elder sister, and this is my sister-in-law.)
[2a] Tôi đã từng sống ở đây / *này ba năm.
     (I lived here for three years.)
[2b] Tôi đã từng sống ở nơi này ba năm.
     (I lived at this place for three years.)
[3] Xin giới thiệu với các bạn, đây / *này là anh John.
    (I'd like to introduce to you, here is Mr. John.)

Cf. này2 (p. 271).