Lesson 7: Possession with “của” and noun–noun structures

Possession: who owns what

Vietnamese talks about possession by naming the thing first, then the person or thing it belongs to. This follows the same “main idea first” pattern you’ve already seen with adjectives and descriptions.

When you say xe tôi, you are literally saying “car me.” The owned item comes first; the owner follows.

The owner follows the owned

This word order is very stable. Whether you are talking about objects or people, the pattern stays the same.

xe tôi
(my car)

sách Lan
(Lan’s book)

bạn tôi
(my friend)

The meaning comes from the order, not from special endings or markers.

The optional marker của

Vietnamese also has the word của, which clearly signals “belonging to” or “of.” It can appear between the object and the owner.

xe của tôi
(my car)

nhà của anh ấy
(his house)

Using của makes the relationship explicit, but it is not always required.

Direct noun–noun possession

In everyday speech, especially with close relationships or familiar items, của is often dropped. The two nouns are simply placed next to each other.

mẹ tôi
(my mother)

tay em
(your hand)

nhà mẹ
(mom’s house)

Relationship and ownership use the same structure

The same pattern works for people and for things. There is no grammatical difference between “relationship” and “ownership” — context does the work.

bố tôi
(my dad)

công ty bố tôi
(my dad’s company)

Clarifying with của

You will notice của more often in longer sentences or when the speaker wants to avoid confusion or add emphasis.