What Is a Part of Speech?
A part of speech is the job a word is doing in a sentence. The same Vietnamese word can sometimes behave differently depending on where it appears, so this lesson focuses on the job first and the label second.
The Main Word Jobs
Nouns name people, places, and things. Pronouns replace nouns. Verbs show actions or states. Adjectives describe nouns, and adverbs describe actions or intensity.
Prepositions, conjunctions, particles, classifiers, numbers, and interjections help connect words, count things, show sentence structure, or express quick reactions.
Tôi học tiếng Việt.
I study Vietnamese.
Tôi is a pronoun, học is a verb, and tiếng Việt names the language.
Cái bàn đẹp.
The table is beautiful.
Cái can work as a classifier, bàn is a noun, and đẹp is an adjective.
Notice Verbs in Your Vocabulary
Vocabulary
bay
fly
biết
know, be aware, understand (a fact/skill)
biểu
perform; express
buồn
sad, unhappy, mournful
bán
sell, vend
Bảo
tell; protect
bật
turn on, switch on, flick on, spring up
bắt
catch; force
bắt đầu
start, begin, commence
chia
divide; share
chia sẻ
share, spread, distribute
chiên
fry; fried