# New, former, great before the noun in Vietnamese (B2)

> In everyday Vietnamese a describing word follows the noun: tổng thống mới, the new president.

Source: https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/sino-adj-before/ · Updated 2026-10-17

**new / former / big (before the noun)**

Pattern: `tân / cựu / đại + [Sino-Vietnamese noun] (= [noun] + mới / cũ)`

Level: B2 (our estimate) · Register: formal

In everyday Vietnamese a describing word follows the noun: *tổng thống mới*, the new president. A few Sino-Vietnamese ones go in front instead, and they're common in the news: *tân* (new), *cựu* (former), *đại* (great, big). *Tân tổng thống* is the new president; *cựu học sinh* are former students of a school; *đại dịch* is a pandemic, literally a great epidemic.

They attach to Sino-Vietnamese nouns, mostly roles and titles, and the pair becomes a fixed term: *tân sinh viên* (first-year students), *tân binh* (recruits, rookies), *cựu chiến binh* (veterans), *đại dự án* (mega-project). They don't go with everyday native words: a new house is *nhà mới*, never *tân nhà*.

For former officials, Vietnamese papers usually write *nguyên*, also in front: *nguyên Bộ trưởng*, the former minister. *Cựu* is common for alumni, veterans, athletes and foreign leaders.

In speech you'll hear these as fixed words: students talk about *tân sinh viên*, families about *cựu chiến binh*. For anything else, put the native word after the noun: *giám đốc mới* (the new director), *giám đốc cũ* (the former director).

## A common mistake

✗ Năm nay trường có 3.000 sinh viên tân.

✓ Năm nay trường có 3.000 tân sinh viên.

*Tân* and *cựu* go in front of the noun. A native describing word goes after it: *sinh viên mới*.

## Examples

- Trường tổ chức tuần lễ chào đón hơn 5.000 tân sinh viên. — The university is holding a welcome week for more than 5,000 new students.
- Buổi họp mặt thu hút hàng trăm cựu học sinh của trường. — The reunion drew hundreds of the school's former pupils.
- Tân tổng thống sẽ tuyên thệ nhậm chức vào tháng tới. — The new president will be sworn in next month.
- Ngành du lịch đã phục hồi hoàn toàn sau đại dịch. — The tourism industry has fully recovered from the pandemic.

## Compare

- [Describing words come after the noun: nhà lớn, not lớn nhà](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/adj-after-noun/): adjective after noun

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