Kia (De Pro)

Situations

S1: Mai pointed to a man walking on the street and asked Lan:

Kia là ai?
(Who is that?)

In this situation, kia is a demonstrative pronoun used to indicate people or things that can be seen but are far from both the speaker and listener(s).

S2: Mai saw a crowd in front of her. Mai asked her friend:

Ở kia có chuyện gì thế?
(What's happening over there?)

In this situation, kia is a pronoun which indicates a place that can be seen, but is far from the speaker and listener(s).

Definition

Kia, as a demonstrative pronoun, is used to refer to people / things / places that can be seen but are far from both the speaker and listener(s).

  • Kia belongs to the demonstrative pronoun group: đây, này, đấy, đó, ấy. Cf. ấy1 (p. 11), đây1 (p. 123), đấy1 (p. 131).

  • kia and ấy / đấy / đó: Kia differs from ấy / đấy / đó in that kia is used to refer to people / things that are far from the speaker and listener(s) but can be seen, while ấy / đấy / đó is used to refer to people / things in a sphere that may or may not be seen. Cf:

[1a] Kia là con gì?
     (What animal is over there?) (Far from both speaker and listener, but can be seen.)
[1b] Ấy là con gì?
     (What animal is that?) (Far from both speaker and listener, but can be seen.)
[1c] Đấy là con gì?
     (What animal is that?) (Far from both speaker and listener, but can be seen.)
[1d] Đó là con gì?
     (What animal is that?) (Far from speaker but near listener, but can be seen.)

In the above sentences, the animal mentioned is far from both the speaker and listener, but can be seen. Therefore, the words kia, ấy, đấy, đó may be interchanged.

[2] Nghe nói Nam có nhà ở Đà Lạt. *Kia / Ấy / Đấy là nhà riêng của Nam à?
    (I heard that Nam has a house in Đà Lạt. Is that his own house?)

In sentence [2], Nam's house was mentioned but cannot be seen; therefore, we cannot use kia to refer to Nam's house.