Expressing possession without “của”

In Vietnamese, we can always express possession with của. However, in some cases, it’s better to omit it.

Structure

Place the possessee directly before the possessor.

Examples

Usage note

In general, the foolproof way to express possession is using của. However, it can and even should be omitted in some cases.

While there are no hard-and-fast rules, the general principle is to omit it when the possessee is a concrete noun. Based on physical existence, there are two types of nouns: concrete and abstract.

• Concrete nouns are physical things that can be seen, touched, heard, etc.
• Abstract nouns are nonphysical ideas that can’t be perceived through the senses.

Concrete nouns

For some concrete nouns, của should be omitted. Examples:

In the examples above, it doesn’t sound natural to include của, or it will sound like the speaker is trying to “make a point”. For example, the phrase nhà của tôi carries a connotation of “I own this house” instead of a casual “my house”.

In general, của should be omitted for the nouns that indicate (note that there are still exceptions):

• A personal relationship (family, boy/girlfriend, teacher, boss, etc.)
• A group or organisation (family, school, company, etc.)

For other concrete nouns, things are quite tricky. In general, keeping and omitting của are both OK. Some nouns prefer the former; some prefer the latter; others are indifferent. In practice, it depends on context and multiple other factors: the sentence structure, its components and their positions, etc. Unfortunately, this is best understood through hands-on experience rather than theoretical explanation.

Abstract nouns

In general, abstract nouns require including của. Examples:

However, for some monosyllabic abstract nouns, của should be omitted (note that this is just a generalisation). Examples: