When to use it
Use it at an airport to ask staff where your boarding gate is.
The sentence in English (“Can you help me find my gate?”)
In “Can you help me find my gate?” ‘help me find’ drops ‘to’, and ‘my’ is required before ‘gate’.
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- you
- pronounpersonal pronoun
- help
- verbhelp · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- me
- pronounobject pronoun
- find
- verbfind · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after a modal or after "help me"
- my
- determinerpossessive determiner
- gate
- nounnoun; the boarding gate at an airport
The sentence in Vietnamese (“Bạn giúp tôi tìm cổng lên máy bay được không?”)
In “Bạn giúp tôi tìm cổng lên máy bay được không?” the parts chain together: ‘giúp tôi’ (help me), ‘tìm’ (find), ‘cổng lên máy bay’ (boarding gate). No ‘my’ is needed, and the tag ‘được không’ makes it a gentle request.
- Bạn
- pronounneutral 'you', fine with young staff
- giúp
- verbgiúp · tense: unmarked · 'help'; the person helped follows
- tôi
- pronoun'me', the one needing help
- tìm
- verbtìm · tense: unmarked · 'find'; follows giúp tôi directly
- cổng
- noun'gate'
- lên
- verblên · tense: unmarked · 'go up'; lên máy bay = board
- máy
- noun'machine'; máy bay = plane
- bay
- nounliterally a flying machine
- được
- auxiliary verbđược · tense: unmarked · … được không? softens the request
- không
- particlequestion particle
What changes from one language to the other (English × Vietnamese)
English requires ‘my’; Vietnamese leaves it out. English ‘gate’ becomes the fuller ‘cổng lên máy bay’.
Example conversation
— Bạn giúp tôi tìm cổng lên máy bay được không?
— Can you help me find my gate?
— Dạ được, cho em xem thẻ lên máy bay ạ.
— Sure, may I see your boarding pass?