Tối nay, tôi chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà.

Tối nay means tonight.

• tối = evening / night
• nay = this / today

Put together, tối nay is the natural way to say tonight.

Vietnamese often puts time expressions near the beginning to set the time frame first.

So Tối nay, tôi chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà is very natural because it starts with As for tonight...

You can also move the time phrase later, but the version with tối nay first sounds very normal and clear.

The comma is used in writing to mark a small pause after a fronted time phrase.

So it is like saying:

• Tonight, I just want to rest at home.

In casual writing, people may leave the comma out, and the sentence is still fine:

• Tối nay tôi chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà.

Chỉ means only or just.

In this sentence, it adds the idea that this is the speaker’s only wish for the evening:

• tôi chỉ muốn... = I just want... / I only want...

It gives the sentence a modest, slightly emphatic feeling, as if the speaker does not want anything complicated.

Because chỉ usually goes before the part it is limiting.

• tôi chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà = I only want to stay home and rest
• The only applies to the wanting itself, or to the whole action that follows.

If you move chỉ, the nuance can change. For example:

• Tôi muốn chỉ nghỉ ở nhà sounds less natural and suggests I want only to rest at home, with stronger focus on excluding other activities.

So the original word order is the most natural one.

Yes, muốn means want or want to.

Vietnamese does not need a separate word for English to in want to rest.

So:

• muốn nghỉ = want to rest
• muốn ăn = want to eat
• muốn đi = want to go

This is a very common Vietnamese pattern: muốn + verb.

Here, nghỉ means something like rest, take it easy, or have a break.

Depending on context, nghỉ can also mean:

• to take time off
• to stop working temporarily
• to relax

In nghỉ ở nhà, the idea is basically stay home and rest.

It does not specifically mean sleep. If you want to say sleep, Vietnamese uses ngủ.

Both are natural, but they are slightly different.

• nghỉ = rest / take a break
• nghỉ ngơi = rest, relax, recuperate a bit more explicitly

So:

• Tối nay, tôi chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà is natural and simple.
• Tối nay, tôi chỉ muốn nghỉ ngơi ở nhà is also natural and slightly more clearly means relax at home.

The original sentence is perfectly fine.

Because in Vietnamese, the normal order is:

• verb + location

So:

• nghỉ ở nhà = rest at home

If you say ở nhà nghỉ, that can be misunderstood because nhà nghỉ is a noun meaning guesthouse or motel.

So this is an important difference:

• nghỉ ở nhà = rest at home
• ở nhà nghỉ = stay at a guesthouse

Ở nhà means at home.

• ở = at / in / stay at, depending on context
• nhà = house / home

In this sentence, ở marks location, so nghỉ ở nhà means rest at home.

Ở nhà is the most common everyday way to say at home.

Sometimes, yes, but ở nhà is much more natural in everyday speech.

• ở nhà = normal, common, conversational
• tại nhà = can sound more formal, less common in this kind of sentence

So for a learner, ở nhà is the safest and most natural choice here.

Vietnamese verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

There is no verb ending that marks present or future here. The time comes from context, especially tối nay.

Because tối nay means tonight, the sentence is understood as referring to the coming evening.

So Vietnamese often uses time words instead of verb conjugation.

You can omit tôi if the subject is already clear from context, especially in casual speech.

For example, someone asks what you want to do tonight, and you answer:

• Tối nay chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà thôi.

That can sound natural in conversation.

But as a complete standalone sentence, including tôi makes it clearer and more neutral:

• Tối nay, tôi chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà.

Tôi is a neutral and polite way to say I, and it works well in example sentences.

However, in real conversation, Vietnamese often uses relationship-based pronouns instead, such as:

• mình
• em
• anh
• chị

So the most natural pronoun depends on who is speaking to whom. But tôi is a good standard choice for learners.

Yes, very possibly.

Because nghỉ ở nhà can suggest both:

• resting at home
• staying home and taking it easy

In real use, the exact nuance depends on context. If the speaker is contrasting it with going out, the sentence may feel close to I just want to stay home tonight.

So the Vietnamese is a bit broader than a single rigid English translation.

A few common casual versions are:

• Tối nay, tôi chỉ muốn ở nhà thôi.
• Tối nay chỉ muốn nghỉ ở nhà thôi.
• Tối nay chỉ muốn ở nhà nghỉ ngơi.

Adding thôi gives a feeling like that’s all / just that and makes the sentence sound very natural in everyday speech.