Questions & Answers about Chúng tôi có phòng chung.
Why does the sentence use chúng tôi? Does it mean we?
Yes. Chúng tôi means we, but specifically we excluding the listener.
So if I say Chúng tôi có phòng chung, I mean my group and I have a shared room, but I am not including the person I am talking to.
A very important contrast is:
- chúng tôi = we, not including you
- chúng ta = we, including you
This is a common distinction in Vietnamese, and English speakers often need time to get used to it because English we does not normally show that difference.
What is có doing in this sentence?
Here, có means have.
The basic pattern is:
subject + có + noun
So:
- Chúng tôi = we
- có = have
- phòng chung = shared room / common room
So the sentence structure is very straightforward: We have a shared room.
In other contexts, có can also mean something like there is / there are, so it is a very common and flexible word in Vietnamese.
Why is there no word for a, an, or the?