Cậu cần kem chống nắng.

to need

Breakdown of Cậu cần kem chống nắng.

• cậu: you (informal, peer)
• kem chống nắng: sunscreen

Questions & Answers about Cậu cần kem chống nắng.

What does cậu mean here, and can I use it for any you?

Cậu is a casual second-person pronoun meaning you, but it is not universal.

It is commonly used:

• between friends
• with someone around your age
• in a fairly informal, friendly relationship

You should not use cậu with everyone. Vietnamese pronouns depend a lot on age, relationship, and social context. In other situations, you might be:

• bạn (fairly neutral/friendly)
• anh (older male)
• chị (older female)
• em (younger person)
• and others

So Cậu cần kem chống nắng. sounds natural if you are speaking casually to someone you would normally call cậu.

Why is the sentence order Cậu cần kem chống nắng? Is it like English word order?

Yes. The basic order here is very similar to English:

• Cậu = subject
• cần = verb
• kem chống nắng = object

So it is:

Subject + Verb + Object

That is why it feels close to You need sunscreen.

What exactly does cần mean?