Questions & Answers about Ông ấy vượt tôi.
Ông ấy means he, but more specifically it refers to an older man or a man treated with a certain level of respect.
- ông = an older man / Mr. / he (for an older male)
- ấy = that; in combinations like this, it helps point out that person / he
So ông ấy is literally something like that man or that gentleman, but in natural English it is often just he.
Why not anh ấy? Because anh ấy would usually be used for a younger man or a man around the speaker’s age, depending on the relationship. Vietnamese chooses pronouns based a lot on age and social relationship, not just grammatical person.
In ông ấy, ấy helps identify the person being talked about: that man, he.
It often works like a demonstrative element meaning that. In pronoun phrases, it commonly helps form third-person references:
- anh ấy = he (younger man / man of similar age)
- chị ấy = she (older sister / slightly older woman)
- ông ấy = he (older man)
So in this sentence, ấy is not a separate pronoun by itself. It is part of the noun phrase ông ấy.