No conjugation, no plurals, no gender, no cases. Meaning comes from word order + little marker words. Master the markers, you've mastered the grammar.
PHẦN I · 01
Time & aspect — the "tense" system
Vietnamese verbs never change shape for time. A separate marker word sits in front of (or, for one of them, after) the verb, and that marker is the only thing that tells you when something happened.
| Marker | Position | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| đã | before verb | past (completed) | Em đã ăn — I ate |
| đang | before verb | in progress | Em đang ăn — I'm eating |
| sẽ | before verb | future | Em sẽ ăn — I'll eat |
| sắp | before verb | about to | Em sắp ăn — about to eat |
| vừa / mới | before verb | just did | Em vừa ăn — just ate |
| rồi | sentence END | already / done | Em ăn rồi — I've eaten |
| chưa | before verb | not yet | Em chưa ăn — haven't eaten |
Drop the marker whenever context already says the time. "Hôm qua em ăn phở" (yesterday I eat phở) — no đã needed.
Overusing đã is the #1 foreigner tell.
PHẦN II · 02
Questions
Vietnamese doesn't reorder words to ask a question the way English does ("You are" → "Are you"). It adds a question word instead, and the rest of the sentence stays exactly where it was.
| Pattern | Asks | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ... không? | yes/no | Em ăn không? — eating? |
| Có ... không? | yes/no (fuller) | Có ngon không? — is it good? |
| ... chưa? | done yet? | Ăn chưa? — eaten yet? |
| ... à? / hả? | seeking confirmation | Em là người Anh à? — you're English, right? |
| ... phải không? | tag question | Đắt, phải không? — expensive, right? |
| gì | what | Ăn gì? — eat what? |
| đâu / ở đâu | where | Đi đâu? — go where? |
| ai | who | Ai đấy? — who's that? |
| bao nhiêu / mấy | how many (big/small numbers) | Bao nhiêu tiền? / Mấy giờ? |
| khi nào / bao giờ | when (start = future, end = past) | Bao giờ đi? vs Đi bao giờ? |
| sao / tại sao | why | Sao em buồn? |
| thế nào | how | Thế nào? — how is it / what's up? |
Answering yes/no: echo the verb. "Có ăn không?" → "Ăn!" or "Không ăn." ("Yes"/"No" alone sounds off.)
PHẦN III · 03
Negation
Vietnamese has several negation words, and which one you reach for depends on whether you're denying an action, denying it so far, or forbidding one.
| Word | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| không + verb | not | Em không biết |
| chưa + verb | not yet | Em chưa biết |
| đừng + verb | don't! (imperative) | Đừng lo — don't worry |
| không phải là | is not (nouns) | Em không phải là khách du lịch |
| có ... đâu | emphatic denial | Em có biết đâu! — I really don't know! |
PHẦN IV · 04
Top-10 classifiers (the counting words)
Most nouns you count need a classifier between the number and the noun — you can't just say "one dog," you have to say "one [animal-classifier] dog." Skipping it is one of the fastest ways to sound like the sentence was translated word-for-word from English.
| Classifier | For | Example |
|---|---|---|
| cái | most objects (default) | cái bàn, cái áo |
| con | animals + some movers | con chó, con đường (road!) |
| chiếc | vehicles, single items of pairs | chiếc xe máy |
| quả / trái (S) | fruits, round things | quả chuối |
| cuốn / quyển | books | quyển sách |
| bát / cốc / chai | bowl of / glass of / bottle of | bát phở, cốc bia |
| tờ | flat sheets | tờ tiền — banknote |
| đôi | pairs | đôi đũa — chopsticks |
| người | people (counting) | ba người |
| bức | pictures, letters, walls | bức ảnh |
Pattern: number + classifier + noun (+ này/kia) → hai bát phở, cái này (this one).
PHẦN V · 05
The power trio: được / bị / cho
Three small words do an outsized amount of work in everyday speech: one marks something good happening TO you, one marks something bad happening TO you, and one means give, for, or let.
| Word | Flavor | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| được | good passive / can / get to | được khen (praised), Ăn được không? (edible/can I?), Được! (OK!) |
| bị | bad passive / suffer | bị ốm (got sick), bị tắc đường (stuck in traffic) |
| cho | give / for / let | cho em một bát (give me a bowl), mua cho em (buy FOR me), cho em xem (let me see) |
PHẦN VI · 06
Comparison
Comparisons stack a small word AFTER the adjective rather than changing the adjective's form the way English does (good → better → best).
| Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A + adj + hơn (B) | more than | Phở này ngon hơn — this phở's better |
| A + adj + nhất | the most | ngon nhất Hà Nội |
| A + adj + bằng B | as ... as | rẻ bằng — as cheap as |
| càng ... càng ... | the more ... the more | càng ăn càng ngon |
PHẦN VII · 07
Word order — where Vietnamese moves things
Five everyday word-order habits trip up English speakers because the default slot for the same idea is in a different place.
Modifiers come AFTER the noun
phở bò, nhà to (big house), người Việt — the describing word trails the thing it describes, the opposite of English's "beef noodles."
This/that comes after noun + classifier
cái áo này (this shirt) — English says "this shirt," Vietnamese says "shirt this."
Possession = của, or just word order
xe của em / xe em — my bike. Either the explicit "of" word or bare juxtaposition works.
Time words go first or last, never mid-sentence
Mai em đi. / Em đi mai. (Tomorrow I go.) — put "tomorrow" in the English middle slot and it just sounds foreign.
đi at the END is a gentle push, not "go"
Ăn đi! (eat up!), Nói đi! (go on, say it!) — the same word that means "go," parked at the end of a sentence, turns into "go on, do it."
PHẦN VIII · 08
If you remember nothing else
Markers, not tenses
Time is a word you drop in front of the verb, not a change to the verb itself — and you drop the marker entirely once context already carries the time.
Echo the verb, don't say "yes"
"Có ăn không?" is answered with "Ăn!" or "Không ăn," never a bare "yes" or "no."
The noun leads, the description follows
phở bò, nhà to, người Việt — say the thing first, then what kind of thing it is, not the other way around.
đi at the end is a nudge, not "go"
Ăn đi! and Nói đi! use the sentence-final đi as a gentle push to act, not as the verb "to go."