Learn how to make questions and question tags in Vietnamese
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Intro |
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| Michael: How are questions made in Vietnamese? |
| Nguyet: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At VietnamesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Duc Do is asking her neighbor whether they'll join their party. Mark Lee wants to join but seeks confirmation from his wife. |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Đức Đỗ: Anh có đến dự tiệc của chúng tôi không? |
| Dialogue |
| Đức Đỗ: Anh có đến dự tiệc của chúng tôi không? |
| Mark Lee: Chúng tôi có chứ, phải không nào? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Đức Đỗ: Anh có đến dự tiệc của chúng tôi không? |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mark Lee: Chúng tôi có chứ, phải không nào? |
| Michael: "We are coming, aren't we?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you will learn how to form questions in Vietnamese. One thing you need to understand is that Vietnamese uses a different sentence structure than English when forming interrogative sentences. For instance, when asking "What" questions in English, you always place the question word at the beginning of the sentence, such as in, "What is your name?" In Vietnamese, the question word is usually placed at the end or near the end: |
| Nguyet: Tên bạn là gì? |
| Michael: This is literally, "Name you is what?" Also, in English, you need to rearrange the position of words to answer such a question. In Vietnamese, you only need to replace the question word with your answer. So, if my name is Paul, I’ll answer with |
| Nguyet: Tên tôi là Paul. |
| Michael: "My name is Paul." Now, what about question tags? How do you use them in Vietnamese? One of the most common question tags in Vietnamese is |
| Nguyet: phải không |
| Michael: This is a combination of the words "right" and "no." As a question tag, it’s the equivalent of the English "right," such as when you ask, |
| Nguyet: Bạn là sinh viên, phải không? |
| Michael: "You are a student, right?" The same question tag is used in our dialogue when Mark Lee asked, |
| Nguyet: Chúng tôi có chứ, phải không nào? |
| Michael: "We are coming, aren’t we?" This time, we have an additional word, the adverb, |
| Nguyet: nào |
| Michael: which in this context means "not." In a sense, Mark Lee was asking, "We are coming, am I right or not?" |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned how questions are made in Vietnamese. You've also learned about using question tags. Now, let's look at a couple of other examples. Our first example is: |
| Nguyet: Nghề nghiệp của bạn là gì? |
| Michael: "What is your occupation?" Here, we have a simple "What" question like in one of our examples earlier. Let’s try another one: |
| Nguyet: Bạn đang sống ở đâu? |
| Michael: "Where do you live?" The same rule that applies to the previous example can be applied to this question, which is a "Where" question. To answer this question, you simply replace the subject with "I" or |
| Nguyet: Tôi |
| Michael: and "Where" with your answer. For instance, you can say, "I live in London," or |
| Nguyet: Tôi đang sống ở London. |
| Michael: If you’re wondering if you can apply the same rule with other "WH" questions, the answer is yes. This time, let’s try a tag question: |
| Nguyet: Chúng ta sẽ đi xe buýt, phải không? |
| Michael: "We are taking the bus, right?" Here, we used the question tag, |
| Nguyet: phải không, |
| Michael: but it isn’t the only question tag in Vietnamese. Another one is |
| Nguyet: đúng không |
| Michael: which means "is it correct," such as in |
| Nguyet: Bạn là bác sĩ, có đúng không? |
| Michael: "You’re a doctor, is it correct?" |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Now, what if you want to ask yes-no questions? In that case, you can use the combination of the words, |
| Nguyet: có |
| Michael: and |
| Nguyet: không |
| Michael: To form a yes-no question, you simply place a verb or verb phrase between these two words. For instance, if you want to ask someone if they like Vietnamese food, you can say, |
| Nguyet: Bạn có thích món ăn Việt Nam không? |
| Michael: "Do you like Vietnamese food?" You can also place an adjective between the two words to ask "Are you" questions, such as |
| Nguyet: Bạn có đói không? |
| Michael: "Are you hungry?" |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: There’s another question tag you can use aside from the two we’ve already learned. However, this one is used when you already know the answer to your question and simply want to confirm. This question tag is |
| Nguyet: à |
| Michael: You can use this question tag to replace |
| Nguyet: phải không and đúng không |
| Michael: If you want to confirm that your friend is a vegetarian, for instance, you can ask |
| Nguyet: Bạn đang ăn chay, à? |
| Michael: "You’re a vegetarian, right?" or "You’re a vegetarian, huh?" |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Nguyet: Tạm biệt! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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