Củi và than ở gần lửa trại.

Yes—here ở helps express location, so it works a bit like to be located at / to be in / to be at.

In Củi và than ở gần lửa trại, the structure is:

• Củi và than = firewood and charcoal/coal
• ở = are located / are at
• gần lửa trại = near the campfire

So the sentence is literally something like:

• Firewood and charcoal are located near the campfire.

Vietnamese often uses ở when saying where someone or something is.

They do, but they have different jobs:

• ở marks location: to be at/in
• gần tells the kind of location: near

So:

• ở gần lửa trại = is/are near the campfire

You can think of it as:

• ở = introduces the location
• gần lửa trại = specifies that location

This is very natural Vietnamese.
Similar patterns include:

• ở đây = here
• ở trong nhà = in the house
• ở bên cạnh xe = next to the car

Vietnamese usually does not use articles like a, an, and the the way English does.

So lửa trại can mean:

• a campfire
• the campfire
• sometimes just campfire in a general sense

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, if the meaning shown to the learner is the campfire, that comes from context rather than from a separate Vietnamese word.

If Vietnamese speakers want to make something more specific, they may add other words, such as:

• lửa trại đó = that campfire
• lửa trại này = this campfire

They can be understood as either singular or plural depending on context, but in this sentence they are most naturally read as mass nouns or general nouns:

• củi = firewood
• than = charcoal / coal

Vietnamese usually does not have to mark plural the way English does.
So củi và than does not need an extra plural marker to mean something like firewood and charcoal.

If you really wanted to count pieces or quantities, you would use classifiers or quantity words, for example:

• một ít củi = some firewood
• hai cục than = two pieces/lumps of charcoal

But in the sentence given, that is unnecessary.

This is a very common question.

• củi = firewood, wood used for burning
• gỗ = wood as a material, lumber, timber

So in this sentence, củi is the correct word because it refers to wood meant for a fire.

Examples:

• củi khô = dry firewood
• bàn bằng gỗ = a table made of wood

Using gỗ here would change the meaning. It would sound more like raw wood/material rather than firewood prepared for burning.

It can mean either, depending on context.

• than = coal / charcoal
• than đá = mineral coal
• than củi = charcoal

In a sentence about a campfire, many learners would naturally understand than as charcoal or burning coals, because that fits the situation better.

So context matters a lot. Vietnamese often relies on context where English may choose a more specific word.

It is written as two words, but together they form a fixed expression meaning campfire.

Literally:

• lửa = fire
• trại = camp

So lửa trại is literally camp fire, and together it means campfire.

This kind of noun combination is very common in Vietnamese. Two separate written words can function as one unit of meaning.

Other examples:

• xe đạp = bicycle
• sân bay = airport
• cà phê sữa = coffee with milk

So yes, lửa trại is two written words, but you should learn it as one vocabulary item.

The word order is actually quite normal for Vietnamese:

• subject
  • location verb
    • location phrase

So:

• Củi và than = subject
• ở = location verb
• gần lửa trại = location phrase

This is very similar to English Firewood and charcoal are near the campfire, except Vietnamese does not need a separate form of are plus articles like the.

A useful pattern to remember is:

• [thing/person] + ở + [place/location]

Examples:

• Tôi ở nhà. = I am at home.
• Con mèo ở dưới bàn. = The cat is under the table.
• Củi và than ở gần lửa trại. = Firewood and charcoal are near the campfire.

The tones are important:

• củi — hỏi tone
• và — huyền tone
• than — level tone, no tone mark
• ở — hỏi tone
• gần — huyền tone
• lửa — hỏi tone
• trại — nặng-like falling/glottalized written with ạ? Actually trại has nặng on ạ plus final glide

A few pronunciation notes:

• củi has a diphthong-like ending; listen carefully to native audio.
• than is not the English word than. The Vietnamese th is an aspirated sound, not the English voiced th.
• trại starts with tr, which many learners find tricky.
• ở and lửa both contain vowel sounds that may be unfamiliar to English speakers.

If you are practicing aloud, it helps to learn the whole sentence rhythmically rather than word by word.

Sometimes Vietnamese can omit words when the meaning is obvious, but in a basic learner sentence, ở is the most natural and complete choice.

• Củi và than ở gần lửa trại = clear, standard, natural
• Củi và than gần lửa trại = may be understandable, but it sounds more reduced and less complete

For learners, it is better to keep ở when describing where something is.

Yes. A common alternative is:

• Củi và than nằm gần lửa trại.

Here nằm literally means lie or be situated, and it can be used for things that are located somewhere.

Another possible structure is:

• Ở gần lửa trại có củi và than.

This means something like:

• Near the campfire, there is firewood and charcoal.

So the original sentence is not the only possible wording, but it is simple and natural for learning basic location structure.