Tôi nấu bí.

me

Breakdown of Tôi nấu bí.

• nấu: to cook
• bí: the squash; gourd

Questions & Answers about Tôi nấu bí.

What does each word in Tôi nấu bí do grammatically?

• Tôi = I
• nấu = cook
• bí = squash / gourd / pumpkin depending on context

The structure is very straightforward:

Subject + Verb + Object

So:

Tôi (subject) + nấu (verb) + bí (object)

This is one reason Vietnamese often feels accessible to English speakers in simple sentences: the basic word order is often similar.

Why is the word order Tôi nấu bí and not something else?

Vietnamese usually follows Subject–Verb–Object, just like English.

So:

• Tôi = I
• nấu = cook
• bí = squash / pumpkin

That makes Tôi nấu bí literally I cook squash.

You do not need to move the verb to the end or change anything for a basic statement. In that sense, the sentence structure is simpler than in many European languages because the verb does not change for person.

Does nấu mean specifically boil, or can it mean cook more generally?