Trần nhà hôm qua không hề bị dột.

The ceiling did not leak at all yesterday.

Breakdown of Trần nhà hôm qua không hề bị dột.

• hôm qua: yesterday
• bị: (passive marker)
• không hề + predicate: not at all; absolutely not
• trần nhà: the ceiling

Questions & Answers about Trần nhà hôm qua không hề bị dột.

What does trần nhà mean here? Is it ceiling or roof?

Trần nhà normally means ceiling, the inside top surface of a room.

• trần nhà = ceiling
• mái nhà = roof

However, with dột (to leak, especially rainwater leaking through a roof/ceiling), English may sometimes translate the whole idea more naturally as the roof was leaking or the ceiling was leaking, depending on context. Vietnamese often focuses on the part inside the house that is affected, so trần nhà bị dột is completely normal.

Why is hôm qua placed after trần nhà instead of at the beginning?

Vietnamese time expressions are fairly flexible. Hôm qua can appear in different places:

• Hôm qua, trần nhà không hề bị dột.
• Trần nhà hôm qua không hề bị dột.
• Trần nhà không hề bị dột hôm qua.

All are possible, but they can sound slightly different in emphasis.

In your sentence, trần nhà comes first as the topic, and hôm qua adds the time right after that. Putting hôm qua at the beginning is also very common, especially if you want to set the time frame first.

What does không hề mean? How is it different from just không?