Learn Hardcore Vietnamese: Hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp. - The green flowers in the garden are very beautiful.

English: The blue flowers in the garden *are very beautiful.*
Vietnamese: Hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp.
- hoa = flowers
- rất đẹp = very beautiful

There is no là here. Là is used mainly before nouns, not before adjectives:

Cô ấy là giáo viên. = She is a teacher.
Cô ấy rất đẹp. = She is very beautiful. (no là)

So hoa … rất đẹp literally feels like flowers … very beautiful, and that is just normal Vietnamese grammar.

How can I tell that hoa means “flowers” (plural) and not “flower” (singular)? There is no -s.

Vietnamese nouns usually do not show plural with a suffix like -s. Number is understood from context or from extra words:

hoa can mean flower or flowers.
To make plural explicit, you can add things like:
- những bông hoa = (some) flowers
- các bông hoa = the flowers (specific group)

But in everyday speech, if the context is “in the garden” and the speaker is describing a general scene, hoa is naturally understood as flowers.

So Hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp. is naturally heard as The blue/green flowers in the garden are very beautiful.

What does màu add? What’s the difference between hoa xanh and hoa màu xanh?

Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:

hoa xanh
- Literally: “blue/green flowers” (xanh as an adjective)
- Feels a bit shorter and more “adjectival”.
hoa màu xanh
- Literally: “flowers [of] blue/green color”
- Emphasizes that xanh is specifically a color, and sounds very natural in everyday description.

In many contexts they are interchangeable, and màu is very commonly used with colors:

áo màu đỏ = red shirt
xe màu đen = black car

You could say hoa xanh trong vườn rất đẹp, but hoa màu xanh sounds very typical and clear that we’re talking about color.

Does xanh mean “blue” or “green” here?

Xanh by itself is ambiguous; it can mean blue or green, depending on context.

To be more specific, Vietnamese often uses extended forms:

xanh lá cây = green (literally: leaf-green)
xanh lục = green (more technical)
xanh dương or xanh da trời = blue (sky-blue)

So your sentence could be understood as:

The green flowers in the garden… or
The blue flowers in the garden…

If you want to be clear, you can say:

Hoa xanh lá cây trong vườn rất đẹp. = The green flowers in the garden are very beautiful.
Hoa xanh dương trong vườn rất đẹp. = The blue flowers in the garden are very beautiful.

What exactly does trong mean in trong vườn? Is it always “in”?

Trong basically means in / inside and introduces a location:

trong vườn = in the garden
trong nhà = in the house
trong túi = in the bag

It can also have some extended meanings like “within / during” in other contexts, but in your sentence it is the straightforward spatial sense: in the garden.

Why is there no word for “the” in trong vườn? How do we know it’s “in the garden” and not “in a garden”?

Vietnamese has no articles like a/an/the. Nouns are “bare”:

vườn = garden / a garden / the garden

Whether it means a or the depends on context:

If both speaker and listener know which garden is meant, English would use the, but Vietnamese still just says vườn.
If you are speaking generally, English might say a garden, but again Vietnamese still just says vườn.

In many cases, the most natural English translation will use the, but that’s a choice made when translating, not a direct marker in Vietnamese.

What is the word order of this sentence? Is it similar to English?

The overall structure is quite similar to English subject–predicate order, but details differ:

Hoa màu xanh trong vườn = the blue/green flowers in the garden (subject noun phrase)
- hoa = flowers (head noun)
- màu xanh = blue/green color (modifier)
- trong vườn = in the garden (location phrase, also modifier)
rất đẹp = very beautiful (predicate adjective phrase)
- rất = very
- đẹp = beautiful

So:
[flowers + color + location] [very + beautiful]
≈
[subject] [very beautiful]

The main difference from English is that there is no “are” and adjectives come after the noun they modify (via màu xanh, trong vườn).

Is rất necessary? Could I just say Hoa màu xanh trong vườn đẹp?

You can say Hoa màu xanh trong vườn đẹp, and it is grammatically correct. The nuance:

rất đẹp = very beautiful (stronger, more emphatic)
đẹp = beautiful (neutral)

In everyday speech, many people like to use degree words like rất, lắm, cực kỳ, vô cùng etc. Rất is a neutral, standard “very”.

So:

Hoa màu xanh trong vườn đẹp. = The blue/green flowers in the garden are beautiful.
Hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp. = … are very beautiful.

Why is there no classifier like bông or cái before hoa?

Vietnamese often uses classifiers (like bông, cái, con) before nouns, especially when counting or being specific:

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

But when you talk about a group or a type in general, you can drop the classifier and just use the bare noun:

Hoa trong vườn rất đẹp. = The flowers in the garden are very beautiful.

If you want to sound a bit more “full” and specific, you can say:

Những bông hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp.
(The blue flowers in the garden are very beautiful.)

Here những bông hoa makes the plurality and individuality of the flowers more explicit. The original sentence just keeps it short and general with hoa.

How would I say “The flowers in the garden are blue,” not “very beautiful”?

To say the flowers in the garden are blue/green, use xanh (as a color adjective) instead of rất đẹp:

Hoa trong vườn màu xanh. (neutral, but a bit short)
More natural: Hoa trong vườn có màu xanh. = The flowers in the garden have a blue/green color.

If you want specifically blue or green:

Hoa trong vườn có màu xanh lá cây. = … are green.
Hoa trong vườn có màu xanh dương. = … are blue.

Your original sentence emphasizes beauty, so we keep rất đẹp there.

Can trong vườn move position, like in English? For example, can I say something like Trong vườn, hoa màu xanh rất đẹp?

Yes. Vietnamese is quite flexible with placing location phrases:

Hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp.
Trong vườn, hoa màu xanh rất đẹp.

Both are natural. The second version, with trong vườn at the beginning, puts a bit more focus on the location: As for in the garden, the blue/green flowers are very beautiful.

The meaning is essentially the same; it’s mainly a matter of emphasis and style.

How would I make this sentence sound clearly plural and specific, like “The blue flowers in the garden are very beautiful” referring to a known set?

You can add a plural marker and classifier to be more explicit and specific:

Các bông hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp.

Breakdown:

các = plural marker for a specific set (roughly “the …”)
bông hoa = flower(s) (classifier bông for flowers)
màu xanh = blue/green in color
trong vườn = in the garden
rất đẹp = very beautiful

This strongly suggests “those specific blue flowers in the garden” that both speaker and listener know about. The original sentence Hoa màu xanh trong vườn rất đẹp. is a bit more general and generic.