In Vietnamese, we use chưa to express “not yet”.
General structure
Structure
Place chưa before a verb or an adjective to express “not yet”.
chưa + verb / adj.
Examples
Exception
There is one verb that doesn’t follow the general structure above: là (“to be”). In fact, placing chưa right before là, while still grammatically correct, sounds unnatural. To use chưa with là, add phải after chưa.
Structure
Place chưa phải before là.
chưa phải + là + obj.
Most of the time, là can be omitted without affecting the meaning.
chưa phải + obj.
Note that this structure is for the verb là that means “to be” only, not “to iron” (which is là in the Northern dialect, but ủi in the Southern dialect).