Anh đã gặp em ở trường tuần trước.

I (older brother) met you (younger) at school last week.

Breakdown of Anh đã gặp em ở trường tuần trước.

• ở: at
• đã: already
• gặp: to meet
• anh: I
• em: you
• trường: the school
• tuần trước: last week

Questions & Answers about Anh đã gặp em ở trường tuần trước.

Why are anh and em used in this sentence instead of tôi and bạn?

In Vietnamese, anh and em are kinship terms used as personal pronouns to show relative age, gender, or intimacy:

• Anh here functions as “I” when a male speaker talks to someone younger (often a female).
• Em means “you” when the listener is younger or in a close relationship.
  Using neutral pronouns like tôi (I) and bạn (you) would sound more formal or distant.

What is the role of đã in đã gặp?

Đã is the perfective/aspect marker indicating that the action is completed in the past.

• It signals that the meeting definitely happened.
• Without đã, the verb gặp could be interpreted as habitual, general, or present tense.

Since there’s the time expression tuần trước, can I drop đã and just say Anh gặp em ở trường tuần trước?

Yes, in casual speech you can omit đã because tuần trước (“last week”) already implies past tense. However:

• Including đã makes the completion of the action explicit and is stylistically more precise.
• Omitting đã gives a more colloquial, informal tone.

What does ở trường mean, and how is it different from tại trường?

• Ở trường = “at school,” using ở as the everyday preposition for location (“at/in”).
• Tại trường also means “at school,” but tại is more formal or literary.
  In spoken Vietnamese, ở trường is the default choice.

Why is tuần trước placed at the end? Can I swap ở trường and tuần trước?

Vietnamese allows flexible placement of time and place:

• Neutral order here is Subject + Verb + Object + Place + Time.
• You can emphasize the time by moving it to the front:
  • Tuần trước anh đã gặp em ở trường
  • Or less commonly: Anh đã gặp em tuần trước ở trường
  Putting tuần trước at the end is simply the most conversational, unmarked style.

Can I omit the subject pronoun anh altogether?

Yes. Vietnamese frequently drops the subject when it’s clear from context:

• Đã gặp em ở trường tuần trước still conveys “I met you at school last week.”
• Including anh clarifies that a male speaker is referring to himself and adds politeness in direct conversation.

Could you give me a literal word-for-word breakdown of this sentence?

Sure:

• Anh = I (male speaker, kinship pronoun)
• đã = (perfective marker for a completed action)
• gặp = meet
• em = you (younger person or close relationship)
• ở trường = at school
• tuần trước = last week