giai

Thân thiện

Con giai đang giúp mẹ tưới cây trong vườn.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • Boy, son: "giai" is a Northern Vietnamese colloquial term meaning a male child or son. It is a phonetic variant of the standard word "trai".
   • Male: It can also refer to a male person in a general, informal context.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Nhà anh ấy có hai giai một gái. (His family has two boys and one girl.)
  • Thằng giai nhà tôi năm nay vào lớp một. (My boy/son is entering first grade this year.)

Advanced Usage

• "Con giai": This is the most common compound form, explicitly meaning "son" or "boy (child)".
  • Con giai cả của họ là một bác sĩ. (Their eldest son is a doctor.)

Variants and Related Words

• Trai (n): The standard, formal word for "boy", "son", or "male". "Giai" is a regional, colloquial synonym.
  • Con trai (son/boy)
• Gái (n): The counterpart meaning "girl", "daughter", or "female".
  • Con gái (daughter/girl)

Synonyms

• Trai: Boy, son (standard synonym).
• Con trai: Son, boy (standard term).

Notes on Usage

• Register: The word "giai" is primarily used in informal, spoken Northern Vietnamese. In formal writing or Southern Vietnamese speech, "trai" or "con trai" is preferred.
• Context: It is almost always used in the context of family and children (e.g., counting sons, referring to one's own son). Using it to refer to an adult male can sound very rustic or dialectal.
• Fixed Pattern: It frequently appears in the contrasting pair "giai – gái" (boys and girls / sons and daughters), as seen in the reference example.

Học thuật

1. như trai
   • Có hai giai một gái
     To have two boys (sons) and one daughter