Xong and Event Completion | Vietnamese Grammar

Xong means that an event or task has reached its endpoint: the doing is finished. It can be a resultative complement after a verb (viết xong “finish writing”), a predicate describing a task (bài xong rồi “the assignment is finished”), or part of a sequencing frame (ăn xong thì đi “after eating, leave”).

The central question is whether the event is complete. Consuming every member of a set is a different issue, expressed by hết and covered on the next page. Đọc xong cuốn sách views the reading as finished; đọc hết cuốn sách highlights that none of the book was left unread. They often describe the same real-world result, but they choose different semantic scopes.

The resultative pattern V + xong

After an action verb, xong marks the endpoint of the event. This is productive with tasks that can be understood as bounded: writing a report, repairing a bicycle, eating a meal, or discussing an agenda item.

Tôi vừa viết xong báo cáo, để tôi gửi cho chị ngay.

I've just finished writing the report; let me send it to you now.

Anh sửa xong xe chưa? Chiều nay tôi cần dùng.

Have you finished repairing the motorbike? I need it this afternoon.

Chúng tôi bàn xong vấn đề ngân sách rồi mới sang mục khác.

We finished discussing the budget before moving to another item.

The complement normally stays inside the event phrase. Common orders include V + xong + object (làm xong bài) and V + object + xong when the object is closely integrated or topical in the event (ăn cơm xong, đọc cuốn này xong). Lexical preference and information structure matter; there is no mechanical English word-for-word rule.

Em làm xong bài tập thì xuống ăn tối nhé.

Come down for dinner when you've finished your homework.

Đọc cuốn này xong, cậu cho tớ mượn nhé.

When you finish this book, lend it to me, okay?

An activity without a natural endpoint needs a boundary supplied by an object or context. Đi bộ xong is possible when a planned walk is treated as a task, but đi bộ hết công viên instead means walking through the whole park or covering all of it.

Xong as a predicate and answer

Xong can itself be the predicate: Việc này xong rồi “This job is done.” In conversation, Xong chưa? asks whether the salient task has reached completion, and Xong rồi answers that it has.

— Hồ sơ xong chưa? — Xong rồi, chỉ còn chờ giám đốc ký.

— Is the application finished? — Yes, it is; all that's left is waiting for the director to sign.

Phần khó nhất coi như xong; ngày mai mình kiểm tra lại số liệu.

The hardest part can be considered done; tomorrow we'll check the figures again.

Here rồi does not duplicate xong. Xong names the endpoint state; clause-final rồi presents that state as newly established or relevant now. Xong alone is enough in labels, terse answers, or contrasts; xong rồi is extremely natural when announcing completion.

Chưa xong: an expected endpoint remains open

Chưa xong means “not finished yet.” Chưa negates realization up to the reference point while leaving later completion expected.

Bản dịch vẫn chưa xong vì tôi phải kiểm tra lại các thuật ngữ.

The translation still isn't finished because I have to check the terminology again.

Đến năm giờ chiều qua, đội kỹ thuật vẫn chưa sửa xong máy chủ.

By five yesterday afternoon, the technical team still had not finished repairing the server.

The second sentence is past because đến năm giờ chiều qua sets a past reference point. Neither chưa nor xong carries a fixed tense. Adding vẫn makes the prolonged noncompletion or counterexpectation salient.

Sequencing: V xong thì / rồi

Vietnamese often orders events iconically: the completed event comes first, followed by thì, rồi, or simply the next clause. The first clause establishes a boundary from which the second proceeds.

Ăn xong thì gọi cho tôi; tôi sẽ đón anh trước cửa.

Call me when you've finished eating; I'll pick you up at the entrance.

Cô ấy kiểm tra xong từng phòng rồi mới khóa cửa.

She checked every room before finally locking the door.

In careful (formal) prose, a fronted completion phrase such as Sau khi hoàn tất... may be preferred. V xong thì... is neutral and common in both speech and ordinary writing.

Aspect and time: xong is an endpoint, not a tense

The same event can be located differently by context and other markers:

Form	View of the event	What it does not mean automatically
đã ăn	eating realized before a reference point	not necessarily “ate it all”
đang ăn	eating in progress	no endpoint asserted
sẽ ăn	eating projected	not a compulsory future conjugation
ăn rồi	completed/relevant change	not necessarily task-oriented completion
ăn xong	the eating event reaches its endpoint	not necessarily exhaustive quantity
từng đi	prior experience of going	not a specific occasion by itself
mới đến / vừa đến	recent arrival	recency, not completion of a larger plan
chưa xong	expected endpoint unreached	not simply past negation
sắp mưa	rain is imminent	the rain has not begun
vẫn làm	the activity persists	does not assert its endpoint

Sáng mai tôi sẽ làm xong bản trình bày trước chín giờ.

Tomorrow morning I will finish the presentation before nine.

Here sẽ projects the event, xong supplies its endpoint, and the deadline further bounds it. In Hôm qua tôi làm xong bản trình bày lúc chín giờ, the adverbials alone clearly locate it in the past; đã is possible when prior realization is relevant, but not obligatory.

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Use xong when you could point to a task boundary and say “the doing is complete.” Use hết when your point is that no relevant material, quantity, or member of a set remains.

A dialogue where xong changes the schedule

— Cậu đang làm bài thuyết trình à? — Ừ, nội dung thì viết xong rồi, nhưng hình minh họa vẫn chưa xong. — Khi nào làm xong hết? — Chắc tối nay; xong rồi tớ sẽ gửi cậu xem.

— Are you working on the presentation? — Yes. The content is finished, but the illustrations still aren't. — When will you finish everything? — Probably tonight; once it's done, I'll send it to you to look at.

The first viết xong closes the writing event, but not the whole presentation project. Vẫn chưa xong leaves the illustration task open. The final xong rồi establishes completion as the condition for sending. Completion therefore depends on which event or project xong takes scope over.

Quick decision aid

Your intended focus	Pattern	Example
finish carrying out an action	V + xong (+ object)	làm xong báo cáo
ask whether a salient task is done	xong chưa?	Việc đó xong chưa?
announce a newly completed task	xong rồi	Máy sửa xong rồi.
the task remains incomplete	(vẫn) chưa xong	Đến giờ vẫn chưa xong.
do B after completing A	A xong thì/rồi B	Họp xong thì về.
use every bit / cover every member	V + hết	đọc hết tài liệu

Common Mistakes

1. Using đã as a universal past-tense prefix. A definite past adverbial may make đã unnecessary.

❌ Hôm qua đã tôi làm xong báo cáo lúc ba giờ.

Incorrect: đã cannot be placed before the subject as though it were an English-style tense operator for the whole sentence.

✅ Hôm qua tôi làm xong báo cáo lúc ba giờ.

Yesterday I finished the report at three.

2. Treating xong and hết as synonyms. Xong closes an event; hết exhausts a quantity or domain.

❌ Em làm hết bài luận chưa?

Wrong if the question is whether the writing task is finished; hết makes the exhaustive extent salient and sounds context-dependent here.

✅ Em viết xong bài luận chưa?

Have you finished writing the essay?

3. Translating the English perfect automatically with rồi. The completion predicate already expresses the endpoint; choose rồi only when the new result matters.

❌ Đến năm giờ hôm qua, tôi xong rồi báo cáo.

Incorrect order produced by treating rồi as an English perfect auxiliary.

✅ Đến năm giờ hôm qua, tôi đã làm xong báo cáo.

By five yesterday, I had finished the report.

4. Putting xong before the action it completes. In the resultative construction, the action precedes its result.

❌ Tôi xong sửa xe rồi.

Incorrect for ‘I have finished repairing the motorbike.’

✅ Tôi sửa xe xong rồi.

I have finished repairing the motorbike.

Key Takeaways

V + xong says that a bounded action reaches its endpoint; xong can also stand as the main predicate.
Chưa xong leaves an expected endpoint unrealized, and vẫn chưa xong emphasizes continued delay.
A xong thì/rồi B orders B after the completion of A.
Xong has scope over an event; hết foregrounds exhaustive quantity or extent.
Time comes from context, adverbials, and optional viewpoint markers. Xong is resultative, not a past tense or perfect conjugation.

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