“I need to make an appointment with the dentist.” in Vietnamese: “Tôi cần đặt lịch hẹn với nha sĩ.”

When to use it

Use it when phoning a clinic or telling someone you must see the dentist.

“I need to make an appointment with the dentist.” — The sentence in English

In “I need to make an appointment with the dentist.” ‘need to’ expresses necessity and ‘an’ goes before the vowel.

I

pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter

need

verbneed · tense: present · person: first · number: singular · followed by "to" + verb

to

particleinfinitive marker before the verb

make

verbmake · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · "make an appointment" and "make a complaint" are fixed expressions

an

determinerindefinite article, used before a vowel sound

appointment

nounnoun

with

prepositionpreposition

the

determinerdefinite article

dentist

nounnoun

“Tôi cần đặt lịch hẹn với nha sĩ.” — The sentence in Vietnamese

In “Tôi cần đặt lịch hẹn với nha sĩ.” ‘cần’ (need) and ‘đặt’ (set, book) sit side by side. ‘lịch hẹn’ is an appointment, and ‘nha sĩ’ (dentist) is Sino-Vietnamese, ‘nha’ meaning tooth.

Tôi

pronoun'I', the patient

cần

verbcần · tense: unmarked · 'need'; the next verb follows without 'to'

đặt

verbđặt · tense: unmarked · 'set, book'; đặt lịch = make an appointment

lịch

noun'schedule'

hẹn

nounlịch hẹn = appointment

với

preposition'with'

nha

nounfirst syllable of nha sĩ, 'tooth'

sĩ

nounnha sĩ = dentist

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

English ‘make’ an appointment becomes ‘đặt’ (set) one in Vietnamese, with no ‘to’ and no articles.

Example conversation