Learn Hardcore Vietnamese: Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó rất ngon. - Breakfast at that hotel is very delicious.

Bữa sáng can mean “a breakfast”, “the breakfast”, or just “breakfast” in general, depending on context.
In this sentence, because we’re talking about a specific hotel and its breakfast, Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó is naturally understood as “the breakfast at that hotel.”

If you really need to emphasize plurality or definiteness, you can add words like các (for emphasis on “all/multiple”), but it’s usually not necessary:

Các bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó rất ngon. – The breakfasts at that hotel are very good. (emphasizes many breakfasts)

Why is there no word for “is” in the Vietnamese sentence?

Vietnamese often drops the verb “to be” when linking a subject + adjective:

Bữa sáng … rất ngon.
Literally: Breakfast … very delicious.

Here, rất ngon acts like a predicate adjective (“is very delicious”) and no separate verb is needed.

You would use a linking word like là (“to be”) mainly before nouns, not adjectives:

Đây là khách sạn. – This is a hotel.
Bữa sáng rất ngon. – The breakfast is very delicious. (no là)

What exactly does “Bữa sáng” mean? Is it “morning” or “breakfast”?

Bữa sáng literally is:

bữa – a meal
sáng – morning

So together: “morning meal” → breakfast.

Related words:

bữa trưa – lunch (noon meal)
bữa tối / bữa chiều – dinner/evening meal
ăn sáng – to have/eat breakfast

So Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó rất ngon. = The breakfast at that hotel is very delicious.

What does “ở” mean here? Is it “in” or “at”? Could I use something else?

Ở is a preposition meaning roughly “at / in / on / living in”, depending on context.

In this sentence:

ở khách sạn đó – at that hotel

You could see ở in other contexts:

Tôi ở Hà Nội. – I live in Hanoi.
Cô ấy đang ở nhà. – She is at home.

Another word you might see is tại, which is a bit more formal or written:

Bữa sáng tại khách sạn đó rất ngon. – also correct, slightly more formal style.

For everyday speech, ở is the default.

What does “khách sạn đó” mean, and why is there no classifier before khách sạn?

Khách sạn đó breaks down as:

khách sạn – hotel
đó – that

So khách sạn đó = that hotel.

Vietnamese often uses classifiers like cái, con, ngôi, tòa, chiếc, etc., but:

When you talk about a place in a general way (like that hotel as a known location), you often just say khách sạn đó without a classifier.
If you really want to highlight the individual building or be more descriptive, you can say:
- cái khách sạn đó
- ngôi khách sạn đó
  These are grammatically okay but sound more marked or descriptive; the simple khách sạn đó is more natural here.

What exactly does “đó” mean, and how is it different from “kia” or “ấy”?

Đó is a demonstrative that usually corresponds to English “that” (not too far away, or contextually “that one we’ve been talking about”).

Common set:

này – this (near the speaker)
đó – that (near the listener or contextually “that”)
kia – that (further away / pointing at something more distant or more “over there”)

Ấy is more literary or used in certain fixed patterns; đó is far more common in everyday speech.

In this sentence:

khách sạn đó – that hotel (the one both speaker and listener know about)

What does “rất” mean? Can I leave it out?

Rất means “very” and intensifies the adjective:

ngon – delicious / tasty
rất ngon – very delicious / very tasty

You can leave it out:

Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó ngon.
– The breakfast at that hotel is delicious. (neutral statement)

Adding rất makes the compliment stronger but still natural and fairly neutral.

Other common intensifiers:

khá ngon – quite tasty
hơi ngon – a bit tasty (mild)
rất ngon – very tasty
ngon lắm / ngon cực / cực kỳ ngon – extremely / super tasty (more expressive, casual)

What does “ngon” mean exactly? Can I use it only for food?

Ngon mainly means “tasty / delicious” and is most commonly used for food and drink:

Món này ngon. – This dish is good/tasty.
Cà phê này ngon. – This coffee is good.

By extension, ngon can be used more broadly in casual speech (e.g., something is “good, nice, satisfying”), but for a learner, it’s safest to think:

ngon = delicious / tasty, especially for things you eat or drink.

What is the subject of the sentence? Why is there no word like “it”?

The subject is Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó (The breakfast at that hotel).

Vietnamese does not use a dummy subject like English “it” or “there”. You simply start with the real subject:

Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó rất ngon.
– (Literal structure) Breakfast at that hotel very delicious.

No extra pronoun is needed:

You don’t say anything like “Nó bữa sáng…” – that would be wrong here.
The noun phrase itself is the subject.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say “Bữa sáng rất ngon ở khách sạn đó”?

The natural, standard word order is:

[Subject] + [Location phrase] + [Degree word] + [Adjective]

→ Bữa sáng (subject) ở khách sạn đó (location) rất ngon (predicate).

Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó rất ngon. – Completely natural.

If you say:

Bữa sáng rất ngon ở khách sạn đó.

it sounds off or unclear; it could be interpreted as “Breakfast is very delicious located at that hotel,” which is unnatural. In general:

Put the location phrase like ở khách sạn đó close to the noun it describes.

How would I say “The breakfasts at that hotel are very good” in Vietnamese? Does the sentence need to change?

Vietnamese doesn’t obligatorily mark plural like English. The original sentence can already cover that meaning depending on context:

Bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó rất ngon.
– could mean “The breakfast at that hotel is very good”
– or, more generally, “Breakfast at that hotel is very good” (i.e., whenever you have it)

If you want to emphasize multiple breakfasts (e.g., on different days), you can say:

Các bữa sáng ở khách sạn đó rất ngon.
– Literally, “The breakfasts at that hotel are very delicious.”
– các highlights plurality: the various breakfasts.

But in everyday speech, the original sentence is usually enough.