In Vietnamese, không is used to form neutral yes-no questions, similar to “not” as in “Do you like it (or not)?” in English.
Simple form
Add không to the end of a positive statement.
Structure
Positive statement + không?
Examples
- Anh hiểu không?Do you understand?
- Bức tranh này đẹp không?Is this painting beautiful?
- Cô ấy có thể giúp chúng tôi không?Can she help us?
Unique structure for là
The verb là — “to be” — is not only negated differently from other verbs but also has a different neutral yes-no question structure, which uses the word phải, similar to the negation structure.
Structure
Add có phải before là.
có phải + là + … + không?
Usually, the verb là can be omitted, similar to the negation structure. The meaning stays the same.
có phải + … + không?
Examples
- Anh có phải là bác sĩ không?Are you a doctor?
- Đây có phải nhà anh ấy không?Is this his home?
- Cây bút này có phải là của anh không?Is this your pen?
Full form
The full form is a hybrid structure between the simple form and the emphatic “do” structure with có. However, note that, in this structure, có doesn’t have any emphatic effect.
In general, the simple form only works for “simple” sentences: short, simple subject, simple verb, etc. It sounds quite unnatural for more complex sentences. In contrast, the full form works for every sentence. Because of this, using the full form is a foolproof option to avoid sounding unnatural.
Structure
có + verb/adj. + … + không?
The conjunction hay and its extended version hay là, which mean “or”, can be added before không. It is often used in embedded questions.
có + verb/adj. + … + hay + không?
có + verb/adj. + … + hay là + không?
Examples
- Hôm nay anh ấy có đi làm không?Does he go to work today?
- Làm như vậy có phức tạp quá không?Is doing it that way too complicated?
- Chúng ta có nên nói với anh ấy không?Should we tell him?
How to answer
Neutral yes-no questions can be answered with either “yes” or “no”.
-
For the verb là:
-
There are two ways to say “yes”:
- đúng
- phải
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There are two ways to say “no”:
- không
- không phải
-
There are two ways to say “yes”:
-
For other verbs:
-
There are three ways to say “yes”:
- có
- Repeating the verb/adjective
- có plus the verb/adjective (this option carries a slight emphasis)
-
There are two ways to say “no”:
- không
- không plus the verb/adjective
-
There are three ways to say “yes”:
For any option, including the subject (recommended) makes the answer sound more polite and less abrupt, similar to the difference between “No, I don’t” and just “No”. Note that, sometimes, the subject should go after the “yes” or “no” if the verb is là (like “it’s me” instead of “I am”, or “it’s not you” instead of “you aren’t”).
Furthermore, if the verb is là, it is optional to include a word indicating confirmation as is the case with biased yes-no questions.
- A:Anh có phải là bác sĩ không?Are you a doctor?
- B:Phải. / Đúng. / Vâng, đúng rồi. / Vâng, tôi là bác sĩ.Yes. / Yes. / Yes. / Yes, I’m a doctor.
- A:Anh có phải là bác sĩ không?Are you a doctor?
- B:Không. / Không phải. / Không, tôi không phải. / Không, tôi không phải là bác sĩ.No. / No. / No, I’m not. / No, I’m not a doctor.
- A:Anh hiểu không?Do you understand?
- B:Có. / Hiểu. / Có hiểu. / Tôi có. / Tôi hiểu.Yes. / Yes. / YES. / Yes, I do. / Yes, I do.
- A:Anh hiểu không?Do you understand?
- B:Không. / Không hiểu. / Tôi không. / Tôi không hiểu.No. / No. / No, I don’t. / No, I don’t.
Usage note
Similar to the emphatic “do” structure, the full form doesn’t work with the verb có or the modal adverb có thể.
There are a number of adverbs that don’t work well with neutral yes-no questions, such as đều, cũng or sẽ. Other question structures like biased yes-no questions or tag questions are more suitable options.