Đấy (De Adj)

Situations

S1: Mai went to the market to buy a shirt. Lan held up a blue one and asked the price. The salesman answered:

[1] Cái áo đấy giá 100.000 đồng.
    (That shirt costs one hundred thousand đồng.)

In [1], đấy refers to áo which is far from the speaker.

S2: Mai pointed to a white shirt that was far from her and asked the price. The salesman answered:

[2] Cái đấy giá 200.000 đồng.
    (That one costs two hundred thousand đồng.)

In S2, đấy is placed after the pronoun cái to refer to the white shirt which is far from both the speaker and the listener.

Definition

Đấy, as a demonstrative, placed after a noun / pronoun, indicates a concrete thing which is far from the speaker (that thing can be near to or far from the listener).

  • Đấy is one of the demonstratives like này, ấy, kia, nọ. Cf. ấy2 (p. 13), kia2 (p. 165).

  • đấy, đó and ấy: Đó, a demonstrative adjective, is similar to ấy, therefore đó can take the place of đấy but ấy cannot completely replace đó. Cf:

[1] A: Cái này giá bao nhiêu?
    B: Cái đấy / đó lấy 20.000 đồng.
    (How much does this cost? - That one costs twenty thousand đồng.)

(Far from the speaker.)

[2] Hôm qua, tôi gặp một người. Người *đấy / đó / ấy là bạn học cũ của tôi.
    (Yesterday, I met a person. That person was my old classmate.)

(Refers to what was mentioned before.)