Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối.

Because Vietnamese often leaves out the object when it is generic, obvious, or not important.

So Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối naturally means I read all evening, even without saying what was read. English can do this too: I read all evening does not need an object either.

If you want to specify the object, you can add it:

• Tôi đọc sách suốt buổi tối. = I read books / I read all evening.
• Tôi đọc cuốn tiểu thuyết đó suốt buổi tối. = I read that novel all evening.

Suốt means throughout, for the whole duration of, or all the way through a period of time.

In this sentence:

• suốt buổi tối = throughout the evening / all evening

It emphasizes continuity over the whole time period.

Examples:

• Tôi làm việc suốt ngày. = I worked all day.
• Trời mưa suốt đêm. = It rained all night.

Buổi tối means evening or sometimes the nighttime period, depending on context.

It is made of:

• buổi = a period/session/part of the day
• tối = evening/night

So buổi tối is literally something like the evening period.

Related time expressions:

• buổi sáng = morning
• buổi trưa = noon / lunchtime
• buổi chiều = afternoon
• buổi tối = evening

This follows a very common Vietnamese pattern:

subject + verb + time expression

So:

• Tôi = I
• đọc = read
• suốt buổi tối = all evening / throughout the evening

Vietnamese often places time expressions after the verb like this, especially when they describe how long the action lasted.

A very literal breakdown is:

• I read throughout the evening

By itself, it does not specify tense clearly. Vietnamese verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối could mean different things depending on context, such as:

• I read all evening
• I was reading all evening
• I have been reading all evening
  if the situation makes that clear

If you want to make time clearer, Vietnamese often uses extra words:

• Tôi đã đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read / I was reading all evening.
• Tôi đang đọc suốt buổi tối. = I am reading all evening / I’ve been reading all evening.
• Tôi sẽ đọc suốt buổi tối. = I will read all evening.

Đọc usually means to read, but in some contexts it can also mean to read aloud or to recite, depending on what is being read and the situation.

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is simply to read.

Examples:

• đọc sách = read books
• đọc báo = read the newspaper
• đọc thơ = read/recite poetry
• đọc to = read aloud

Yes. Tôi is a neutral, common way to say I, especially in standard Vietnamese and in situations where you want to sound polite or neutral.

But Vietnamese pronouns depend a lot on relationship, age, and social context. In real conversation, other words might be more natural:

• Em đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read all evening.
  used by a younger person speaking to someone older, or in some intimate contexts
• Mình đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read all evening.
  more casual/friendly
• Anh đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read all evening.
  said by a man speaking to someone younger
• Chị đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read all evening.
  said by a woman speaking to someone younger

So tôi is correct, but not always the most conversational choice.

They are very similar, and often both can be translated as all evening.

But there is a slight nuance:

• suốt buổi tối emphasizes the action lasting continuously through the whole period
• cả buổi tối emphasizes the whole evening as a complete block of time

So:

• Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read throughout the evening.
• Tôi đọc cả buổi tối. = I read the whole evening.

In many everyday situations, they are interchangeable.

Yes, but it means something different.

• Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read all evening / throughout the evening
• Tôi đọc vào buổi tối. = I read in the evening

The second sentence tells you when the action happens in general.
The first tells you how long it lasted on that occasion.

So suốt adds the idea of duration across the whole time period.

Sometimes yes, depending on context, but it most commonly refers to the evening period.

Vietnamese time words do not always match English ones perfectly. In casual translation:

• buổi tối is usually evening
• đêm is more specifically night

Compare:

• Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối. = I read all evening.
• Tôi đọc suốt đêm. = I read all night.

So if you want a stronger night meaning, đêm is usually the better choice.

Without more context, it is often understood as a specific event or simply a statement about duration, not necessarily a repeated habit.

If you want to express a habit more clearly, context or extra words help:

• Tôi thường đọc suốt buổi tối. = I often read all evening.
• Tối nào tôi cũng đọc. = I read every evening.

So the basic sentence by itself is neutral: it could describe one occasion or, in the right context, a usual pattern.

Not exactly in the usual sense.

It is better thought of as a noun meaning a period or session of time. In buổi tối, it forms a time expression meaning the evening period.

Vietnamese does have classifiers, but buổi here is functioning as part of a fixed time phrase, not like a typical classifier such as:

• một cuốn sách = a book
• một con mèo = a cat

So buổi tối is best learned as a unit meaning evening.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Tôi ≈ toy
• đọc ≈ dawk with a short, heavy stop at the end
• suốt ≈ something like soo-uht with a rising tone
• buổi ≈ roughly boo-ee with a dipping tone
• tối ≈ toy with a rising tone

A more useful thing to notice is the tones:

• tôi = level tone
• đọc = heavy, low, cut-off tone
• suốt = rising tone
• buổi = hỏi tone, a dipping/curving tone
• tối = rising tone

If you want to sound natural, the tones matter more than the English approximation.

Yes. That is a very natural translation in many contexts.

Because Vietnamese does not force a tense choice in the verb form, English translation depends on context:

• I read all evening
• I was reading all evening
• I spent the whole evening reading

All of these can fit Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối depending on the situation.

Yes, you can, especially for emphasis.

For example:

• Suốt buổi tối, tôi đọc.

This is grammatical and means the same basic thing, but it sounds more marked or literary, because the duration is being highlighted first.

The more neutral everyday order is:

• Tôi đọc suốt buổi tối.