When to use it
Use it to say where someone you know works, for example a nurse or doctor.
“He works at a hospital.” — The sentence in English
In “He works at a hospital.” ‘works’ takes ‘-s’ because the subject is third person singular, and ‘a’ is required.
- He
- pronounpersonal pronoun, third person singular
- works
- verbwork · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · the -s marks the third person singular
- at
- prepositionpreposition of place
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- hospital
- nounnoun
“Anh ấy làm việc ở một bệnh viện.” — The sentence in Vietnamese
In “Anh ấy làm việc ở một bệnh viện.” ‘anh ấy’ (he) also tells the man's age relative to the speaker. ‘làm việc’ (work) never changes, and ‘một’ (a) can be dropped.
- Anh
- pronouna man about the speaker's age or older
- ấy
- determiner'that'; anh ấy = he
- làm
- verblàm việc · tense: unmarked · 'work'; no -s as in English
- việc
- noun'job', inside the compound verb làm việc
- ở
- preposition'at', the workplace
- một
- numeral'one', used like 'a'
- bệnh
- nounfirst syllable of bệnh viện
- viện
- nounwith bệnh: 'hospital'
English × Vietnamese: What changes from one language to the other
English inflects the verb (‘works’); Vietnamese does not. English has one ‘he’; Vietnamese picks anh ấy, ông ấy or em ấy by age.
Example conversation
— Anh ấy làm việc ở một bệnh viện.
— He works at a hospital.
— Anh ấy là bác sĩ hay y tá?
— Is he a doctor or a nurse?