Grammar

There are two main ways to ask about time in Vietnamese:

• 1 – Mấy giờ rồi? (What’s the time)
• 2- Bây giờ là mấy giờ? (What time is it now? or literally Now is what time?)

The second way is actually used less often in daily conversations.

When using the first structure, it is a good idea to direct the question to a specific person.

Examples:

• Nam ơi mấy giờ rồi?    => The question is directed at Nam
• Thưa thầy, mấy giờ rồi ạ?   => The question is directed at the teacher. To make it more formal, the phrases “thưa thầy” and “ạ” are used.

To ANSWER these questions, we can use these structures:

• Bây giờ là …
• Giờ là…

Or you can simply tell the time.

(Please refer to the Culture Notes section to learn about how to express time in Vietnamese)

To ask about WHEN, beside “Mấy giờ” we can use the following question words:

• Lúc nào: Lúc nào anh đến trường?
• Khi nào: Khi nào anh đến trường?
• Bao giờ: Bao giờ anh đến trường?

These all mean: When do you go to school?

These question words can be put at the end of a sentence as well:

• Anh đến trường lúc nào?
• Anh ăn tối khi nào?
• Anh đọc sách bao giờ?
• Anh đi ngủ lúc mấy giờ?

To answer these questions, you simply have to replace the question words with a specific time. Make sure to put these time at the end:

• Anh đến trường lúc nào? => Tôi đến trường sáng nay. (I got to the school this morning)
• Anh ăn tối khi nào? => Tôi ăn tối lúc 7 giờ. (I have dinner at 7 o’clock)
• Anh đọc sách bao giờ? => Tôi đọc sách ngay bây giờ. (I will read books right now)
• Anh đi ngủ lúc mấy giờ? => Tôi đi ngủ lúc 11h (I go to bed at 11 o’clock)

If you want to ask what a person was/is doing at a specific point in time, you can use the structures:

• Làm gì lúc: Anh làm gì lúc 9h tối? = What do you do at 9 PM?
• Làm gì vào: Anh làm gì vào buổi sáng? = What do you do in the morning?
• Làm gì vào lúc: Anh làm gì vào lúc 9h sáng hôm qua? = What were you doing at 9 AM yesterday?

For now, we focus mostly on time.

As you learn more expressions of time, we will expand the use of these structures.