Vietnamese hỏi means “ask” when the desired outcome is information: an answer, a name, a route, an opinion, or confirmation. It does not automatically cover English ask for a thing or ask someone to perform a favor. Those meanings normally require xin, nhờ, đề nghị, or another construction.
That boundary makes hỏi a good example of why Vietnamese predicates should be learned as construction maps rather than conjugation lists. The form hỏi remains unchanged; the person questioned, the topic, the embedded question, aspect markers, and collocations show what kind of inquiry is taking place. This page keeps trả lời “answer/respond” for its own reference page.
Choose the frame by what follows
| Frame | Function | Typical example |
|---|---|---|
| hỏi + person | ask a person / consult someone | hỏi bác sĩ |
| hỏi + person + question content | ask someone a question | hỏi chị ấy mấy giờ về |
| hỏi + về + topic | inquire about a topic | hỏi về học phí |
| hỏi + noun | ask for information conventionally associated with the noun | hỏi đường, hỏi giá |
| hỏi + xem/liệu + clause | ask/check whether... | hỏi xem còn chỗ không |
| fixed collocation | specialized social act | hỏi thăm, hỏi ý kiến |
Vietnamese allows the person questioned to follow hỏi directly. If a full noun phrase could be mistaken for the information requested, a clearer frame such as hỏi người đó về... or hỏi người đó xem... prevents ambiguity.
Tôi sẽ hỏi cô lễ tân xem phòng họp ở tầng nào.
I’ll ask the receptionist which floor the meeting room is on.
Con cứ hỏi bác sĩ về tác dụng phụ của thuốc.
Go ahead and ask the doctor about the medicine’s side effects.
English readily says “ask someone something.” Vietnamese can likewise say hỏi ai một câu or place interrogative content after the person, but it does not need an equivalent of English if before every embedded yes–no question. Xem often presents the inquiry as checking or finding out; liệu...không makes the uncertainty explicit and sounds more deliberate.
Anh hỏi chị Mai bao giờ chị ấy quay lại nhé.
Ask Mai when she’ll be back.
Tôi gọi hỏi xem cửa hàng hôm nay có mở cửa không.
I called to find out whether the shop is open today.
Phóng viên hỏi liệu kế hoạch có thể hoàn thành đúng hạn hay không.
The reporter asked whether the plan could be completed on schedule. (formal)
Asking about a topic or a conventional piece of information
Use về to mark a broad topic: hỏi về khóa học, hỏi về tình hình sức khỏe. By contrast, several common nouns follow hỏi directly because the information sought is predictable. Hỏi đường means ask for directions, hỏi giá ask the price, hỏi giờ ask the time, and hỏi tên ask someone’s name. These are collocations, not evidence that any requested object can follow hỏi.
Hai khách du lịch dừng lại hỏi đường ra ga tàu.
Two tourists stopped to ask the way to the train station.
Chị ấy chỉ hỏi giá chứ chưa quyết định mua.
She only asked the price; she hasn’t decided to buy yet.
With hỏi ai về..., the person is the source and the về phrase is the topic. With hỏi ai... followed by an interrogative clause, that clause gives the exact information sought.
Hỏi thăm, hỏi ý kiến, and other collocations
Hỏi thăm is a social inquiry about somebody’s well-being or circumstances. It can mean ask after someone or check in. To send regards, use gửi lời hỏi thăm; cho tôi hỏi thăm... instead politely introduces an inquiry. Hỏi han adds the sense of showing concern through questions (informal/neutral). Hỏi ý kiến means seek an opinion; hỏi cung means interrogate a suspect (legal/formal); hỏi cưới means formally seek a family’s consent to a marriage.
Lâu rồi tôi chưa gọi hỏi thăm bà ngoại.
I haven’t called to check in on Grandma for a long time.
Trước khi đổi lịch, anh nên hỏi ý kiến cả nhóm.
Before changing the schedule, you should ask the whole group’s opinion.
Hỏi bài commonly means ask someone for help with schoolwork, while hỏi vặn means press someone with a challenging question. Hỏi tới hỏi lui “ask over and over / ask this way and that” is conversational and may imply persistence or irritation. Register and relationship matter: Tôi xin hỏi... is a polite preface (formal/polite), but xin here softens the act of asking; it does not change the core information-seeking predicate.
