# Cái + adjective: the … (abstract) in Vietnamese (B2)

> Cái in front of an adjective, and sometimes a verb, turns it into the quality itself: cái đẹp (beauty, the beautiful), cái mới (the new), cái ác (evil)…

Source: https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/cai-nominal/ · Updated 2026-10-17

**the … (abstract)**

Pattern: `cái + [adjective or verb]`

Level: B2 (our estimate) · Register: formal · Medium: written

Typed without accents: cai

*Cái* in front of an adjective, and sometimes a verb, turns it into the quality itself: *cái đẹp* (beauty, the beautiful), *cái mới* (the new), *cái ác* (evil), *cái chết* (death). *Cái tôi*, literally "the I", is the ego, your sense of self.

You'll meet it in two kinds of text. Essays, literature lessons and papers use it for ideas: *quan niệm về cái đẹp*, a view of beauty; *dám đón nhận cái mới*, daring to embrace the new. Weather news uses it for what you feel on your skin: *cái nóng gay gắt* (the fierce heat), *cái lạnh đầu mùa* (the first cold of the season).

It sits where any noun sits, often with a describing word after it: *cái nóng oi bức*, *cái tôi cá nhân*.

Its neighbour *sự* also makes nouns, but for processes and states that are discussed rather than felt: *sự phát triển* (development), *sự quan tâm* (attention). Each word goes with one of them by use, so you write *cái đẹp* but *sự phát triển*, not the other way round.

In conversation you'll still hear *cái nóng* and *cái lạnh*, but people mostly just describe the thing: *Trời nóng quá!* rather than talking about the heat, and *Đẹp quá!* rather than about beauty.

## Examples

- Cái nóng gay gắt kéo dài khiến lượng điện tiêu thụ tăng mạnh. — The long spell of fierce heat has driven a sharp rise in electricity use.
- Miền Bắc bắt đầu đón cái lạnh đầu mùa từ đêm nay. — The north will feel the first cold of the season from tonight.
- Bài thơ thể hiện quan niệm của tác giả về cái đẹp trong đời sống bình dị. — The poem expresses the author's view of beauty in ordinary life.
- Người lãnh đạo cần biết đặt cái tôi cá nhân sau lợi ích tập thể. — A leader needs to put their own ego after the interests of the group.

## Compare

- [Turning a verb or adjective into a noun: sự + word](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/su-nominal/): the … (abstract noun)

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