Họ đang khoan vào đất.

Here is the basic breakdown:

• Họ = they
• đang = marks an action as ongoing, similar to English be + -ing
• khoan = to drill
• vào = into
• đất = soil, earth, ground

So the structure is basically:

Họ + đang + khoan + vào đất
= They are drilling into the ground.

đang shows that the action is in progress.

So:

• Họ khoan vào đất = They drill into the ground / They are drilling into the ground depending on context
• Họ đang khoan vào đất = more clearly They are drilling into the ground right now / at this moment

Vietnamese does not change the verb the way English does, so words like đang help show aspect, especially ongoing action.

Yes, very often.

Vietnamese can leave time and aspect unstated if the context already makes them clear. If you remove đang, the sentence becomes more neutral:

• Họ khoan vào đất

This could mean:

• they drill into the ground
• they are drilling into the ground
• they drilled into the ground

The surrounding context tells you which one is meant. Adding đang makes the ongoing meaning explicit.

Usually, yes: họ is the common third-person plural pronoun for people, so it normally means they.

A few useful points:

• It does not show gender, so it can mean they for men, women, or a mixed group.
• It is mainly used for people, not usually for objects.
• Vietnamese often drops pronouns when the subject is already obvious, so in real conversation you may hear just Đang khoan vào đất if everyone already knows who is doing it.

vào adds the idea of movement or penetration into something.

So there is a nuance difference:

• khoan đất = drill the soil/ground; this can sound more like working on the ground as the object
• khoan vào đất = drill into the ground; this emphasizes going inward

In this sentence, vào helps match the English idea of drilling into the ground.

Sometimes, yes, depending on what you want to emphasize.

• vào đất focuses on going into the ground
• xuống đất focuses more on direction downward into the ground

If someone is drilling vertically into the ground, xuống đất may also sound natural in some contexts. But vào đất is perfectly understandable and highlights penetration into the soil.

đất can mean several related things:

• soil
• earth
• ground
• land

In Họ đang khoan vào đất, it most naturally means the ground / the soil.

So this is not talking about land ownership or territory; it is talking about the physical earth.

This is a very common question.

• khoan = to drill, usually using a rotating tool
• đào = to dig

So:

• Họ đang khoan vào đất = they are using a drill to bore into the ground
• Họ đang đào đất = they are digging the ground/soil

If you imagine a machine making a narrow hole, khoan is the right word. If you imagine using a shovel or excavating, đào is the better word.

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

So đất can mean:

• soil
• the soil
• ground
• the ground

The context tells you which one is intended.

That means vào đất can naturally be understood as into the ground without needing a separate word for the.

The sentence follows a very common Vietnamese pattern:

Subject + aspect marker + verb + complement/object

So here:

• Họ = subject
• đang = aspect marker
• khoan = main verb
• vào đất = directional/result complement

This is one reason Vietnamese often feels very direct in structure. Instead of changing the verb form, it adds small words like đang and vào.

Usually it means the action is ongoing at the relevant time, but not always literally at this exact second.

Like English They are drilling into the ground, it can mean:

• right now
• around now
• in the current situation

For example, if you are describing what workers are doing at a construction site, đang fits even if you are talking about an activity in progress over a stretch of time, not just one instant.

Yes, a few:

• họ has a heavy low tone and ends with a short vowel quality
• đang has no tone mark, so it has a level tone
• khoan begins with kh, which is not the same as English k; it is a breathy, voiceless sound
• vào has a falling tone on vào
• đất has a sharp rising tone and ends in -t, which is unreleased and very short

A learner-friendly rough guide is:

• họ ≈ haw with a low heavy tone
• đang ≈ zahng in Northern Vietnamese, yahng in Southern Vietnamese
• khoan ≈ khwan
• vào ≈ vow
• đất ≈ duht with a short clipped ending

The exact sounds vary by dialect, especially North vs. South.

Yes, very often.

If it is already clear who they are, a speaker might simply say:

Đang khoan vào đất.

Vietnamese frequently omits subjects, objects, or other information when context makes them obvious. Textbook examples often include the full subject, but real conversation can be more compact.