Placement of question words

When it comes to making open-ended questions in Vietnamese, an important thing to note is that the word order is different from that of English.

Concept

Vietnamese is a wh-in-situ language, which means the question words aren’t moved to the start of sentences as is the case with English, but rather stay in their original positions.

For example, if the statement is:

• Tôi đến từ Việt Nam.
  I come from Vietnam.

then the question is:

• Anh đến từ đâu?
  Where do you come from?You come from where?

The position of đâu (“where”) in the question is the same as that of Việt Nam in the statement, unlike English, which moves “where” to the start of the sentence.

Examples

➤ Asking “how” with “thế nào”

• A:Anh thấy thế nào?
  How do you feel?
• B:Tôi thấy ổn.
  I feel OK.

➤ Asking “what about” with “thì sao”

• A:Cuộc họp ngày mai thì sao?
  What about the meeting tomorrow?
• B:Cuộc họp vẫn diễn ra.
  The meeting is stil on.

➤ Asking “what” with “gì”

• A:Anh muốn gì?
  What do you want?
• B:Tôi muốn chút cà phê.
  I want some coffee.

➤ Asking “when” with “khi nào”

• A:Khi nào có mưa?
  When will it rain?
• B:Ngày mai có mưa.
  Tomorrow it will rain.

➤ Asking “where” with “đâu”

• A:Anh ấy đi đâu?
  Where does he go?
• B:Anh ấy đi Pháp.
  He goes to France.

➤ Asking “which” with “nào”

• A:Anh thích cái nào?
  Which one do you like?
• B:Tôi thích cái này.
  I like this one.

➤ Asking “who” with “ai”

• A:Anh tìm ai?
  Who are you looking for?
• B:Tôi tìm quản lí.
  I’m looking for the manager.

➤ Asking “why” with “tại sao”

• A:Tại sao anh đến muộn?
  Why are you late?
• B:Vì tôi ngủ quên.
  Because I overslept.