Trong bếp có rau và nước lạnh.

in (enclosed by something)

Breakdown of Trong bếp có rau và nước lạnh.

• lạnh: cold
• và: and
• bếp: the kitchen

Questions & Answers about Trong bếp có rau và nước lạnh.

Why does the sentence start with Trong bếp instead of the subject?

Vietnamese often begins with a location phrase when setting the scene.

• Trong = in / inside
• bếp = kitchen

So Trong bếp means In the kitchen.

This is very natural in Vietnamese, especially in sentences that mean there is / there are. The structure here is:

Trong + place + có + thing(s)

So:

• Trong bếp có rau và nước lạnh.
• Literally: In the kitchen there are vegetables and cold water.

What does có mean here?

In this sentence, có means there is / there are.

It does not mean to have here, even though có can also mean have in other contexts.

Compare:

• Tôi có một con chó. = I have a dog.
• Trong bếp có rau. = There are vegetables in the kitchen.

So here, có is being used in an existential sense: it tells you that something exists or is present somewhere.

Why isn’t there a word for there is or there are like in English?

Vietnamese expresses this idea differently. Instead of using a special dummy subject like , Vietnamese usually uses: