Luôn (Adv 2)

Situations

S1: Nam has a nice watch. His younger sister likes it very much. She said:

Anh cho em luôn cái đồng hồ này nhé!
(Please give it to me for good!)

In this situation, Nam's sister asked for the watch for keeps, not just to borrow it. Luôn expresses that she wants it permanently.

S2: John is working in Vietnam and his wife is Vietnamese. He decided to live in Vietnam for good.

[1a] John quyết định sống ở Việt Nam luôn.
[1b] John quyết định sống luôn ở Việt Nam.
     (John decided to live in Vietnam for good.)

In this situation, John decided to live in Vietnam forever and not return to his own country.

Definition

Luôn, as an adverb placed after the verb, indicates that an action or a state will continue to occur only in that same direction / sense, not in the reverse or opposite sense.

  • luôn and hẳn: In many cases, luôn and hẳn can be interchanged. However, hẳn can be used to express completion or definiteness. In such cases, luôn cannot be interchanged with hẳn. Cf:
[1] Căn nhà đó tôi đã mua luôn / hẳn rồi.
    (I went ahead and bought the house.) (I don't rent it anymore.)
[2] Sơn xong, căn nhà đẹp luôn / hẳn ra.
    (After the house was repainted, it surely looked nicer.) (It's clearly nicer.)

Combinations

  • Luôn as used here is often combined with verbs like: mua, bán, cho, tặng, sống, ở, etc.