ít:	little, few	qud:	very, excessively
nám:	year	khen qud Idi: to flatter someone	
thúnhat:	first	nam nay:	this year
sink vien nám		cqu:	you (familiar)
thú nhät:	first-year student, freshman	ngoai ngO:	foreign language
day:	to teach	hay:	or
cdc:	plural marker	minh:	I (familiar)
giôi:	well, good	dinh:	to plan, intend
lám:	very	the ndo?:	what? how?
khen:	to praise		
Grammar Notes
1. The words it "few, little" and nhieu "many, much" indicate quantity.
1.1 .They may precede: (1) a countable noun without any classifier: it sach "few books," nhieu sach "many books"; (2) an uncountable noun: it ccfm "little rice," nhieu ctfm "much rice."
1.2. They may follow a verb, modifying it: biet it "to know little," biet nhieu "to know much."
2. Ordinal numbers are formed from the regular number system by the addition of thvt before the numbers. Note that there are two exceptions: mot is replaced by nhat, and bon is replaced by tu.
thvt nhcft: first thvt hai: second thvt ba: third thti tu: fourth thvt nam: fifth
thitsdu: sixth thvt bay: seventh thu tdm: eighth thuchin: ninth thvt mudi: tenth
3. The plural markers cdc and nhvtng convey the notion of plurality: cdc sinh vien "students," nhutng quyen s£ch "books." Generally speaking, cdc implies that all of a given set of entities are involved, while nhiing suggests that only a certain number of the total possible number are referred to.
Note that (1) only cdc is used before personal pronouns in direct addressing: Chao cdc anh cdc chi! "Hello!"; (2) in most cases only nhiing is used with the word ngUdi: nhiing ngudi Ph£p ay, nhiing ngudi My nay.
4. The adverbs of degree rät "very," läm "very," and qua "very, excessively" are used with adjectives and with a few verbs such as thick "to like," yeu "to love," jo'"to fear, to be afraid," lo "to worry, to be worried."
Rät precedes the adjectives and the verbs, lam and qua follow them. In terms of conveying degree, rät denotes a moderate degree, lam is used in the sense of a greater degree, and qua indicates an extreme degree, sometimes going beyond the usual limits:
Chiéc áo näy rät dep. "This shirt is quite beautiful."
Chiéc áo näy dep lám. "This shirt is very beautiful."
Chiéc áo näy dep qua! "This shirt is extremely beautiful!"
When the verb functioning as the predicate has an object, rät is placed before the verb, lam and qua at the end of the sentence, without the word nhíeu "much":
Tôi rät thích chiéc áo näy. "I rather like this shirt."
Tôi thích chiéc áo näy lám. "I like this shirt very much."
Tôi thích chiéc áo näy quá\ "I really like this shirt!"
In the question formed by the frame construction có.. .không and in the negative sentences, the adverbs rät and qua are replaced by the adverb lám:
Chiéc áo näy rat dep. -> Chiéc áo näy có dep lám không?
Chiéc áo näy dep lám. -> Chiéc áo näy không dep lám.
Chiéc áo näy dep quá! Chiéc áo näy không dep lám.
However, when the predicate is expressed by a verb, the adverb rät may precede the verb in the negative sentence in the sense of "at all":
Tôi không thích chiec áo näy lam. "I don't like this shirt very much."
Tôi rät không thích chiec áo náy. "I don't like this shirt at all."
6. The interrogative word the näo/nhu thenäo "what, how" is placed after a noun group without the link verb la, and is placed after a verb in the questions:
7. When an adjective modifies a verb (like an adverb modifying a verb in English), it follows the verb or the verb group: ve dep "to draw beautifully," hat hay "to sing well," hoc khd "to study well." noi tieng Viet nidi "to speak Vietnamese well." 5. The word hay [la] has the meaning "or":
Nam nay toi dinh hoc tieng NhSt hay [Id] tiSng Trung Quoc. "This academic year I plan to study Japanese or Chinese."
The word hay [la] may function as an interrogative word and refer to any part of the sentence:
Bd'doc sach hay nghi? "Does father read a book or rest?"
Ngdi nha ay dep hay xdu "ugly"? "Is that house nice or ugly?"
John noi tieng Viet gioi hay kirn "Does John speak Vietnamese well
Ngöi nhä näy [nhu] the näol Ngöi nhä näy möi vä dep. Hä ve [nhirj the näo? Hä ve rat dep.
"What is the house like?" "This house is new and beautiful. "How does Ha draw?" "Ha draws very beautifully."
not well"?
or not?
Note that when a question contains the interrogative word hay [Id], the interrogative construction is not used to form the question.