Chúng tôi uống cà phê vào buổi sáng.

We drink coffee in the morning.

Breakdown of Chúng tôi uống cà phê vào buổi sáng.

• uống: to drink
• cà phê: the coffee
• vào: in
• chúng tôi: we
• buổi sáng: the morning

Questions & Answers about Chúng tôi uống cà phê vào buổi sáng.

What does Chúng tôi mean?

Chúng tôi is the first-person plural pronoun in Vietnamese, meaning we or us. It’s built from chúng (“group”) + tôi (“I”), and it excludes the listener.

What’s the difference between chúng tôi, chúng ta, and chúng mình?

• chúng tôi: “we/us” excluding the listener.
• chúng ta: “we/us” including the listener.
• chúng mình: informal “we/us,” usually inclusive in the South (but can be exclusive in the North). It’s friendlier or more casual.

What does uống mean? Can it be used for anything besides drinks?

uống means to drink and is used only with liquids (water, coffee, tea, etc.). For eating solids, Vietnamese uses ăn.

Why is vào used in vào buổi sáng? Is it always required?

vào functions like English “in” or “at” for time expressions. You’ll see it before parts of the day (buổi sáng, buổi chiều), dates (ngày, tháng, năm) and so on. In casual speech or when the time phrase is fronted, you can sometimes drop vào, but including it is standard.

Why do we say buổi sáng instead of just sáng?

buổi is a classifier for parts of the day—morning, afternoon, evening, night. Pairing it with sáng/chiều/tối/đêm makes a complete time-of-day noun. You can say sáng alone in very casual contexts, but buổi sáng is more formal and clear.

Where can I place the time expression in a Vietnamese sentence? Could I move vào buổi sáng elsewhere?

Vietnamese is flexible with time adverbials. You can put vào buổi sáng:

• At the beginning: Buổi sáng chúng tôi uống cà phê.
• After the subject: Chúng tôi buổi sáng uống cà phê.
• At the end (most common as in the example).

All are grammatically acceptable; choice depends on emphasis.

Why is there no article before cà phê? How would I say “the coffee” or “a cup of coffee”?

Vietnamese has no definite/indefinite articles (no “a/the”). Nouns stand alone. To specify:

• “the coffee”: cà phê đó (“that coffee”) or cà phê này (“this coffee”).
• “a cup of coffee”: một ly cà phê (using the classifier ly “cup”).

Does Chúng tôi uống cà phê vào buổi sáng describe a habitual action or a past event? How would I say “we drank coffee this morning”?

Vietnamese relies on context for tense.

• Habitual: We drink coffee every morning.
• Past (this morning): you can add the past marker đã:
  Chúng tôi đã uống cà phê vào buổi sáng.

What are the tones of each word, and how do I pronounce them?

The tone marks on the vowels tell you how to pitch each word:

• chúng (huyền, low-falling)
• tôi (huyền, low-falling)
• uống (hỏi, dipping/rising)
• cà (huyền, low-falling)
• phê (ngang, mid-level)

Make sure to practice the tone contours: huyền is a steady low/descending tone; hỏi dips then rises; ngang stays level.