“How do you get a taxi here?” in Vietnamese

When to use it

Use it on arrival in a city, when you don't know whether taxis are hailed, phoned or booked in an app.

The sentence in English: “How do you get a taxi here?”

In “How do you get a taxi here?” ‘you’ is generic and the verb is ‘get’.

How

adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner

do

auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the question

you

pronounpersonal pronoun used for people in general

get

verbget · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · here it means "take" or "find"

a

determinerindefinite article

taxi

nounnoun

here

adverbadverb of place

The sentence in Vietnamese: “Ở đây gọi taxi thế nào?”

In “Ở đây gọi taxi thế nào?” ‘ở đây’ (here) is fronted to ask about the local way. There is no subject, and the verb is ‘gọi’ (call), since taxis are often called or booked in an app.

Ở

prepositionở đây 'here', fronted

đây

pronoun'this place'

gọi

verbgọi · tense: unmarked · 'call'; gọi taxi = get a taxi

taxi

noun'taxi', a loanword

thế

pronounin thế nào 'how'

nào

determinerthế nào at the end asks for the way

What changes from one language to the other: English × Vietnamese

English ‘get a taxi’ becomes ‘gọi taxi’ (call a taxi); English needs ‘do’ and ‘you’, Vietnamese only ‘thế nào’.

Example conversation