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Questions & Answers about Buổi tối rất lạnh.
What does buổi mean in buổi tối?
buổi is a classifier or time-period marker. It literally means “session” or “period” and is used with parts of the day (morning, afternoon, evening). So buổi tối specifically means “the evening” or “evening time.”
Why do we say buổi tối instead of just tối?
Both are possible, but buổi tối emphasizes the time block “evening” (around sunset until early night). tối alone can also mean “evening” in casual speech, but buổi tối is more standard when making a general statement about that part of the day.
Why isn’t there a verb like “is” between buổi tối and rất lạnh?
Vietnamese often omits the copula (like English “is”) when linking a subject to an adjective. Instead of saying buổi tối là rất lạnh, you simply say buổi tối rất lạnh (“the evening is very cold”).
What role does rất play in the sentence, and where is it placed?
rất is an adverb meaning “very.” It always precedes the adjective it modifies. Here, rất intensifies lạnh, so rất lạnh means “very cold.”
Can we replace rất with other intensifiers?
Yes. Instead of rất lạnh, you can say lạnh lắm (placing lắm after the adjective for “very” or “really”), or lạnh quá (using quá after the adjective to mean “so cold” or “too cold”).
Is lạnh an adjective or a verb?
lạnh is an adjective meaning “cold.” In Vietnamese adjectives can look like stative verbs, but here it clearly describes the state of the evening.
How do the tones on rất and lạnh affect pronunciation?
rất carries the rising tone (dấu sắc) on ă, giving a sharp “á” sound. lạnh carries the heavy tone (dấu nặng) on a, making the vowel short with a slight glottal stop. Correct tones are essential for distinguishing words in Vietnamese.
Could we swap the word order—for example, rất buổi tối lạnh?
No. Vietnamese word order in this case is [time expression] + [intensifier] + [adjective]. Rearranging these elements would sound unnatural or be ungrammatical.
What’s the difference between buổi tối and đêm?
buổi tối refers to the early evening (around sunset to maybe 9 pm). đêm means “night,” usually the late hours (after dark, e.g., 10 pm onward). So buổi tối rất lạnh describes a chilly evening, while đêm rất lạnh would talk about a cold late night.
How would you say “last night was very cold” or “tonight will be very cold”?
You can add hôm qua (“yesterday”) or nay (“today”) after tối:
- Tối hôm qua rất lạnh = “Last night was very cold.”
- Tối nay rất lạnh = “Tonight is very cold.”