Compass points: Đông Nam, Tây Bắc

The four directions are bắc (north), nam (south), đông (east) and tây (west). To combine them, Vietnamese puts east or west first, the reverse of English: đông bắc is north-east, đông nam south-east, tây bắc north-west and tây nam south-west. South-East Asia is Đông Nam Á.

In a sentence they usually follow phía (side) or hướng (direction): phía bắc (the north, to the north), đi về hướng tây (head west). People also ask which way a house or flat faces, because many care about it: Nhà này hướng đông nam.

For the regions of Vietnam, the word is miền: miền Bắc, miền Trung, miền Nam. Miền Tây is the Mekong Delta, and Tây Bắc the mountains of the far north-west. As names of regions, they're written with capitals.

You'll meet the combined forms on maps and in the weather forecast: gió đông bắc, a north-east wind.