Lá thư này khá dài.

this

Breakdown of Lá thư này khá dài.

• lá thư: the letter
• khá: quite
• dài: long

Questions & Answers about Lá thư này khá dài.

What does each word in Lá thư này khá dài do?

A natural breakdown is:

• lá = a classifier used with some flat, thin items, and also commonly used in lá thư for letter
• thư = letter, mail
• này = this
• khá = quite, fairly, rather
• dài = long

So the structure is basically:

lá thư này + khá dài
= this letter + is quite long

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

Vietnamese often does not use a verb like English to be when describing something with an adjective.

So:

• Lá thư này khá dài = This letter is quite long
• literally closer to: This letter quite long

This is very normal in Vietnamese. Adjectives can function directly as the predicate.

Why does này come after the noun instead of before it?

In Vietnamese, demonstratives like this and that usually come after the noun.

So:

• lá thư này = this letter
• lá thư đó = that letter

This is the opposite of English word order.
A useful pattern is:

noun + này/đó/kia
= this/that + noun

What is doing here? Doesn’t usually mean ?