Learn Hardcore Vietnamese: Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty. - This afternoon, we will meet you in front of the company.

Both mean the same thing. Putting Chiều nay at the beginning sounds a bit more formal/emphatic in writing and careful speech; putting it at the end is very common in casual speech.

Why is there a comma after Chiều nay? Is it required?

The comma after Chiều nay marks a pause after the time phrase:

Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.

In speech, you naturally pause there.
In writing, the comma is common and stylistically good, but not absolutely mandatory in all informal contexts. You might also see it written without a comma, especially in casual text messages:

Chiều nay chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.

Both are understandable; the version with the comma is more standard.

What is the difference between chúng tôi and chúng ta? Why use chúng tôi here?

Both mean we, but:

chúng tôi = we (not including you)
chúng ta = we (including you)

In the sentence:

Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.

the speaker is saying: we (some group that does not include “you”) will meet you.

If the speaker wanted to say we (you and I / you and us together) will meet (someone else), they might say:

Chiều nay, chúng ta sẽ gặp họ ở trước công ty.
(This afternoon, we (including you) will meet them in front of the company.)

Can I drop chúng tôi and just say Chiều nay sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty?

You can drop chúng tôi, but it changes how clear the subject is.

Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.
→ Clear: we will meet you.
Chiều nay sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.
→ Literally: This afternoon will meet you in front of the company.
The subject is understood from context, but it sounds incomplete or informal.

Native speakers do often drop pronouns when context is obvious, especially in conversation or messages:

Chiều nay gặp bạn ở trước công ty nhé.
(Sounds natural in a text. Implied subject = I/we.)

For a learner, it is safer to keep the pronoun until you are very comfortable with Vietnamese context and style.

Is sẽ required to express the future? Could I say Chiều nay, chúng tôi gặp bạn ở trước công ty?

sẽ is a future marker, like will.

Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.
→ clearly future: We will meet you this afternoon…

If you drop sẽ:

Chiều nay, chúng tôi gặp bạn ở trước công ty.

This can still mean We meet you this afternoon in front of the company, and in context people usually understand it as future, because of Chiều nay. Vietnamese often relies on time words (yesterday / tomorrow / this afternoon) instead of grammatical tense.

So:

With sẽ → explicitly future, a bit more formal/clear.
Without sẽ → still natural, especially in casual speech; time phrase carries the future meaning.

Do Vietnamese verbs like gặp change form for tense or person, like English verbs do?

No. Vietnamese verbs do not conjugate for tense or person.

gặp stays gặp in all cases:

Tôi gặp bạn. – I meet you.
Tôi đã gặp bạn. – I met you. (đã indicates past)
Tôi sẽ gặp bạn. – I will meet you. (sẽ indicates future)
Chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn. – We will meet you.

Tense and aspect are shown by time words (yesterday, tomorrow) and by markers like:

đã (past)
đang (progressive / ongoing)
sẽ (future)

The verb itself stays the same.

What is the nuance of gặp here? Is it like “meet” or “see”, and how is it different from thấy?

gặp means to meet / to run into / to encounter (someone) — usually in person.

gặp bạn → meet you, see you (as in meet up)

thấy means to see / to perceive, usually with your eyes or senses:

tôi thấy bạn → I see you (I notice you visually), not “meet you”.

So:

Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.
→ We will meet you in front of the company.
Using thấy here would be wrong if you mean “meet up”.

How is bạn being used here? Does it mean “friend” or “you”? Is it formal or informal?

bạn can mean both:

you (a neutral, friendly second-person pronoun)
friend (as a noun, depending on context)

In this sentence:

Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.

bạn clearly means you, because of the structure gặp + pronoun.

Formality:

bạn is fairly neutral and often used among people of similar age or in textbooks.
In real life, Vietnamese often use kinship terms instead (anh, chị, em, cô, chú, etc.), depending on age/relationship.

Examples:

To an older man: Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp anh ở trước công ty.
To an older woman: ... gặp chị / cô ở trước công ty.

What does ở do in ở trước công ty? Can I just say trước công ty?

ở is a location marker, similar to at / in in English.

ở trước công ty → at in-front-of the company / in front of the company

You can say:

gặp bạn ở trước công ty (very common)
gặp bạn trước công ty (also natural in speech)

Often, ở can be omitted in casual speech when the location meaning is clear. Keeping ở sounds a bit more explicit and standard, and is great for learners.

How does trước công ty work grammatically? Why is it not like “company front” or something?

In trước công ty:

trước = in front (before, ahead of)
công ty = company

Vietnamese word order for many prepositional phrases is:

preposition + noun

So:

trước công ty = in front of the company
sau nhà = behind the house
trên bàn = on the table
dưới gầm giường = under the bed

You cannot reverse it to công ty trước to mean in front of the company. That would mean something like the company first / the company before, with a different meaning.

Does công ty here mean “the company” or “a company”? Why is there no word for “the”?

công ty literally just means company.

Vietnamese has no articles like a / an / the. Whether you translate it as a company, the company, or the office depends completely on context.

In this sentence, a natural English translation is:

This afternoon, we will meet you in front of the company.
or
…in front of the office.

If both speaker and listener know which company they are talking about, English uses the, but Vietnamese still just says công ty.

What is the overall word order here compared to English?

Sentence: Chiều nay, chúng tôi sẽ gặp bạn ở trước công ty.

Breakdown:

Chiều nay – time (this afternoon)
chúng tôi – subject (we)
sẽ – future marker (will)
gặp – main verb (meet)
bạn – object (you)
ở trước công ty – location phrase (in front of the company)

So the pattern is roughly:

[Time] + [Subject] + (Tense/Aspect marker) + [Verb] + [Object] + [Place]

This is very typical in Vietnamese:

Time expressions often first.
Then subject, then verb, then object, then location.

English equivalent pattern:

This afternoon, we will meet you in front of the company.

which lines up quite closely in this case, just with Vietnamese not conjugating the verb.