When to use it
Use it to check whether guests or relatives you were expecting turned up.
The sentence in English: “Did they arrive last night?”
In “Did they arrive last night?” ‘Did’ carries the past tense, so ‘arrive’ stays in its base form.
- Did
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: past · auxiliary that makes a question in the past
- they
- pronounpersonal pronoun, third person plural
- arrive
- verbarrive · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "did" the verb stays in its base form
- last
- adjectiveadjective; "last night" means the night before today
- night
- nounnoun
The sentence in Vietnamese: “Tối qua họ có đến không?”
In “Tối qua họ có đến không?” the past comes only from ‘tối qua’ (last night); the verb ‘đến’ (arrive) does not change. The frame ‘có… không?’ wraps the verb to ask yes or no.
- Tối
- noun'evening', placed first
- qua
- adverbtối qua = last night
- họ
- pronoun'they'
- có
- particlecó… không? frames a yes/no question
- đến
- verbđến · tense: past (via tối qua) · 'arrive'; the time word gives the past
- không
- particlequestion particle at the end
What changes from one language to the other: English × Vietnamese
English needs ‘did’; Vietnamese only a time word, usually placed first.
Example conversation
— Tối qua họ có đến không?
— Did they arrive last night?
— Có, khoảng nửa đêm, máy bay bị trễ.
— Yes, around midnight, the flight was late.