Cuộc triển lãm bắt đầu hôm nay.

Cuộc is a kind of noun marker/classifier often used for events, activities, or organized happenings.

So:

• cuộc triển lãm = the exhibition / an exhibition
• literally, it is something like an event of exhibition

You will often see cuộc with things like:

• cuộc họp = meeting
• cuộc thi = competition
• cuộc trò chuyện = conversation

You can sometimes hear triển lãm bắt đầu hôm nay, especially in headlines or very compressed speech, but cuộc triển lãm sounds more complete and natural in an ordinary sentence.

Here, triển lãm is a noun meaning exhibition.

In Vietnamese, many words can function in more than one way depending on context, but in this sentence:

• cuộc triển lãm = the exhibition

So the whole phrase is the subject of the sentence.

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

That means cuộc triển lãm can mean:

• an exhibition
• the exhibition

Which one is intended depends on context. In this sentence, English usually translates it as the exhibition starts today if the exhibition is already known in context.

Bắt đầu means to begin or to start.

In this sentence:

• Cuộc triển lãm bắt đầu hôm nay.
• The exhibition starts today.

So bắt đầu is the main verb.

It can also be used in other patterns, such as:

• Tôi bắt đầu học tiếng Việt. = I started learning Vietnamese.
• Buổi họp bắt đầu lúc 8 giờ. = The meeting begins at 8 o’clock.

So it can describe:

• something beginning by itself, or
• someone beginning to do something

It can mean both.

In English, start and begin are very close in meaning, and bắt đầu covers both ideas.

So these are both good translations:

• The exhibition starts today.
• The exhibition begins today.

Hôm nay means today.

Vietnamese often puts time expressions after the main verb or at the beginning of the sentence. Both are possible:

• Cuộc triển lãm bắt đầu hôm nay.
• Hôm nay, cuộc triển lãm bắt đầu.

Both are natural. The first one is a very normal neutral sentence. The second puts more focus on today.

Yes, it is fairly similar here.

The sentence breaks down like this:

• Cuộc triển lãm = subject
• bắt đầu = verb
• hôm nay = time expression

So the pattern is roughly:

• Subject + Verb + Time

That is one reason this sentence feels quite approachable for English speakers.

Vietnamese verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So bắt đầu itself does not tell you whether it is present, past, or future. Time is understood from context or time words like hôm nay.

Here, hôm nay makes the meaning clear:

• The exhibition starts today
• The exhibition is beginning today

In natural English, starts today is usually the best translation.

No, not in this sentence.

Được is not needed here. The simple sentence is:

• Cuộc triển lãm bắt đầu hôm nay.

If you say được bắt đầu, it sounds unnatural for this meaning.

Just use bắt đầu directly when you mean that something begins.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Cuộc ≈ kuôk with a heavy falling tone
• triển ≈ chee-ển with a dipping/creaky tone
• lãm ≈ lahm with a broken rising tone
• bắt ≈ buk with a sharp rising tone
• đầu ≈ dầu with a falling tone
• hôm ≈ hohm level
• nay ≈ nai level

A few important notes:

• Northern and Southern pronunciation differ somewhat.
• The tones matter a lot.
• tr and đ are important consonants to practice carefully.

If you want a safer learner strategy, say it slowly in chunks:

• Cuộc triển lãm / bắt đầu / hôm nay

Yes, but it changes the nuance slightly.

• Cuộc triển lãm bắt đầu hôm nay. = The exhibition starts today.
• Cuộc triển lãm sẽ bắt đầu hôm nay. = The exhibition will start today.

Sẽ explicitly marks future meaning. Without sẽ, the sentence is still completely natural because hôm nay already gives the time.

In many everyday situations, Vietnamese prefers the simpler version without sẽ unless future marking needs to be emphasized.

Yes, it is a very useful combination to remember.

You can think of it as a common noun phrase:

• cuộc triển lãm = exhibition

Even though you can analyze it as cuộc + triển lãm, it is worth learning the whole phrase because it appears naturally in real Vietnamese.

Similar useful chunks include:

• cuộc họp = meeting
• cuộc thi = contest
• cuộc biểu tình = protest