In Vietnamese, we use đâu to ask “where”.
Structure
Place đâu at the end of the sentence, the usual place for adverbials of place. The logic behind this is explained in placement of question words.
… + đâu?
Examples
- Anh ở đâu?
Where are you? - Bạn đến từ đâu?
Where are you from? - Hôm qua anh ấy đi đâu?
Where did he go yesterday? - Cô ấy làm việc ở đâu?
Where does she work?
Usage notes
Common mistake: Remember to add a preposition when necessary. If we use a word-for-word translation from English:
- Anh sống đâu? ❌
This is wrong. Let’s look at an expected answer:
- Tôi sống ở Huế.
I live in Huế.
So the question should be:
- Anh sống ở đâu? ✅
Where do you live?
This is because, in Vietnamese, đâu can only replace the place itself (which is Huế in this case) in questions, not encompassing the preposition ở (“in”). This is different from “where” in English, so we have to add ở to compensate.
Common mistake: Note that it doesn’t require any verb to express “to be in/at”. A common mistake made by Vietnamese learners is using the verb là (“to be”) as if it was English, but this is wrong:
- Anh là ở đâu? ❌
- Anh ở đâu? ✅
Where are you?
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 its location.
- 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.
However, be careful with nouns referring to big, stationary things, such as “house”, “bridge”, or “mountain”. It’s a bit more complicated: when asking about location, add ở, but when asking about state, omit it.
- Cái cột đèn ấy ở đâu?
Where is that lamp post?the location, the address - Cái cột đèn ấy đâu?
Where is that lamp post?it used to be here, but now it’s gone, where? what happened?