Tôi sẽ mua nến ở cửa hàng trước khi đến nhà Lan.

Sẽ is a future marker. It tells you the action is expected to happen in the future, similar to will in English.

So:

• Tôi mua nến... = I buy / I am buying candles...
• Tôi sẽ mua nến... = I will buy candles...

In everyday Vietnamese, sẽ is sometimes omitted if the future meaning is already clear from context, but using it makes the future meaning explicit.

Vietnamese word order here is very straightforward:

• Tôi = I
• sẽ = will
• mua = buy
• nến = candles

So the pattern is:

subject + future marker + verb + object

That is why Tôi sẽ mua nến literally lines up as:

I + will + buy + candles

This is one reason Vietnamese often feels quite direct to English speakers.

Vietnamese often leaves nouns unmarked when the general meaning is already clear.

So mua nến simply means buy candles. It does not need an article like a or the, and it does not require a classifier in this sentence.

Some related points:

• nến = candle / candles, depending on context
• mua cây nến = buy a candle
  
  • cây is a classifier often used for long, stick-like objects, including candles
• mua những cây nến = buy some candles / those candles

In your sentence, plain nến is natural and efficient.

Literally, ở cửa hàng means at the store.

In this sentence, it tells you the location of the buying action:

• mua nến ở cửa hàng = buy candles at the store

In natural English, that may sometimes be translated as buy candles from the store, but Vietnamese is expressing location more directly.

If you wanted to emphasize movement to the store, Vietnamese would use something else, such as đến cửa hàng or ra cửa hàng, depending on context.

It describes mua.

So the structure is:

• Tôi sẽ [mua nến ở cửa hàng] [trước khi đến nhà Lan].

This means:

• I will buy candles at the store
• before going to / arriving at Lan’s house

It does not mean the store is located at Lan’s house.

Trước khi means before and introduces an action that happens later than the main action.

In this sentence:

• Tôi sẽ mua nến ở cửa hàng = main action
• trước khi đến nhà Lan = before going to / arriving at Lan’s house

So the timeline is:

1. buy candles at the store
2. go to Lan’s house

You can think of trước khi + verb phrase as a very common Vietnamese pattern:

• trước khi ăn = before eating
• trước khi ngủ = before sleeping
• trước khi đi học = before going to school

Because the subject is understood from context.

In Vietnamese, if the subject of the second clause is the same as the subject of the first clause, it is often omitted.

So:

• trước khi đến nhà Lan = before going to Lan’s house
• trước khi tôi đến nhà Lan = before I go to Lan’s house

Both are possible, but the version without tôi is more compact and very natural when the subject is already obvious.

It can suggest either, depending on context.

• đến literally means arrive, come to, or reach
• But in many everyday sentences, English may translate it more naturally as go to

So trước khi đến nhà Lan can be understood as:

• before arriving at Lan’s house
• before going to Lan’s house

Both capture the idea that Lan’s house is the next destination.

Vietnamese often expresses possession by simply placing two nouns together.

So:

• nhà Lan = Lan’s house
• literally: house Lan

This is very common in Vietnamese.

You can also say nhà của Lan, but it is usually less natural here unless you want extra emphasis or clarity.

Similar examples:

• mẹ tôi = my mother
• xe anh ấy = his car
• bạn Lan = Lan’s friend

Yes, absolutely.

You can say:

• Tôi sẽ mua nến ở cửa hàng trước khi đến nhà Lan.
• Trước khi đến nhà Lan, tôi sẽ mua nến ở cửa hàng.

Both are grammatical. The difference is mainly in emphasis.

• The original version starts with I will buy candles
• The second version highlights the time relationship first: Before going to Lan’s house...

This kind of fronting is very common in Vietnamese.

Yes, it could.

For example:

• Tôi mua nến ở cửa hàng trước khi đến nhà Lan.

This can still be understood as future if the situation already makes that clear.

Vietnamese often relies on context more than English does. However:

• with sẽ = clearly future
• without sẽ = more neutral; could depend on context

So sẽ is helpful for learners because it makes the intended meaning very clear.

No. Cửa hàng is a common and neutral word for store/shop.

Depending on region and context, you may also hear:

• tiệm = shop, store
• shop = borrowed from English, common in casual speech
• more specific words like:
  • siêu thị = supermarket
  • hiệu sách / nhà sách = bookstore
  • cửa hàng tiện lợi = convenience store

So your sentence could be adapted depending on the kind of store, but cửa hàng is perfectly good standard Vietnamese.

Yes, several words here have tones and vowel combinations that can be tricky:

• sẽ — hỏi/ngã-type contour depending on dialect spelling/pronunciation habits; in standard spelling it has the ngã tone
• nến — also has the ngã tone
• cửa — has the hỏi tone
• trước — has the sắc tone
• đến — has the sắc tone

A few pronunciation notes:

• đ in đến is like an English d, not like plain d in Vietnamese spelling
• nh in nhà is like the ny sound in canyon
• tr in trước is a distinct consonant in Vietnamese, though exact pronunciation varies by region

If you are practicing aloud, nến, cửa, and trước are especially good words to slow down and repeat carefully.