In Vietnamese, đâu is used to express “where”.
Vietnamese is a wh-in-situ language, which means, in Vietnamese, the question words aren’t moved to the beginning of sentences, but rather stay in their original positions.
Structure
In Vietnamese, adverbials of place usually lie at the end of sentences, so it is also the usual position of đâu.
Clause + đâu?
Examples
- Anh đang ở đâu?Where are you?
- Hôm qua anh ấy đi đâu?Where did he go yesterday?
- Bạn đến từ đâu?Where are you from?
- Cô ấy làm việc ở đâu?Where does she work?
Usage note
For the simple question: “where is/are something/someone?”, in some cases, it sounds more natural to omit ở. The answer can also give information about what happened to or the state of the thing being asked instead of literally its location, similar to in English.
- A:Tiền đâu?Where’s the money?
- B:Trên bàn / Ở trên bàn.On the table.
- A:Cái hộp nhựa đâu?Where’s the plastic box?
- B:Vứt đi rồi.Thrown away.
Be careful with nouns indicating big (especially stationary) things, such as “house”, “bridge”, “mountain”. It is a little more complicated with them: when asking about location, include ở, but when asking about what happened or state (like “it used to be here, but now it’s gone, where is it?”), omit it.