Gợi ý ở trên bàn.

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Breakdown of Gợi ý ở trên bàn.

• trên: on (on top of)
• bàn: the table
• gợi ý: the hint

Questions & Answers about Gợi ý ở trên bàn.

What part of speech is gợi ý here? Is it a verb or a noun?

In this sentence, gợi ý is being used as a noun, meaning something like hint or suggestion.

That is because the sentence structure is:

• gợi ý = the thing being talked about
• ở trên bàn = its location

So the whole sentence means that the hint/suggestion is located on the table.

A useful note: gợi ý can also be a verb in other sentences, meaning to suggest or to hint. For example:

• Tôi gợi ý một cách làm khác. = I suggest another way.

But in Gợi ý ở trên bàn, it is clearly not functioning as a verb.

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

Vietnamese often does not use a separate word like English is when talking about location.

In English, we say:

• The hint is on the table.

In Vietnamese, location is commonly expressed with ở, so the structure is more like:

• hint + at/on table

So ở is doing the work that English expresses with is at / is in / is on, depending on context.

Importantly, you would not normally use là here.
Là is mainly used for identification or equivalence, not location.

So:

• Gợi ý ở trên bàn. = correct
• Gợi ý là trên bàn. = unnatural in normal usage

What does ở do here?