# Em trai / con gái: male / female (kin) in Vietnamese

> Some family words, like em (younger sibling) and con (child), don't say whether someone is male or female, so trai (male) or gái (female) goes after…

Source: https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/trai-gai/ · Updated 2026-11-09

**male / female (kin)**

Pattern: `em / anh / con / bạn + trai · em / chị / con / bạn + gái`

Level: A1 (our estimate) · Register: everyday

Typed without accents: em trai, con gai

Some family words, like *em* (younger sibling) and *con* (child), don't say whether someone is male or female, so *trai* (male) or *gái* (female) goes after them: *em trai* (younger brother), *em gái* (younger sister), *con trai* (son), *con gái* (daughter). *Anh* already means an older brother and *chị* an older sister, but *anh trai* and *chị gái* are common too, to make clear you mean a real sibling and not just someone you call *anh*.

The order is the family word first, then *trai* or *gái*, like any describing word after a noun. To say whose, add the person after: *em gái tôi* (my younger sister), *con trai chị Lan* (Lan's son).

On their own, *con trai* and *con gái* also mean "boy" and "girl": *Con trai hay con gái?* Is it a boy or a girl? The same words make *bạn trai* (boyfriend) and *bạn gái* (girlfriend), though they can also just mean a male or female friend; context tells. Brothers and sisters together are *anh chị em*: *Em có mấy anh chị em?*

For animals the words are different: *đực* (male) and *cái* (female).

## A common mistake

✗ Anh tôi mới mười tuổi.

✓ Em trai tôi mới mười tuổi.

If he's younger than you, he isn't *anh*: *anh* is an older brother. A younger brother is *em trai*, whatever English calls him.

## Examples

- Em có một em trai và một em gái. — I have a younger brother and a younger sister.
- Con trai chị năm nay mười tuổi. — My son is ten this year.
- Saigon: Con trai hay con gái vậy chị? | Hà Nội: Con trai hay con gái thế chị? — Is it a boy or a girl?
- Anh có bạn gái chưa? — Do you have a girlfriend yet?

## Compare

- [Couples and pairs of people: hai vợ chồng, hai anh em](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/hai-vo-chong/): X and his wife / my brother and I
- [You and I are family words: anh, chị, em, cô, chú, ba / mẹ and con, thầy / cô and em](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/address-kinship/): address by age and relationship

Previous in Things, counting and numbers: [Big numbers: trăm, ngàn / nghìn, triệu, tỷ](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/big-numbers/)
Next in Things, counting and numbers: [Classifier alone when the noun is clear: cái này, con kia](https://vietnamesebuddy.com/grammar/clf-alone/)

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