Definition

1. Noun:

   • A distant, indefinite time period: Refers to a vague, often long-past (or occasionally far-future) period of time. It evokes a sense of a bygone era.
   • An age, an epoch: Denotes a specific historical or personal time period.

2. Adverb:

   • When (in the past): Used to introduce a clause specifying a time in the past.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • Thuở xưa, có một vị vua anh minh. (Once upon a time/In ages past, there was a wise king.)
  • Tôi nhớ những kỷ niệm *thuở còn đi học.* (I remember the memories from my school days.)
  • Chim vào lồng biết *thuở nào ra?* (Once a bird enters a cage, who knows when it will get out? - proverb)

• Adverb:

  • Thuở anh ra đi, tôi hãy còn nhỏ. (When you left, I was still very young.)
  • Thuở ấy, đời sống còn nhiều khó khăn. (Back then/At that time, life was still very difficult.)

Advanced Usage

• "thuở nào": Used in rhetorical questions or exclamations to mean "what time?", "when?", or to express a nostalgic "those days".

  • Biết đến *thuở nào mới gặp lại?* (Who knows when we will meet again?)
  • Ôi, *thuở nào còn thơ dại!* (Oh, those childhood days!)

• "từ thuở": Since (a time in the past). Emphasizes the starting point of a duration.

  • Tôi quen cô ấy *từ thuở mới lên mười.* (I've known her since I was just ten years old.)

• "thuở ấy": At that time, in those days. A fixed phrase pointing to a previously mentioned or understood past period.

  • Thuở ấy, nhà tôi còn nghèo lắm. (In those days, my family was still very poor.)

• "chẳng mấy thuở": Not many times; rarely. A literary way to say something seldom happens.

  • Được dịp sum họp *chẳng mấy thuở.* (Opportunities for reunion are rare.)

Variants and Related Words

• Thuở xưa / Ngày xưa (n): Ancient times, olden days, "once upon a time".
• Thuở bé / Thuở nhỏ (n): Childhood days.
• Thuở ban đầu (n): The very beginning, the initial period.
• Thưở (n): A poetic/archaic variant of "thuở".

Synonyms

• Thời (n): Time, period, era. (More common and neutral than "thuở").
• Hồi (n/adv): Time, period; when. (More colloquial for past periods).
• Ngày (n): Day; can be used in constructs like "ngày xưa" (similar to "thuở xưa").
• Khi (adv/conj): When. (A general conjunction for time, less poetic than "thuở").

Notes on Usage

• Register: "Thuở" is a literary, somewhat poetic word. It is common in proverbs, folk tales, literature, and formal or nostalgic speech. In everyday conversation, words like "hồi", "khi", "thời" are more frequently used.
• Temporal Focus: It primarily refers to the past. When used for the future (as in the proverb example), it is in a speculative, indefinite sense.
• Combination: It is rarely used alone as a standalone noun in modern sentences. It is almost always part of a phrase like "thuở xưa", "thuở ấy", "từ thuở", or followed by a clause ("thuở anh ra đi").

noun

1. time, age, period

adv phó từ

1. When