Learn Hardcore Vietnamese: Trong vườn có nhiều hoa đẹp và một con chó. - There are many beautiful flowers and a dog in the garden.

So the structure is basically “In the garden, there are …”.
You can also say Có nhiều hoa đẹp và một con chó trong vườn, but starting with Trong vườn sounds very natural when you’re talking about what is in a specific place.

What exactly does có mean in this sentence? Is it “have” or “there is/are”?

The basic meaning of có is “to have”, but in sentences like this it works like “there is/are” in English.

Tôi có một con chó. – I have a dog.
Trong vườn có một con chó. – There is a dog in the garden.

So here, có is an existential verb: it introduces the existence of something.
In everyday speech, people sometimes drop có after a place phrase (e.g. Trong vườn nhiều hoa đẹp…), but có is standard and clear, and you should learn to include it.

Why is it nhiều hoa đẹp and not nhiều đẹp hoa or đẹp nhiều hoa?

Vietnamese word order inside a noun phrase is generally:

[quantity] + [classifier] + [noun] + [adjective]

In this sentence:

nhiều = many (quantity)
hoa = flowers (noun)
đẹp = beautiful (adjective)

So nhiều hoa đẹp literally follows the pattern [nhiều] [hoa] [đẹp] = many flowers beautiful.
The adjective đẹp must come after the noun hoa, not before it, which is different from English.

How do I know that hoa here means “flowers” (plural) and not just “flower” (singular)?

Vietnamese nouns don’t change form for singular vs. plural. There is no -s ending.
You know it’s plural thanks to nhiều:

hoa by itself = flower / flowers (number not specified)
nhiều hoa = many flowers (clearly plural)
một bông hoa = one flower / a flower (clearly singular)

So nhiều is the word that tells you hoa is being understood as plural here.

What is con in một con chó, and why doesn’t hoa have a similar word?

Con is a classifier. Vietnamese usually needs a classifier between a number (or một) and a noun:

một con chó – one CL-animal dog
ba con mèo – three CL-animal cats

Con is the common classifier for most animals.

Flowers can also take a classifier, often bông:

một bông hoa – one flower
ba bông hoa – three flowers

But when you use nhiều with a mass of things, speakers often drop the classifier, so nhiều hoa is very natural. With a specific count like một, the classifier (here con) is normally required.

Does một in một con chó really mean “one dog”, or is it just like the English “a dog”?

Literally, một means “one” (the number).
However, because Vietnamese has no articles like a/an, một often ends up being translated as “a”:

Tôi thấy một con chó. – I saw a dog / I saw one dog.

In many simple descriptive sentences, có một con chó will be translated as “there is a dog”, but it still carries the idea of one single dog.
In some contexts, using một can emphasize “just one” compared to more or many.

Why is there no word for “the” in trong vườn (“in the garden”)?

Vietnamese doesn’t have articles like a / an / the.
Whether something is understood as “a garden” or “the garden” depends on context, not on a specific word.

trong vườn can be in a garden or in the garden
If you want to be very specific, you add other words, for example:
- trong cái vườn đó – in that garden
- trong vườn nhà tôi – in my garden

So trong vườn is a neutral phrase; English has to choose a/the, but Vietnamese doesn’t.

Can I also say Có nhiều hoa đẹp và một con chó trong vườn? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, Có nhiều hoa đẹp và một con chó trong vườn is grammatically correct and has almost the same meaning.

Trong vườn có… slightly emphasizes the location first: In the garden, there are…
Có … trong vườn slightly emphasizes the existence of the things first: There are … in the garden.

In most everyday situations, both orders are natural and interchangeable; the difference is more about focus and style than about basic meaning.

Can I say Ở trong vườn có nhiều hoa đẹp và một con chó? What’s the difference between trong vườn and ở trong vườn?

You can definitely say Ở trong vườn có nhiều hoa đẹp và một con chó.

trong vườn = in the garden
ở = at / in / live (at)
ở trong vườn = (being) in the garden

Adding ở can make the location sound a bit more explicit or emphasized, and it’s very common when you’re directly answering a “where” question.
Here, trong vườn and ở trong vườn are both natural; ở is optional.

What do all the little marks on words like vườn, có, nhiều, đẹp, một, chó mean?

Vietnamese uses two kinds of marks:

Vowel letters with extra hooks/horns (â, ê, ô, ă, ơ, ư) – these change the vowel quality.
- ư in vườn, ơ in vườn, â / ă / ê / ô in other words, etc.
Tone marks – these show the tone of the syllable. Each syllable has exactly one tone. For example:
- có – rising tone (dấu sắc, ´)
- vườn – falling tone (dấu huyền, `)
- nhiều – also falling tone (huyền)
- đẹp – heavy/low, with dot below (dấu nặng, .)
- một – also nặng (dot below)
- chó – rising tone (sắc)

These marks are phonemic: they change pronunciation and can change meaning completely, so they are an essential part of the spelling.