đi

See also: đĩ and Appendix:Variations of "di"

Serbo-Croatian

Interjection

đȋ (Cyrillic spelling ђи̑)

1. Alternative form of đȉha, đȉja (“giddyup”)

Vietnamese

Etymology

From Proto-Vietic *diː ~ tiː (“to go, to walk”); cognate with Muong ti, Chut [Rục] tiː², Thavung tiː² and Tho [Cuối Chăm] tiː².

The similarity to 移 (SV: di) is purely coincidental (a false cognate).

The development of the verb "to go" into an imperative marker is a Sprachbund phenomenon. Wu & Huang (2018) and de Sousa (2022) discuss similar usage of "to go" in the Northern Tai and Sinitic lects of Guangxi in particular (Zhuang bae, Nanning Cantonese 去 (hy³³), etc.)^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɗi˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɪj˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɪj˧˧]

• Audio (Hà Nội):

  (file)

Verb

đi • (𠫾, 𪠞)

1. to go

   đi đến ― go to

   đi ngủ ― go to bed

   đi chợ ― go to the market

   đi mua sắm ― go shopping

2. to leave; to set out

   Tàu hoả mấy giờ đi?

   What time does the train depart?

   • 2007, Quang Vinh, Bảo Thy (lyrics and music), “Vẫn tin mình có nhau [Still Think We've Got Each Other]”:

     Thôi chào em, anh đi. / Vậy thì người đi đi!

     Alright, goodbye, I'm leaving / Then leave, you dummy!

3. (vehicles, of people) to go by; to board; to get on

   đi máy bay ― go by plane

4. (of vehicles) to go/run/travel
5. (euphemistic) Short for đi ỉa (“to shit”) or đi ngoài (“to defecate”)
6. (Northern Vietnam) to wear (footwear)

   Synonym: mang

   mèo đi hia ― Puss in Boots

Adverb

đi

1. away; out of sight

   Nó chạy đi đâu rồi?

   Where the hell did he go?

   • 1941, Nam Cao, Chí Phèo:

     Ðó là cái bản tính của hắn, ngày thường bị lấp đi.

     That is his nature, which is usually hidden away.

Particle

đi • (𠫾, 𪠞)

1. at the end of a sentence, conveys an urging or commanding tone

   Thôi dẹp đi!

   Cut it out!

   • 1941, Nam Cao, Chí Phèo:

     Thấy Chí Phèo không nhúc nhích, cụ tiếp luôn: - Nào đứng lên đi. Cứ vào đây uống nước đã.

     Seeing that Chí Phèo wasn't budging, the old man continued, "Get up now. Come here and have some water."

   • 2007, Quang Vinh, Bảo Thy (lyrics and music), “Vẫn tin mình có nhau [Still Think We've Got Each Other]”:

     Vậy thì người đi đi!

     Then leave, you dummy!

Alternative forms

• đê

See also

Derived terms

• bỏ đi
• cút đi
• đi bão
• đi bộ
• đi bụi
• đi cầu
• đi đứng
• đi lại
• đi làm
• đi ngoài
• đi tong
• ra đi

 

• đội (“to wear (headgear)”)
• đi/mang (“to wear (a piece of footwear)”)
• quàng (“to wear (a scarf)”)
• choàng (“to wear (a cape or cloak)”)
• khoác (“to wear (over the shoulders)”)
• đeo (“to wear (an accessory)”)

References

1. de Sousa, Hilário. 2022. The Expansion of Cantonese Over the Last Two Centuries. In: Ye, Z. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
2. Yang, Huang, and Fuxiang, Wu. 2018. Central southern Guangxi as a grammaticalization area. In New trends in grammaticalization and language change, ed. Sylvie Hancil, Tine Breban, and José Vicente Lozano, 105–134. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.