ở

From Proto-Vietic *ʔəh (“to stay”); cognate with Muong ớ.

Most prepositions in Vietnamese were originally verbs: cho (“to give; for”), đến (“to come; to”), tới (“to arrive; to”), lên (“to go up; onto”), vào (“to enter; in, into”), theo (“to follow; according to”), về (“to return; about”).

Similarity to Chinese 於／于 is coincidental, as semantically the Vietnamese word is a grammaticalized verbal and phonetically there is a tonal mismatch.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔəː˧˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔəː˧˨]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔəː˨˩˦]

• Audio (Hà Nội):

  (file)

• Audio (Saigon):

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ở

1. at, in

• lúc; vào

ở • (於, 𣄒, 𫵦)

1. to be, to live, to stay, to remain

ở (upper case Ở)

1. The letter ơ in hỏi tone.