Xin hỏi, quầy làm thủ tục ở phía nào ạ?
Excuse me, which way is the check-in counter? (polite)
Aspect, negation, and particles
Hỏi has no past or present conjugation. Đã hỏi presents an inquiry as completed, vừa hỏi as just completed, đang hỏi as in progress, and chưa hỏi as not yet made despite relevance or expectation. Hỏi rồi often implies that the speaker has already sought the information, whether or not a useful answer came back.
Tôi đã hỏi ba người rồi mà vẫn chưa biết lối vào.
I’ve already asked three people, but I still don’t know where the entrance is.
Cô giáo đang hỏi từng nhóm vì sao kết quả lại khác nhau.
The teacher is asking each group why the results differ.
Negation distinguishes không hỏi “do not/did not ask” from chưa hỏi “have not asked yet.” Question particles can belong either to the speech event or to the quoted/embedded question. In Bạn đã hỏi anh ấy chưa?, chưa asks whether the inquiry occurred. In Bạn hỏi anh ấy có đi không, có...không supplies the content being asked.
A minimal five-way contrast
| Function | Vietnamese | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| affirmative | Tôi hỏi cô ấy đường đến bến xe. | I ask her the way to the bus station. |
| negative | Tôi không hỏi chuyện riêng của anh ấy. | I do not ask about his private affairs. |
| question | Bạn đã hỏi giờ tàu chạy chưa? | Have you asked what time the train leaves? |
| aspect-marked | Tôi vừa hỏi nhân viên rồi. | I just asked an employee. |
| idiomatic collocation | Mẹ gọi điện hỏi thăm bác. | Mom called to ask how our aunt/uncle was doing. |
One exchange, two different “asks”
— Cậu hỏi anh Nam xem mai anh ấy có rảnh không nhé. — Được, còn nếu cần anh ấy giúp thì sao? — Việc đó phải nhờ anh ấy, không chỉ hỏi anh ấy.
— Ask Nam whether he’s free tomorrow. — Okay, and what if we need him to help? — For that, you have to ask him for the favor, not merely ask him for information.
The first hỏi seeks an answer about availability. The requested action uses nhờ, because the desired outcome is Nam’s help rather than information. English uses ask for both acts; Vietnamese normally marks the difference.
Common Mistakes
1. Using hỏi when asking for an object. Hỏi seeks information; xin requests that something be given.
❌ Tôi hỏi cô ấy một cốc nước.
Incorrect for ‘I asked her for a glass of water’ — this sounds as though the glass of water were information.
✅ Tôi xin cô ấy một cốc nước.
I asked her for a glass of water.
2. Using hỏi alone for a favor or requested action. Use nhờ for a favor and name the action.
❌ Tôi hỏi anh ấy sửa giúp máy tính.
Unnatural for requesting the repair — hỏi frames an inquiry, not the favor itself.
✅ Tôi nhờ anh ấy sửa giúp máy tính.
I asked him to help repair the computer.
3. Copying English about after a conventional direct collocation. Hỏi về đường is possible only when roads/routes are the topic; asking for directions is hỏi đường.
❌ Tôi hỏi về đường đến bảo tàng.
Awkward for the ordinary act of asking directions — về turns ‘the route’ into a broad discussion topic.
✅ Tôi hỏi đường đến bảo tàng.
I asked the way to the museum.
4. Treating đã hỏi as proof that an answer was obtained. The aspect marker completes the asking event, not the answering event.
❌ Tôi đã hỏi nên tôi đã biết câu trả lời.
Faulty inference — asking does not by itself guarantee that the speaker learned the answer.
✅ Tôi đã hỏi nhưng chưa ai trả lời.
I asked, but no one has answered yet.
Key Takeaways
- Hỏi seeks information; xin asks for a thing and nhờ asks for a favor.
- Map the frames hỏi ai, hỏi ai về..., hỏi ai xem/liệu..., and fixed combinations such as hỏi đường.
- Learn hỏi thăm and hỏi ý kiến as complete social collocations.
- Aspect marks the inquiry event; đã hỏi does not entail đã được trả lời “got an answer.”
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