công

Công is a Vietnamese morpheme used widely in compounds and everyday speech. In Vietnamese, the syllable is derived from Sino-Vietnamese readings of two Chinese characters, 公 (public) and 功 (merit, achievement). In modern usage, the same syllable công appears in many terms that originate from these different roots, with the intended meaning clarified by context.

One major semantic field associates công with the public, communal, or official domain. This sense underpins words such as công khai (public, open), công dân (citizen), công sở (official workplace), công chức (civil servant), and công vụ (official duty). In this sense, công connotes collective life, state activity, or public administration.

A second semantic field centers on merit, effort, and labor. Here công appears in terms like công lao (merit, achievement), công sức (effort), tiền công (wage), and công trình (project, works). In these phrases, công expresses value attributed to contribution, labor, or productive output. The form also appears in workers-related terms such as công nhân (worker) and in phrases for tasks or jobs like công việc.

Công is thus a productive root in Vietnamese, forming a broad family of terms that touch on public life, citizenship, and the value of human labor. Its meaning shifts with context, ranging from public or official aspects to notions of merit and effort.