We without you, we with you: chúng tôi, chúng ta

Vietnamese splits "we" in two. Chúng tôi leaves out the person you're talking to: "my group and I, not you". Chúng ta takes them in: "all of us, you included". A shop says Chúng tôi mở cửa đến mười giờ (we're open until ten); a teacher says Hôm nay chúng ta học bài năm (today we're all doing lesson five).

The address system shows here too. Students talking to a teacher, or younger people talking to older ones, say chúng em: "we, the younger ones". Chúng mình is a friendly "we", usually including the listener, though many speakers also use it for "my group and I".

In Saigon, chúng tôi and chúng ta belong to careful speech, announcements and writing. Among friends and family, people use tụi: tụi tui or tụi em (we, not you) and tụi mình (usually we, you included). In Hà Nội the casual word is bọn: bọn tôi, bọn mình.

The choice changes who's invited. Tụi mình đi ăn nha asks the listener along; Tụi tui đi ăn nha tells them you're going without them.