Họ cuốn bản đồ.

Here, họ means they.

It is a third-person plural pronoun and does not show gender, so it can refer to they for any group of people. In Vietnamese, this pronoun is common in writing and neutral narration. In everyday speech, speakers also often use a noun phrase or kinship term instead of họ, depending on context.

Yes. Họ can also mean surname or family name.

But in Họ cuốn bản đồ, it clearly means they, because it appears in the subject position before the verb. If it meant surname, the sentence would not make sense this way.

In this sentence, cuốn is a verb meaning to roll up or to wind.

So Họ cuốn bản đồ means that they are performing the action of rolling the map.

A useful thing to know is that cuốn can also be a classifier in other sentences, especially for bound books or notebooks, as in một cuốn sách = a book. Here, though, it is definitely a verb.

You can tell from the sentence structure.

The pattern is:

Họ + cuốn + bản đồ
subject + verb + object

Since cuốn comes right after the subject and before the object, it is functioning as the verb.

If cuốn were a classifier, you would expect a different structure, usually with a number or demonstrative, such as một cuốn sách.

Yes. Bản đồ means map, and it is best learned as one vocabulary item.

Even though Vietnamese words are often analyzable into smaller parts, learners should usually treat bản đồ as the standard noun for map rather than trying to interpret each part separately in this sentence.

Vietnamese usually does not use articles like a, an, or the.

So bản đồ can mean a map or the map, depending on context. Vietnamese relies much more on context than English does for definiteness.

If you want to make it more specific, you can add words like:

• bản đồ này = this map
• bản đồ đó = that map

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

So cuốn itself does not tell you whether the action is present, past, or future. The time is understood from context or added words.

For example:

• Họ đang cuốn bản đồ = They are rolling up the map
• Họ đã cuốn bản đồ = They rolled up the map
• Họ sẽ cuốn bản đồ = They will roll up the map

Without a time marker, Họ cuốn bản đồ is a neutral statement and could be interpreted in different ways depending on context.

No, not in this sentence.

Vietnamese classifiers are often used with numbers, demonstratives, or when a noun is being specially highlighted as an individual item. But after a verb, a bare noun object is often perfectly normal.

So:

• Họ cuốn bản đồ = natural
• một tấm bản đồ = a map
• tấm bản đồ này = this map

For map, a common classifier is tấm, but it is not needed here.

Yes, the basic order here is very similar to English:

• Họ = subject
• cuốn = verb
• bản đồ = object

So the sentence follows a straightforward subject–verb–object pattern.

That makes it relatively easy for an English speaker to understand the basic grammar.

It is understandable and grammatical, but many speakers might also say cuộn bản đồ.

Very roughly:

• cuốn often suggests winding or rolling
• cuộn often emphasizes making something into a rolled shape

For a physical map, cuộn bản đồ may sound more natural to many speakers. Still, Họ cuốn bản đồ is a valid sentence and works well for learning the grammar pattern.

A rough English-style approximation is:

họ cuốn bản đồ
≈ haw kuh-ohn ban doh

But the tones matter a lot in Vietnamese, so an approximation can only go so far.

A few helpful notes:

• họ has a low, heavy tone
• cuốn has a rising tone
• bản has a dipping tone
• đồ has a falling tone

If you are learning pronunciation, it is best to hear the sentence from a native speaker or audio recording rather than rely only on English spelling.